Profiles in Cowardice: Senator Max Baucus
Republicans are attacking the Obama health care plan, but with a sizeable Democratic majority in both houses of Congress the major obstacle to progress on health care reform is not the minority party but conservative members of the majority who appear to have chosen the interests of the for-profit health care industry over those of the American people. The worst of the worst among these is Montana senator and health industry lackey Max Baucus, one of the Senate's biggest recipients of campaign contributions from the health industry and a true profile in cowardice.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Baucus received more than $3.9 million in campaign contributions from the health industry between 2003 and 2008, including more than $850,000 each from pharmaceutical companies and health professionals, more than $780,000 from the insurance industry, and more than $465,000 from HMOs/health services, the vast majority of which came from outside Montana. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus wields considerable influence over any health care legislation that comes out of Congress, and acts in his position neither as a loyal Democrat nor as a public servant of the people of Montana, but as a self-serving "unilateral," dragging his feet and gravitating more toward Republicans who want to kill health care reform than toward members of his own party who support it. Baucus' behavior has frustrated fellow Democrats and sparked charges against him of a conflict of interests between his role on the Senate Finance Committee and his financial ties to the health industry (Democracy Now!, National Public Radio, Roll Call, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post).
Baucus has now been targeted in a TV ad from Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, currently running in Montana, pointing to the vast sums of campaign cash he has received from the health industry, and attracting a great deal of in-state attention. Meanwhile, rallies in support of health care reform are planned for July 24 outside Baucus' offices in Missoula and five other Montana cities. It appears that the good people of Montana want meaningful health care reform as much as anyone, and their efforts deserve the support of progressives everywhere (Great Falls Tribune, KULR, Missoulian).
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
Give Max HELL for failing the American people and his president. I hope the good folks in MT will not let this gross neglect go when Max is up for re-election. I'd love to be there and do some classic shouting at Max! Unamerican Mr. Baucus while people go w/out health care and DIE!
July 23, 2009 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
NPR made a correction to the information that they gave out yesterday. They stated that 13% of Baucus's campaign contributions came from within his state. Today they admitted that they erred. Of the money that went to elect this complete whore of a politician, only FIVE PERCENT came from within his state! What is wrong with people from North Dakota? Do they mind being bought and paid for?
NINETY FIVE percent of what Max Baucus cares about, and owes allegiance to has nothing to do with the citizens of the state he supposedly represents! If they re-elect that ass-hole they have only themselves to blame!
July 23, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
North Dakota's dumb bunny is Kent Conrad. Max Baucus is from Montana. Max gets elected like Harry Reid, Conrad, Daschle, etc. etc. because all of us hate the Congress, but think their representative is OK. So every election voters get amnesia about all the crap that their Senator has done and re elects them because he/she gave them parking garages and grants for the colleges.
We all we wondering what the people of Connecticut were thinking electing Lieberman again.
People have got to stop voting for their guy and start voting these people out of office.
July 23, 2009 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of amnesia! Thanks for the correction. Where did North Dakota come from? Sheesh!
Anyhoo, only 5% of his contributions came from people from the Big Sky State -- which explains why his decisions don't take them into account.
July 23, 2009 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
As to Lieberman, the Connecticut republicans put him in office (with help from some dim-witted Dems)
July 23, 2009 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll be at the Baucus office tomorrow at noon. Baucus has never been in touch with the people.
He also has the audacity to be holding a health summit to pin the blame on health care where it belongs--on fat poor people. From the Bozeman Chronicle:
"Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is putting on a health summit in Bozeman Aug. 9 and 10, his office announced Monday.
The summit will be free and will feature world-class experts and top foundation and business leaders discussing ways to improve health and promote wellness in small communities across the state.
Speakers include Sally Jewell, president and CEO of REI; Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and Neil Nicoll, president and CEO of YMCA.
“With diabetes, obesity, and heart disease plaguing communities throughout Montana, it is crucial that we gather together and brainstorm solutions to improve the overall health of Montanans,” Baucus said in the announcement. “This summit will focus on how to confront these challenges and promote healthy lifestyles.”"
July 23, 2009 6:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope Baucus can be pressured into supporting robust healthcare reform, including a strong public option, but the TV ad cited above struck me as an ineffectual effort toward that goal. It came across as amateurish, inept, disjointed, and without a focus on a single powerful message.
Instead, it started with advocacy for a public option, and then abruptly switched into a litany of campaign contributions to Baucus from health and insurance interest groups, with no stated connection between the two segments.
I thought maybe I had missed something, so I looked through recent media reports to find out whether Baucus had announced clear opposition to a public option. Apparently not - rather, he has been ambiguous, suggesting at times that he favored it, and at other times that it might need to be sacrificed for bipartisan support.
Given that the ad attacked him for a position he is not identified with in the mind of the public, I believe it would have been far more effective if it had spent less time on impugning his integrity and far more urging Montana residents to contact him to insist that he unequivocally embrace a public option. That ad was a lost opportunity, in my view, possibly because it reflected an attitude that prizes name-calling over getting things done.
July 23, 2009 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just had one of those little light bulbs go off in my head. We should be debating HOW to implement a public option/single payer, not WHETHER we should. So make this a simple, direct question for every waffler, foot dragger, gutless greed head: Are you debating HOW to create universal health care or WHETHER to create universal health care? Simple question, simple answer. Don't let them dodge the issue with convoluted policy crapola and doublespeak.
July 24, 2009 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Or With All The BRIBE Money Congress Gets, Should That Be "PROFILES IN GREED"?
July 23, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or maybe Max Baucus has noticed that none of the health care legislation does anything to control costs, further breaks a budget that is already totally out of control, enacts tax increases that will be unpopular in his home state, and does not solve most of the problems health care reform (according to the President) is supposed to solve.
Barack gave two examples of people in his speech: the committee bills in the house would not help either of them AT ALL.
Maybe Max is the only sane person left in Washington.
July 24, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink