Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), who earlier this week said he is optimistic there will be a compromise on abortion language in the health care bill, told the Weekly Standard yesterday that there is no such deal — not even close.
“Everyone’s going around saying there’s a compromise — there’s no such thing,” Stupak said. He said that “the majority party can get [a deal] done,” but “no one has said here’s how you do it, here’s the legislative scheme.”
He did say he had his first real meeting with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) about the language.
Asked if his “optimistic” comment meant he would cave and vote for a bill that doesn’t include his preferred abortion language, Stupak said “Obviously they don’t know me.”
“If I didn’t” cave in November, “why would I do it now after all the crap I’ve been through?” he added.
Stupak, who has threatened to vote no along with 12 other unnamed congressmen over abortion, said he refuses to vote for the Senate bill as-is, even with a promise to fix it later.
“If they say ‘we’ll give you a letter saying we’ll take care of this later,’ that’s not acceptable because later never comes,” he said.
