Ted Kennedy Death Used to Build Support for Pro-Abortion Health Care Bills

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 27, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Ted Kennedy Death Used to Build Support for Pro-Abortion Health Care Bills

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 27
, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — With polling numbers showing decreasing support for the pro-abortion government-run health care plans in Congress, supporters of the measures are using the death of pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy to rebuild support. They are going as far as saying they may rename the bill in his honor to get votes.

Vice President Joe Biden led the way in exploiting Kennedy’s deaths to regain momentum for the legislation that Americans are strongly opposing.

"God willing, maybe his loss and all about him will be the catalyst to make people come around and begin to [support the bill]," he said Thursday morning on NBC’s "Today" show.

Biden said Republican lawmakers, none of whom have yet to publicly endorse the legislation, could be influenced by using Kennedy’s name to generate support.

"They’re kind of drawn to him because, look, this is a guy who understands the deals, this is a guy who knows how to take a hit," Biden said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also joined in the "Win won for the Teddy" chorus on Wednesday, saying, “Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year.”

Democratic pro-abortion Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California echoed Pelosi.

“He did not spend his whole career trying to pass a bill that would tweak health care. Sen. Kennedy wanted universal health care, and certainly progressives want universal health care. We need to have a good robust public plan,” she said.

However, the rah-rah atmosphere backers of the health care restructuring bill are creating in the aftermath of Kennedy’s death is tempered by the legislative math.

On the Senate side, even before Kennedy’s death, Democrats were having a hard time coming up with the 60 votes needed to overcome an expected filibuster from pro-life lawmakers objecting to the health care bill over its abortion and rationing components.

With Kennedy’s death, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a more difficult task of finding enough votes.

Without Kennedy in the chamber and with a potential delay of several months before an election is held, or an appointment made, to replace him, Reid and Senate Democrats may feel a greater need to resort to using the process called reconciliation to pass the government-run health plan.

Reconciliation is a process supposedly reserved for important budget items that overturns the rules allowing the minority the right to hold up bills with a filibuster. Under reconciliation, Reid can get the pro-abortion health care measure passed with only 50 party-line votes.

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