Good Riddance, Congressman Stupak
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“Who told you were naked?” That was the Lord’s question to Adam after he gave in to temptation. Adam’s fig leaf covered his nakedness better than the fig leaf President Obama gave to Congressman Bart Stupak. Stupak accepted a bogus Executive Order on abortion in exchange for leading--actually misleading--a small but critical group of pro-life Democrats into voting for the pro-abortion health care bill. Obama’s Executive Order--and on this point pro-choice and pro-life legal experts agree--changes nothing in the new Obamacare law’s abortion funding provisions. Stupak became a household word last fall only because he held out against Obama administration pressure and Pelosi pressure. He held on and held on and then, when it counted most, he gave in. He dropped the baby. In doing so, he put Obamacare over the top. He turned his back on his own amendment, he turned his back on his own pro-life cause, he turned his back on his own Michigan constituents. He deserves no abuse, but he deserves no thanks. Good riddance.
It is no tragedy for a duplicitous representative to be forced from office. No one has a right to hold public office. When someone who has for so long spoken for his own constituents in Washington turns against them, he should be removed. That’s what elections are for. That’s why the Founders gave us a House of Representatives all of whose Members must run for re-election every two years. That rule has proven to be critical. It’s a constitutional safeguard against abuses of power. Knowing that he had only two years before voters would go to the polls again, President Obama was determined to ram health care through. It didn’t matter if he didn’t get a single Republican vote. The president was willing to drive through the most radical changes on the narrowest of majorities.
Too many thoughtful people are saying Obamacare cannot be repealed. They’re saying that even if the Republicans take over the House this November, they cannot prevail over an Obama veto.
But, Obamacare cannot be instituted without annual funding from the House of Representatives. A new majority can de-fund Obamacare and prevent its most damaging provisions from taking effect. Your vote can stop this abuse of the Constitution. Ballots, not bullets, are the way the Founders provided for protecting our lives and preserving our liberty.
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Ken Blackwell is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, and a member of the board of advisers of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. He is the co-author of the forthcoming book "The Blueprint: Obama's Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency."