You may remember during the final days of debate over ObamaCare in the U.S. House of Representatives that a key Michigan congressman was one of the final Democrat holdouts against the bill. Rep. Bart Stupak and a few others in his party feared that the legislation would wind up forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions.
Despite President Barack Obama’s strident support for abortion on demand, he promised Rep. Stupak that the bill would not pay for abortions. The congressman and a few others apparently believed the president and gave the bill its extremely narrow margin of victory in the House, imposing trillion-dollar liabilities on the country.
But Rep. Stupak must have gotten an earful from constituents in his moderate to conservative district who opposed his vote for ObamaCare. Now, just weeks after the socialized medicine bill passed and just days after he suggested he would run again, he says he will not seek a 10th term after all.
He declared that his unpopular vote for ObamaCare had nothing to do with his departure and that he could have won had he sought re-election. But the timing of his decision to leave seems more than coincidental. A number of other Democrats have made the same decision.
It is still too early, of course, to predict how the November elections may turn out, but Democrats may pay a high price for flouting the will of the American people and passing ObamaCare.