The BlogAre there enough votes in the House to pass a health care bill very close to the one the Senate is preparing to pass? Bart Stupak says the Senate bill's abortion language is "unacceptable" and has pledged to lead a group of pro-life Democrats to vote against final passage if the issue isn't resolved. How many votes can Stupak bring with him? In November, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said that the Stupak amendment got them "10 votes" for the bill. "Without that language, we were around 212, 214," Clyburn said in November (if that's true, the Stupak amendment actually only got 6 or 8 votes for the bill). The House bill originally passed 220 to 215. Republican Joseph Cao will certainly vote against a bill without the Stupak language. And there are 11 Democrats who voted for the House bill in November who are most likely to vote against final passage because of abortion--they wrote a letter to Pelosi all the way back in June promising that they "cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan"
Courtesy of Phil Klein, here are the other pro-Stupak pro-House bill votes from November (whom I expect to be fine with the Senate's language, though there could be a couple who aren't):
And here are the 39 Democrats who voted No on the House bill in November (I've bolded the names of 11 members who are unlikely to vote for final passage over abortion, which is by no means the only reason to vote against the Senate bill monstrosity).
So bottom line: you subtract 10 from 220, you need to add 8 from this list. |
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