Max Baucus is Driving Me Insane
I haven't written anything around here for a long time, but I need to vent. I've been following all the twists and turns of the healthcare legislation push for many a week now, cheering on the good guys, signing petitions left and right, Emailing and faxing Congresspeople and Senators, feeling generally optimistic that some kind of real reform will happen. However, there is a black hole that threatens my optimism and perhaps the whole reform enterprise. And that is Senator Max Baucus and his Finance Committee.
Baucus appears to be basically bought and paid for by insurance interests, and he is also fixated on a so-called "bipartisan" bill. These twin complications seem to be leading to never-ending delays in the Finance Committee cranking out a bill, any bill. Jeezis, it doesn't have to be perfect, Max - it will need to be merged with the HELP Committee bill anyway, then hopefully reconciled with a House bill in conference committee! I read what I can find, but I don't feel like I have any perspective on what Baucus is up to, other than driving me insane! I am starting to feel that he is holding the entire process hostage.
Do any of you have some insight into this? Does this man have any real interest in healthcare reform, or is he in league with his Republican crony Grassley and others to kill the process via delay? Are you aware of any details regarding how far along the Finance Committe bill actually is, beyond the occasional mutterings about "making progress"? Please help me out here before I call Max's office, to wit: "I'm not a constituent of the Senator, but I felt compelled to call and say MAKE IT STOP (sob) OH PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!!"
Seriously, talk me down here! I'm really afraid of this one guy scuttling the whole enterprise.
July 22, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nah, Baucus will put up a good fight for his fatcat contributors but in the end he'll shrug his shoulders and tell them he did all he could do. He's got to play the game as long as he can so they agree with him, that yes he did all he could do. In the final analysis he knows we have the votes he's collecting all that campaign cash to attract.
Senator Patty Murray (D-W) is on CSPAN2 now as I write this talking about the 5,000 emails she's gotten this week from constituents in WA about healthcare reform. You can imagine how many Baucus is getting these days.
Hang in there ttarleton, this is gonna be a long fight. Getting bills out of both houses in August is like the D-Day invasion. A lotta working parts and extremely complicated legislation and negotiations. But it's going to be a long slog from the beach to Berlin when Obama finally signs the bill into law. Don't freak out, or burn yourself out. Just keep your eye on the prize. We're gonna win this, but we have to make them break under the pressure, not cave in ourselves.
July 22, 2009 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the encouraging words, Mark - makes me feel a bit better about it.
July 22, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
This just in from NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106655060
"Paul Blumenthal, a writer for the nonpartisan watchdog the Sunlight Foundation, mapped Baucus' network of influence."
Just 13 percent of Baucus' re-election funds came from Montana donors.
Just to compare: Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, another Democratic senator seeking re-election in 2008, raised almost half of her money in-state and slightly more than half out-of-state.
The fundraising balance for Baucus tips even more sharply when his personal "leadership PAC" is factored in. The committee, called Glacier PAC, raises money to pay for Baucus to travel, raise his political profile and support other Democrats.
Over the past six years, Glacier PAC raised 76 percent of its funds from political committee ties to corporations, unions, trade associations and lobbyists.
Baucus courts these inside-the-Beltway donors by inviting them to Montana for weekend getaways — skis and snowmobiles in February, fly fishing and golf in June, and coming up on July 31, "Camp Baucus," which is billed as "a trip for the whole family."
Tickets start at $2,500.
I hope markg8 is right, but I don't think he is. Sorry to take you back down on the old roller-coaster.
July 22, 2009 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Blockquote should have stopped at "tickets start at $2,500." Sorry for the formatting error.
July 22, 2009 6:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I now officially hate Max Baucus more than I hate George W. Bush.
July 23, 2009 1:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Check out the story re: Baucus at the Washington Monthly site. Mirrors my frustrations exactly.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
July 23, 2009 9:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
He probably doesn't want to make a name for himself by being Enemy No. 1 of Democrats.
I say, keep up the pressure on the mofo.
Calling out his corrupt dealings and GOP-tendencies is good, and we need to do more.
Most of the "blue dogs" are simply corrupt.
July 23, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is just another example demonstrating that certain Senate rules, not stipulated in the Constitution, give individual senators too much power. Such rules need to be curtailed or eliminated. For example, the filibuster, while not being threatened by Baucus, seems highly undemocratic. At the very least, I would reverse the voting procedure required to launch and to break a filibuster.
Instead of requiring 60 votes to break some filibuster that could have been launched by one senator, the rule should be that a filibuster cannot be launched without a pre-vote requiring 41 senators. This would still enable a minority of senators to block some bill, but would shift the political burden from breaking the filibuster and over to launching one.
July 23, 2009 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I certainly agree that the "league of gentlemen" needs to clean up its act and eliminate rules which serve their egos rather than serving the people. We fought a revolution to be freed from institutions like the House of Lords. No need to have them replicated here!
July 23, 2009 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Today Jane Hamsher reports that Max and his pals are close to moving a bill out of the committee. Keep yer fingers crossed!
http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/07/23/baucus-snow-enzi-bipartisan-deal-close-in-finance-committee/
Meanwhile, more delay as Harry Reid says no bill will be passed in the Senate prior to August recess. I wish Reid had even half the drive and determination that Obama is showing!
July 23, 2009 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink