Congressman Bart Stupak, an anti-choice Democrat from Michigan, has held up and threatened to destroy health care reform unless it severely restricts abortion coverage. In a New York Times profile, “Stupak says his stand is a straightforward matter of Roman Catholic faith. . .”
Stupak casts himself as a man of principle, determined to get what he wants despite the political risk. He says he believes in health care reform — presumably because millions don’t have it and tens of thousands die every year for lack of it — but is willing to do away with those reforms unless abortion is restricted.
Stupak’s constituent — the Roman Catholic Church — also opposes the death penalty. As more than one Pope has said, “[t]he Holy See has consistently sought the abolition of the death penalty. . .” How odd then that someone who views his job as representing the Vatican in Congress not only supports capital punishment, but has personally intervened in at least one case to see that it might be imposed.
Stupak is so committed to his religious beliefs that he is willing to sacrifice the well-being of thousands of people. Except, that is, when he disagrees with the church. It’s at that point that his faith apparently becomes somewhat less important. That makes Stupak a rank hypocrite. And that’s the charitable description.
But it gets worse. It turns out that Stupak’s principled stand on abortion happens to satisfy the legislative agenda of his second largest contributor, health and insurance interests. Those donors stand to lose substantial amounts of money if real reform were to be enacted, which is why they spent millions of dollars last year to defeat it. (Ironically, one of Stupak’s contributors, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, provides abortion coverage; Stupak was apparently willing to look beyond that transgression for the greater good of keeping him in Congress.)
When the phone rings, whose call is Stupak more likely to take: the resident of his district who has no health care and has never given a dime to get the Congressman elected or the money man for the insurance lobby who has contributed tens of thousands and has plenty more to dole out?
To be clear: Bart Stupak isn’t taking a principled stand based on his religious views. He’s cynically using his faith as an excuse to do the bidding of his industry benefactors at the expense of people in need.
Until elections are publicly funded and special interests like insurance companies can’t buy phonies like Stupak to do their bidding, few politicians will have the courage to stand up for ordinary people.
Partisan Gridlock with Geoff Berg airs every Friday from 3:00 – 4:00 pm on KPFT, 90.1 FM in Houston, 89.5 FM in Galveston, and everywhere else on Facebook or at www.kpft.org.
