The health care bill now: an excellent brief summary

Thom Peters at American Papist has one of the best brief summaries of the current situation for the health care bill that I've yet seen. Here are some key excerpts, but it is well worth reading the entire post:

No chance for pro-life healthcare this time around

Pundits continue to claim that this is a fight between Democrats and Republicans. It isn’t. This is a fight between Democrats and other Democrats within their own caucus, a fight between Democrats and the majority of Americans, and a fight between the Democrat leadership and the US Bishops.

How did we get here? The Democrat leadership burned the bishops and pro-life interests. Badly. From day one they attempted to sneak abortion funding into the bill, and they continually shot down every attempt to remove it, either from within their own caucus or when it was offered by Republicans.
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All of this backstory and context is prelude to this point: when it comes to abortion funding, the cat is out of the bag, and the Democrat leadership is responsible for this sorry state of affairs. If they refuse to start over, the only health-care bill that can be passed at this point is a pro-abortion bill.
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Indeed, because of the corner Democrats and the President have painted themselves into, they cannot give pro-lifers what they have been demanding without admitting to the public that for months, and months, time and time again, they were lying about what this bill really represents when it comes to the interests of the unborn.

A final word: I’m not declaring this legislation dead, by any means. But I’m declaring the possibility of this legislation becoming pro-life before final passage impossible, given the political landscape I have laid out.

Peters also shows how the health care bill does fund abortion in several different ways, despite Democrat claims to the contrary.

It also bears repeating that even if the abortion issue were to somehow be resolved satisfactorily, this bill would remain a disaster for our nation's health care system and economy, with the government mismanaging an already damaged medical system as it has the bailout, the tax code, disaster relief, terror policy and just about everything else it touches -- while adding trillions of dollars of debt.

I urge everyone to read and consider these points and pray for new and genuine health care reform!