Lone GOP 'yes' vote last time is voting 'no' this time around

House GOP Rep. Joseph Cao will not vote for the president’s healthcare bill, even after the White House on Sunday won over Democratic holdouts who wanted stricter language against abortion funding.

Cao (R-La.) said that the deal that Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) struck with the White House for an executive order on abortion funding doesn’t go far enough.

“The issue of abortion is so personal to me that I cannot in good conscience vote for a bill that has the legal impact of using federal funding for abortion,” Cao said in an interview, explaining that he participated in a late-night meeting with Stupak and the White House on Saturday.

The former seminarian was the lone Republican to support the House bill in November when it included Stupak’s language to ban federal funds from paying for abortion.

Stupak had been a holdout over the fact that the current healthcare bill does not include his strict language on abortion.

But the White House’s agreement to issue an executive order banning federal money from paying for abotion turned the Michigan Democrat to a “yes” vote on Sunday afternoon.

Cao said that an executive order is not sufficient.

“The executive order is not law; it can be changed by the next administration, it can be overturned by court order,” Cao said.

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