Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is scheduled to give his maiden speech this morning on the Senate floor, which makes the fact that he broke his campaign promise on repealing the health care law all the more striking.
Prior to the elections then-Governor Manchin told Fox News
“The president’s plan — ‘Obamacare,’ as it’s been called — is far too reaching. It’s overreaching. It needs to have a lot of it repealed,” Manchin said Monday on Fox News. “If you can’t fix that, repeal the whole thing.”
Erick Erickson at RedState this morning argues that by allowing for a vote on 1099 repeal it gives Democrats, like Manchin, an out from a tough vote. He has got a point when it comes to legislation that will actually become law, like the 1099 provision. We support legislation like Reps. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) bill to get abortion funding out of health care, it is needed legislation that, because we have a Senate and White House beholden to the same abortion industry that allows for butchers like abortionist Kermit Gosnell up in Philadelphia, will never become law. However the Pitts/Lipinski bill sends a powerful message to Members of Congress and the general public that despite any misleading from the President or his allies, the health care law is structured to use taxpayer funds to pay for abortion (as well as having a number of provisions that subsidize the abortion industry.)
NOTE: This is my position on the Pitts/Lipinski bill. There are those, like Rep. Lipinski and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, who would be apt to support the health care law EXCEPT for the abortion provisions. I disagree strongly with that position as I think there are other pro-life problems that the bill creates, most noticeably in allowing for government sanctioned rationing of health care services.
That being said, the National Senate Republican Committee, not one of my favorites of the campaign committees, was quick to point out Senator Manchin’s vote to keep the oppressive health care law around. (Sen. Manchin is up for reelection again in 2012 for his win in 2010 was a result of a special election to fill Sen. Robert Byrd’s seat after his death.)
