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Email: "Radical Dems Condemn Compromise Measures, Fight to Rescue Original Health Care Language"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, D.C., December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Liberal politicians and lobby groups have begun to warn Democrat Senate leadership to ensure that the final version of the health bill, amended to gather stray conservative Democrat votes, does not wander too far from the radically liberal foundations of the health care overhaul.Some are concerned that progressive hot items, most notably a government-run health insurance program, might be scrapped in order to win tough votes such as that of Independent Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT).  If that happens, some say, the whole bill should be killed.   Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he would scrap the bill if he were a U.S. senator.  "I know health reform when I see it, and there isn't much left in the Senate bill," he said in a Washington Post opinion piece Thursday.  "I reluctantly conclude that, as it stands, this bill would do more harm than good to the future of America."One New York Democrat lawmaker said that liberals were at a "breaking point" with the level of concessions already made in the Senate measure."It's time for the president to get his hands dirty," said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), a strong proponent of liberal health care reform, in a release Tuesday.  "Some of us have compromised our compromised compromise," he continued.  "We need the president to stand up for the values our party shares. "We must stop letting the tail wag the dog of this debate." While Sen. Lieberman is on the brink of supporting the bill with a compromise that would remove the public option, Vermont Independent Sen. Bernard Sanders and Illinois Democrat Roland Burris of Illinois, have said they would not support a bill without the program.  The president of the Service Employees International Union, a major liberal lobby group, urged lawmakers in a letter Thursday to "fight like hell" for "meaningful reform" against the changes in the Senate bill. The abortion lobby also has a large stake in the bill's original language: abortion leaders including Planned Parenthood lobbied successfully to prevent the Hyde-amendment restrictions in the Nelson/Hatch amendment from being included in the bill this month, securing the flow of federal abortion funding embedded in the legislation.In a CNN piece, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) reaffirmed the existence of the bill's abortion mandate, despite the claims from pro-abortion senators that the current bill maintains federal policy against federal abortion funding.  "We must remember that when the Hyde amendment was enacted in 1976, the majority of our nation's citizens disagreed with being forced to pay for abortion," wrote Hatch, who has seen two of his attempts to block the abortion funding fail.  "That has not changed. In poll after poll, Americans have indicated they do not want public money to be used for abortions. "So my question to the Democratic-led Senate leadership is this: When is this Congress going to start listening to the American people?" On the other side, Republican senators are blasting Democrats for unilaterally charging through a bill that is still vastly liberal in ideology, and out of step with American voters."The only conceivable justification for rushing this bill is the overwhelming opposition of the American people. Democrats know that the longer Americans see this bill the less they like it," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).  "There is no justification for this blind rush - except a political one, and that's not good enough for the American people."A Pew poll Wednesday showed that the majority of Americans who heard a lot about the health bills oppose them, 58-32%, while a CNN survey showed 61% opposition.A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Thursday also showed voters' confidence in Democrat leadership continuing to falter: 35% said they felt positively about the Democratic Party, down 14 points since February."The lines between the parties have gotten very clear over the last few months and its not just health care, climate change, the financial takeover, its card check," Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) told the Washington Times Wednesday.  "It's this very liberal agenda that has ordinary Americans engaged and angry." http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/radical-dems-condemn-compromise-measures-fight-to-rescue-original-health-ca/

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