Max Baucus's Unpleasant Position

[babylonsister]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/08/max_baucuss_unpleasant_positio.html

Max Baucus's Unpleasant Position
Ezra Klein


About a year ago, when Max Baucus was hosting his "Prepare to Launch" event and holding the first hearings on comprehensive health-care reform, it was pretty clear that he saw this as his moment of greatness. Passing health-care reform would make him a legislative giant. He would not only join the pantheon of great Finance Committee chairmen -- Russell Long, Bob Dole, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Lloyd Bentsen, Bob Packwood -- but exceed them, having achieved the one priority they could never pass. He would be a hero.

Fast forward a year and he's been dubbed Captain Ineffective, which wasn't the costume he was going for. He has let himself fall into an almost uniquely unpleasant position: If a bill fails, he will shoulder most of the blame. Four other committees have passed their health-care reform bills. Only his Finance Committee has lagged. But if he passes some sort of compromise bill, it is still likely to disappoint many Democrats, as his slow schedule and emphasis on retaining Grassley's and Enzi's support will probably be seen as the reason the final product was weak. At this point, the best Baucus can hope for is to avoid being seen as the villain. It is hard to imagine him being cast as the hero.

The blame for that goes entirely to the bizarre process that he has constructed. If he had sent a bill into the Finance Committee and its progress had slowed amid objections from Blanche Lincoln and Tom Carper, at least the impediments would have been obvious and the targets for reformist ire clear. Instead, Baucus created an ad hoc committee composed of Kent Conrad, Jeff Bingaman, Mike Enzi, Chuck Grassley, Olympia Snowe, and Orrin Hatch (who later dropped out). They have conducted their work behind closed doors, and done so slowly. There is little information flowing in or out of their negotiations, and there was never a clear explanation of why this group was chosen in the first place.

The end result is that health-care reform isn't struggling through the Finance Committee. It's struggling through the Max Baucus Committee. He built the process and selected the participants and made the decisions. And he did so without ever explaining why this process was necessary, why the larger committee had to be excluded, why Finance couldn't stick to the schedule of Energy and Commerce or Ways and Means or HELP. As such, Baucus bears uncommon responsibility for the product. If his process fails, then he will have failed. For a man whose career has been defined by an aversion to risk, Baucus is running the most dangerous and unexpected legislative play in recent memory. He has put himself at the center of health-care reform. At one point, that seemed likely to assure him the credit. Right now, it seems certain to leave him the blame.

[billyoc]

1. Unless it's one of those "stress" positions, it's not unpleasant enough for me.

[KittyWampus]

2. Considering how important this is, get rid of Baucus.

[havocmom]

4. Considering he was just re-elected, please lobby YOUR senators to yank him from his chairmanship

He needs to be marched to the corner. Voters here in Montana just couldn't face replacing him and losing all that seniority. Now they see that it was never working for them anyway.

[KittyWampus]

5. Good idea, Schumer makes a good chew toy. But I trust him as far as I can throw him

edit- after all this time, I never noticed til now you are from Montana. :hi:

[havocmom]

8. And some of my fav people are from the island which is long

:hi:

[havocmom]

3. Ol Max looks to be acting like an auctioneer at an event with few takers

He is dragging the auction in hopes of getting more bids. Only the bidders are Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Clinics INC. and what he is auctioning off is members of the House and Senate.

Ol Max best be planning a retirement east of Montana. If he comes back here, some of us will make sure he can't go out in public without facing a lot of righteous protest. Montana only had one Representative in the House. It makes us pretty under-served when one of our two Senators works for the Insurance Lobby instead of Montana voters.

[texanshatingbush]

6. Given how much money Baucus has received from health care interests.....

....I think he should recuse himself from the deliberations!

Havocmom, did I hear last week or so that Baucus has received more that half his donations from non-Montana interests? Do you have the details to refresh my memory?

[havocmom]

7. raw data for you. I report (links and data), you decide

;)
from: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?type=C&cid=N00004643&newMem=N&cycle=2010

Cycle Fundraising, 2005 - 2010, Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC
Raised: $13,883,663
Spent: $11,503,704
Cash on Hand: $2,488,738
Debts: $0
Last Report: Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Top 5 Contributors, 2005-2010, Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC
Contributor Total Indivs PACs
Altria Group $108,453 $45,453 $63,000
Schering-Plough Corp $101,200 $64,200 $37,000
Amgen Inc $65,250 $35,250 $30,000
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $65,100 $21,600 $43,500
New York Life Insurance $64,150 $41,650 $22,500



Cycle Source of Funds, 2005-2010, Campaign Cmte only
legend Individual Contributions $5,989,921 (52%)
legend PAC Contributions $4,872,291 (42%)
legend Candidate self-financing $0 (0%)
legend Other $640,654 (6%)

I kinda figure those $$ from insurance are from out of state, along with a lot of other $$. Economy here in state deals with relatively low numbers ;)

edited for more links to raw data, same stuff, different site:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/23/max-baucus-health-contributions/

http://openleft.com/diary/14307/who-gives-money-to-senator-max-baucus