A sad day for the nation, as it takes a major step towards socialism. The healthcare bill will do nothing good for medical costs, quality of coverage, the national debt or the economy. It will instead ration care, bankrupt the nation, and prove to be an open door for taxpayer funding of abortion.

Rep. Stupak, who had led prolife opposition to the bill, has fallen into delusion. Accepting as a promise a piece of paper – an Executive Order – from the most pro-abortion president in history, whose first act was to reverse the longstanding prolife Mexico City policy, who during his short term in the Senate was the most pro-abortion member of that chamber, who as president has consistently staffed his administration in every field with radical leftists, is equivalent to the Israelis giving land for peace. Once the land is gone, it is gone, and the peace quickly follows.

Executive orders have a history of abuse and disuse. They can be overridden, they can die by a thousand paper cuts, or they can simply lie unenforced in the back files at the Department of Justice (Eric Holder’s DOJ!). And no executive order will survive even the most frivolous court challenge, if it conflicts with underlying legislation, as this one does.

So at fantasy best, Bart Stupak’s deal plunges the nation into more contention and litigation, with no end in sight. But in reality, the executive order may as well not exist. This bill – which Health Secretary Sebelius has in an unguarded moment admitted allows for pubic funding of abortion (search this blog for abortion or go to youtube, to see the video), will be the basis for a major leap forward in the killing of babies.

Stupak gave a pitiful colloquy with Henry Waxman on the floor, in which they did a Kabuki on how the Democrats would work to make sure that abortion was nowhere part of the bill. Stupak was bent over, wouldn’t look up, and appeared dejected and defeated. Waxman seemed to know that Stupak had been blindly led to slaughter, and couldn’t even look at him as he gave the thinnest promise possible that he would keep good faith on the promise.

I came away from that sad display feeling sorry for Stupak, but in his impassioned defense of the bill later, he sealed his fate on the matter. He could have been a true American hero, but he bargained away babies’ lives for nothing. Planned Parenthood issued a statement hailing the bill as a breakthrough for reproductive healthcare, and the executive order as a “symbolic gesture”. They’re right.

The Republicans, too often known for compromise, did well yesterday. I’m linking to speeches by Paul Ryan and Mike Pence, both principled, insightful and moving. Both men are true patriots with much to give to their country.

As Ryan says, this is not about healthcare, this is about the fundamental principles about which we order our society. For two and a quarter centuries our rights have been derived from God – and emphatically not from man. But now we make government our king and father – just what Jesus warned us against in Matthew 23. The result will be twofold: a spiritual weakening of our population and the loss of freedom, while nothing will be done for healthcare or its costs.

The ironic thing is that what the Democrats say they want is obtainable, but to be sustainable it must be done the right way. The system needs to be opened up to competition. The government needs to get out of the way, and that includes dropping the employer tax break for employee healthcare, which skews the market and shifts all medical care to inefficient insurance. This is basic economics, but like climate science, when guys like Paul Krugman can pull down economic Nobels, you know that the science has been hijacked. And we need massive healthcare tort reform, but the Trail Lawyers being one of their most endowed constituencies, the Dems will not hear of it.

Politics has become a cancer on the nation. Thank God for the good men who are standing and fighting. My prayers are with them, and that America will continue to be a light. Though the nation deserves strong chastisement, God’s grace is greater than sin, and I pray for repentance and restoration. May those who oppose God receive light and truth.

Here’s the Ryan speech. And the one by Pence.