Dem challenger Craft says he would have voted for health care bill, against abortion restrictions
by George Bennett | November 11th, 2009
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- Craft
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- Rooney
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- Stupak
Both stances put Craft in opposition to freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, whom Craft hopes to unseat in 2010. They also put Craft, who’s running as a moderate in Republican-leaning District 16, at odds with many centrist Democrats in the House.
The health care bill passed on a 220-to-215 vote, with 39 Democrats breaking with House leadership and President Obama to oppose the bill.
The abortion amendment, offered by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., passed on a 240-to-194 vote, with 64 Democrats joining the entire Republican caucus in support.
The Stupak amendment prohibits the use of federal money to pay for abortions as part of the government-run “public option.” The amendment also bans federal subsidies for private plans that provide abortion.
The amendment was key for winning support for the overall bill from several Democrats who are abortion foes. Many Democrats who support abortion rights have pledged to strip the Stupak amendment from any final health care legislation.
Craft said the Stupak amendment was “not necessary” because of the existing Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal money to pay for abortion.
Craft in August said he was “not 100 percent sold” on a public option for health insurance. Since then, he said, he’s become convinced that “some sort of public option, whether it involves a trigger or some other mechanism,” is needed to rein in insurance costs.
Tags: abortion, Bart Stupak, Chris Craft
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November 12th, 2009 at 1:57 am
[...] Congressional candidate Chris Craft (running against Tom Rooney), would’ve voted for health ca… [...]
November 12th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Moving beyond the abortion component, the bill is still bad. 1900 pages of legalese and gobblygook that will be fought over for years. Rather than strive to achieve lower health care
costs and to ensure everyone is covered, Pelosi and Company have again tailered legislation to please dem constituent groups and interest groups.