Stupak to Pelosi, “you don’t buy me off” – Stupak says that he is being offered favors in return for his vote

Apparently the backlash over the Senate payoffs hasn’t persuaded Nancy Pelosi from taking the same route to buy passage of the Senate bill when it comes to the House. In fact, it seems that Reid’s success in buying 60 Senate votes has emboldened Pelosi.

The wheeling and dealing has already begun in the House.  Nancy Pelosi is following the Reid Plan to buy the necessary votes to pass Obamacare.  They are targeting Bart Stupak (D-MI), because he has stated that he will not vote for the Senate’s version of the health care bill, because it uses public funds to pay for abortions.

The National Review has Stupak’s comments as he cries foul over the hush money and payoffs:

Stupak tells us that he’s disappointed that Democratic leaders have offered him legislative favors in exchange for supporting Obamacare. “This shouldn’t be a bill where you use hush money,” says Stupak. “This isn’t an appropriations bill where you try to get the best projects for your state.”

“In the House, we need to bring equity back into the process,” says Stupak. “We need to cut out those sweetheart deals.” If the deals in question are not removed, Stupak will vote against the bill. In the meantime, he says, “my reservations are growing.”

“I’ve spoken with a half-dozen members in the last 48 hours and they’re all really concerned with the Senate bill,” says Stupak. “We all agree: We’ve lost our objective with health care. Where you live should have nothing to do with the quality or cost of your coverage.”

However, for those that feel that the Stupak dozen voting no on the health care bill will prevent it from becoming law, not so fast.  ALLAHPUNDIT of Hot Air tells us that the removal of the public option will result in some moderates that voted no on the house bill, now voting yes to the Senate bill:

Here’s audio of him telling CNS that he has 10 to 12 people prepared to vote no; he told NRO earlier that it was actually more like a half-dozen. He’s pretty much boxed himself into a no vote at this point — although, remember, even Stupak’s been squirrelly about just how committed to the pro-life cause he is — but Pelosi’s got a long, long list of Blue Dogs she can use to replace him and any other defectors. Do note that Jason Altmire’s on it — the same guy who told Fox Business last night that there are “a lot” of Blue Dogs who voted no last time who are ready to flip for a bill without a public option. Game over.

While there is still the potential of the bill being ping-ponged in committee, the fact is that passage of this bill is simply too important to the President and Democratic leadership to allow it not to pass.  Rest assured that they will twist arms and cut whatever deals are necessary to make sure a health care bill passes.   At this point, it matters less to them ‘what’ health care bill passes, just that ‘a’ health care bill passes.

The gang of three, Obama, Pelosi and Reid, know that they need to put this health care bill to bed as soon as possible, so they can have time to spin it before the 2010 mid-term elections.  They know that anger Americans have now against the President and the Democratic Congress would mean a landslide for the Republicans if the elections were held today.  They cannot afford to have a long drawn out process of merging the House and Senate bills.

As the PUNDIT says, “game over”, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop calling your Congressmen and Senators and telling them whether you approve or disapprove of this bill, and what its passage will mean in terms of your vote in 2010.