By Dave Andrusko

Editor's note. Technical problems prevented this from going out on time yesterday. My apologies. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Well, here we go. According to the New York Times, vis a vis health care "reform,"

"On Wednesday, after 12 months of legislative hearings, town hall meetings, speeches, polls and debates, Mr. Obama made clear he expects Democrats to line up behind him, no matter how skittish they feel about their re-election prospects in the fall."

Talk about a jam-packed sentence! Let's unpack a few of the implications.

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Registered Nurse Julie Babich after delivering remarks on healthcare reform.

For your typical politician, the most important presidential admonition is if you have to take one [lose] for the team [Obama], so be it. Nothing –not the vocal resistance of massive numbers of people or polling data that shows the public is dead-set against the current iteration of health care "reform"--will be allowed to get in the way of plans to offer a financial bonanza to the abortion industry while engineering a massive restructuring of 1/6 of the entire economy.

In his speech today to a group of medical professional, the Times reports that President Obama "avoided using the word 'reconciliation,' the name for the parliamentary tactic that Democrats must now use to avoid a Republican filibuster of the bill. But senior advisers to the president made clear that is his plan."

For those of whose heads swim at the many alternative ways "reconciliation" can play out, what does it boil down to? (1)That even though many Americans see "reconciliation" as legislative legerdemain to circumvent the normal legislative process, the pro-abortion congressional Democratic leadership is willing to take the risk. (2) That the well will be poisoned for whatever hope there remains for "bipartisanship."

Having said that, however, it remains true--as NRLC has pointed out many times--that no bill (or bills) can reach the president's desk without first receiving majority approval in the House. With or without a reconciliation "sidecar," the Senate-passed health bill, with its multiple major abortion-related problems, cannot pass the House so long as Rep. Bart Stupak and his allies stand their ground.

Just one other quick point. The abortion issue is absolutely pivotal, largely because of the expertise and hard work of National Right to Life. "Of the remaining issues with the potential to bring down the entire health overhaul effort, the one that lawmakers fear most is abortion," as NPR's Julie Rovner said yesterday.

Why is NRLC working so hard? Because "By the conclusion of the amending process in the Senate, H.R. 3590 was the most expansive pro-abortion piece of legislation ever to reach the floor of either house of Congress for a vote, since Roe v. Wade," according to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. "The Senate bill would allow direct federal funding of abortion on demand through Community Health Centers, would institute federal subsidies for private health plans that cover abortion on demand, including some federally administered plans, and would authorize federal mandates that could require even non-subsidized private plans to cover elective abortion."

The pace is rapidly picking up. Please go regularly to http://nrlactioncenter.com. There you can be kept up to date about the latest twists and turns and be shown how you can contact your member of the House and your two U.S. Senators.

Time is of the essence: It appears that Speaker Pelosi will make every effort to ram the legislation through the House before the end of March.

Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@gmail.com.