Reason #8: Executive decision?

Oooh. This one's ugly.

Going into the week of the vote there was next to no chance that it would pass. This was due to some of the House members being against the provisions in the bill for abortion. These moderate representatives at some point during the week "struck a deal" with the White House. (We don't know all the details because it wasn't publicly broadcast. See Reason #5.)

Here's the rub: The President gained the deciding votes for the Health Care Bill by promising an Executive Order that makes federal funding for abortion against the law. So the legislation says "yes" to funding, but the administration says "no".

The reason why I'm not thrilled about this is, first, because during the the 2008 presidential campaign, President Bush was ripped hard for this. Along with this, promises were made that legislation would not be overridden by Presidential fiat any longer under a new administration.

The second reason I'm not excited about it is because it can be rescinded at any time. This makes the deal that the moderates agreed to a pretty bad one. The next president (or even this one) can, without any recourse, sign another order to enact the language of the original bill.

Why not just write a bill that can get support from people with more than just one viewpoint?