But by that token, every government benefit a woman receives, whether monetary or in-kind, whether for healthcare or for something else, could be seen as subsidizing an abortion if she has one.

If everyone thought like Bart Stupak, a woman seeking an abortion:

(1) would not be able to take a public bus or commuter train to an abortion clinic, even if she paid her own fare;

(2) would not be able to drive on public roads to a clinic, even if she drove her own car and paid for her own gas;

(3) would not be able to walk on public sidewalks to the clinic, even though she paid property taxes;

(4) would not be able to put her child in childcare while she was at the clinic if she received a tax credit that offset the cost of childcare;

(5) would not be able to take medicine at the clinic that was researched or developed by the government, even if she paid for the medicine herself.

Would anyone argue that the government is "subsidizing abortion" by building roads and sidewalks, offering public transportation, developing medicine and providing childcare? Similarly, making healthcare premiums more affordable, even for plans that include abortion coverage, would not mean that the government would be paying for abortion. ... (The World According to Stupak, by Jessica Arons, The Nation, March 2, 2010)

Stupak said the abortion language can be included even through reconciliation, a process which does not require 60 votes but a simple majority of 51 senators to pass.

"You can do it, if there's a will there's a way," he said. "That's just the excuse they're giving."

Rather than allow each state to improve coverage in ways each state deems best, Dems look for consensus and then trim back from there. What's left? The monstrosity of the current debate and double-digit un-employment.

The problem isn't Stupak; it's a Dem establishment new and old that is going down in flames. President A plus foreign policy has lost South America. Clinton is getting sand kicked in her face across the globe. That's not an A plus performance by any measure.

Stupak appears to know what he's doing. For that alone he's head and shoulder above the rest,  irrespective of what I may or may not think of his position.

There's a real possibility that things haven't even started to look bad, yet. And you're handing out high marks for the first year?

Anyone care to bet whether this increases Stupak's stature in the eyes of his constituents?

Americans want jobs and if they have to wait to get them because Dems are more interested in crafting the fiction of a hcr win, then this gang of deadbeat Dems really should be sent to the political wilderness, cause the GOP certainly isn't going to look out for the average voter.

Americans are sick to death of the Historic change and once in a lifetime hyperbole.

As for the nuclear option, the only salient fact that's going to emerge from this boondoggle is that when it became clear, crystal clear, how few Americans approved of the Dem hcr proposals, Dems jammed the Trojan horse tax increase and health company dividend through anyway.

I found the NYT link at Realclearpolitics. I knew I wouldn't read the op-ed, I just wanted to see what folks are reading. It ain't that.

Not to late to stop digging Dems. Reconciliation is simply firing the second barrel into the face.

Why is it all supposed to boil down to allowing anti choice people to run the show on health care.