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Break the logjam
Action on passing universal health care is hung up in Congress while GOP strategists crow about breaking Obama and the media conducts its usual circle jerk.
There is and has been for weeks only one point at which the logjam can be broken: Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. No one in Washington will stick their neck out if they know Baucus is going to torpedo the whole thing. So don't let him do it.
Here is his Washington contact info. Inundate his office now. Melt his circuits.
There is and has been for weeks only one point at which the logjam can be broken: Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. No one in Washington will stick their neck out if they know Baucus is going to torpedo the whole thing. So don't let him do it.
Here is his Washington contact info. Inundate his office now. Melt his circuits.
Washington D.C.
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651(Office)
(202) 224-9412 (Fax)
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BTW, Baucus is a bought-and-paid-for stooge for the insurance lobby, who donated to him $640,000 last year alone. At this point, I think only a threat of donating to his primary and general opponents will do. Shock and awe in a way that blatantly threatens his Senate seat is the only way to go.
July 23, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
But Ripper didn't Max Baucus just get handily re-elected last November?
July 23, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can hold a grudge until 2011 against anyone who deals in death.
July 23, 2009 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
2011 is when I would START donating to his opponents.
July 23, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh well, of course you are right. I agree that is easily done. But, if he is not your Senator in 2009 (nor mine) what pressure can we bring to bear on just him in these last days of July?
July 23, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm. Maybe through Reid, by demanding that class stay in for recess?
July 23, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh Phooey!!!
July 23, 2009 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
lefty,
I've contacted the offices of both Reid and Baucus today. Those are the best pressure points in D.C.
July 23, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps you should contact Pelosi, too.
She just caved in as well.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pelosi-backs-off-insistence-on-recess-health-deadline-2009-07-23.html
July 23, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Done.
July 23, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
You will break no logjam by contacting Baucus. He doesn't work for you. It is a waste of time and effort. You are not his constituent. He will not listen to you. End of story.
You should continue to contact your own Senators (the ones that represent MO), Reid, etc. I gave you the list the other day. Put your energies where they can yield results!
July 23, 2009 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
CT, please understand when your opinion is only that. If it was Gospel, why the hell haven't you passed single payer yet, Lord? ;)
Most Montanans wants universal health care by single payer or with a public option. Max Baucus receives more than half of his political donations from out of state. So can his challenger in the next election and Baucus understands that. Baucus understands raw power better than most. He can be beaten with the same and threatened in advance with losing his seat. I would certainly donate against him. He will not be re-elected if he botches this for everyone.
And despite my having a local delegation, Baucus IS, in fact, the logjam that now will likely lead to a long hot summer without a vote, and possibly even another four years without health care reform for all Americans. I don't believe in your Kobayashi Maru scenario of now winning against the guy holding up health care for the whole damned country. My delegation is on board as much as it will get, although I won't neglect to lobby them. Baucus is key.
July 23, 2009 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
*Kobayashi Maru scenario of no winning*
July 23, 2009 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Source?
Baucus just got re-elected. You will have a long wait to threaten him with an election. The Senate is insulated from the public by design.
July 23, 2009 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you have union buddies in MT, the best you can do is lobby them to contact Baucaus.
July 23, 2009 10:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Max Baucus recieves 5% of his contributions from instate sources. NPR originally said 13% and the did a retraction yesterday. It is FIVE PERCENT!
If the people of Montana are happy to be represented by someone who considers them to be 5% of his constituency, then I just have to wonder what is wrong with them. Is life so quiet and easy for them that it just doesn't matter?
July 24, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
One more thing, CT. You wrote what follows here:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/clearthinker/2009/06/how-to-scream-effectively-at-c.php
If you send a letter to a member of Congress who doesn't represent you, it will be tossed. Well, except if it has a death threat, but we already ruled out that as a possible topic of the letter. So don't waste your time. Don't make trees die for no reason at all.
July 23, 2009 9:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, everything below the link should have been quoted.
July 23, 2009 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Max Baucus is Chair of the finance committee. Not sure how this directly affects the Health Care issue. (I believe the bill is in the Senate HELP committee only, not the finance committee.)
If I am wrong (it won't be the first time) and there is a direct connection then it makes sense and you should definitely contact him (as well as the GOP ranking member of the committee).
If there is not, I guarantee, he won't care what you send... That's not an opinion; that's the way it works. You may not like it, but that's the way it works. (Don't confuse a polite response on the other end of the line as "caring".) You are welcome to send him a note saying you will donate to the opposition, but since he is safe for another 6 years, I can assure you this will not have a single bit of impact at all.
July 23, 2009 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Baucus chairs the Senate Finance Committee, yes. The bill his committee is supposedly drafting (actually, holding until the clock runs out) is part and parcel of the health care bill that will emerge in the Senate. His committee has authority over revenue and expenditures on the health care bill, and hte members are negotiating their own version of final health legislation, which will be a bitch to amend once it hits the floor. Keep up.
July 24, 2009 2:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Follow the steps, Ripper.
HELP is where the action is, not finance. Finance can't do much until HELP decides what will be done!
Baucus does not hold sway because of Finance, he holds sway because he is a right leaning Democrat... just as I (and others) predicted last November. Any Dem can bolt now and have undue influence because of the 60 number.
You are welcomed to write him, but it is similar to your efforts to scare him with an election that is 6 years away.
You have great passion for your projects... you'd be wise to think more rather than try to pound your way through them. Else they will end up like your defunct website. I think energy wasted is criminal, especially when it could have been directed to be leveraged.
You know people in MT? Lobby them to write Baucus. In the meantime, are both your Senators from MO solidly behind the bill? Are they cutting deals with other Senators to push things forward? Have you FAXed them? (And your rep, and Reid, and Kenned, and Inzu, etc., etc.) That is where your first duty lies.
July 24, 2009 4:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
The HELP committee passed its haelth care bill on a party-line vote July 15. Any more questions?
No, he holds sway because his is the only Senate committee whose markup is still in limbo, held up by a chairman who is the top recipient of health lobbyist money and who wants to satisfy his donors under cover of "bipartisanship."
Please don't lecture me on passion vs focused intelligence. I've done my time working in legislative halls, too. I'm not sure why you feel qualified to comment on a "defunct" website you neither contributed to or were involved with.
July 24, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't believe it would serve any useful purpose for those who are not Montana residents to contact Baucus directly. His staff would not even relay the message to him or include it in their estimate of voter sentiment. Indirectly, the most effective pressure would come from creating such a powerful national movement for robust health care reform that Montana voters would be influenced by it, and that other Senators would put pressure on Baucus to support it.
July 23, 2009 9:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is all factual.
July 23, 2009 10:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fred has a point. I have emailed Congressional Representatives in other districts...no reaction.
But how do we know what 100,000 emails might do?
Hell, I think its fun.
July 24, 2009 12:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is it possible to forward our TPM spam to them? Never mind, I don't think it would help, but sometimes I fantasize about pulling their chains. Probably Baucus doesn't even know how to send his own email, never mind reading them.
July 24, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink