A horse! A horse! My presidency for a horse!

As of this writing, there is a slight glimmer of hope in the Congressional health care war. The House Democrats have been forced to reject the so-called "Slaughter Solution", which means that the house simply has no way to avoid a straight, up-or-down vote on the Senate health care bill in order to move health care reform forward. Given that the Senate health care bill is glowing green from radioactivity in the House, it might fail to pass.

In a bid to win pro-life Democratic support for the Senate bill, President Obama is reportedly considering an executive order to pacify their concerns over public funding of abortion.

To buy into this, a pro-life House Democrat would have to make some hard choices. First, this is still a dramatic weakening of the status quo on abortion. A vote for the Senate health care bill is a vote for public financing of abortions. Period. An executive order from the president might assuage a guilty conscience, but it sure as hell won't stop that rolling barrage of pro-life attack ads that will be crushing pro-life Democrats for the next 8 months.

Second, it would mean trusting the single most arrogant, incompetent, and desperate President in American history. This is a President who has repeatedly betrayed every promise he has ever made to the American people and who has endorsed every bribe, gimmick, threat or pay-off required to pass health care without scruple or qualification. This is a President who would be plunging a wooden stake into the heart of his presidency by honoring this agreement. To trust this president on this agreement would be sheer lunacy.

Finally, the logic of the pro-choice liberals will force them to oppose this executive order. The reasoning is simple:

• Under single payer health care, all health care dollars are Federal dollars


• Under the Stupak and Hyde amendments, no Federal dollars can be used to fund abortion


• Ergo, no health care dollars can be used to fund abortion, which is a de facto abortion ban.

So the Left will be forced to wage war on this executive order, whether the pro-life Democrats like it or not.