Is Max Baucus Change We Can Believe In?

For months, advocates for and against true health care reform in Washington have been closely watching Senator Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the all-powerful Finance Committee, and wondering what he'll do. We don't know the answer yet. Baucus was instrumental in helping George Bush pass tax cuts for the rich and privatize Medicare, but he's also said he wants to shepherd Barack Obama's healthcare plan through Congress and make universal coverage a reality once and for all. Thus far, we don't which Baucus will show up, the Bush-loving friend of big business or the populist ally of Obama.

There's a reason The Nation dubbed Baucus "K Street's Favorite Democrat" in a profile I wrote back in March 2007, after the Democrats recaptured Congress and Baucus became chair of the Finance Committee. Some background:

After helping to craft the largest tax cut in a generation, Baucus raised more than $1 million in campaign contributions from the financial sector for his 2002 re-election campaign. Opening doors in both directions were former Baucus staffers. During the debate over whether to add a $400 billion privately run prescription-drug plan to Medicare, his former chief of staff, David Castagnetti, and legislative aide, Scott Olsen, were part of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's $8 million lobbying effort. Shortly after the legislation--written largely by the pharmaceutical industry--passed, Baucus's top staffer on the Finance Committee, Jeff Forbes, left to open his own lobbying shop, with clients including PhRMA, the drug maker Amgen and the American Health Care Association. These companies have in turn donated generously to Baucus; almost $700,000 between 2001 and 2006 from the healthcare industry and pharmaceutical lobby.

A study last year by Public Citizen found that between 1999 and 2005 Baucus, along with former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, took in the most special-interest money of any senator. He tops the list of recipients from business PACs. And only three senators have more former staffers working as lobbyists on K Street (at least two dozen in Baucus's case). Now that he's chairman, "former aides of Baucus, in particular, have been in demand on K Street by companies that hope to limit damage to their business interests," reports Congressional Quarterly.

The Sunlight Foundation recently reported that "five of Baucus' former staffers currently work for a total of twenty-seven different organizations that are either in the health care or insurance sector or have a noted interest in the outcome," including many of the firms--like PhRMA--that are sure to lobby against or work to severely dilute Obama's bill. Moreover, the Billings Gazette found that Baucus raises $1,500 a day from the medical-industrial complex, more than any other Democratic senator. "Baucus," the Gazette reported, "insists that this cascade of money is not unduly influencing his work." Said a Baucus spokesman, "No matter the issue, Max always puts Montana first."

Ok. Even if true, that's not always a good thing. The New York Times reports today that senators are considering taxing unhealthy products, like soda and cigarettes, to pay for healthcare reform. A 3 cent tax on a can of Coke would raise $51.6 billion over a decade, the Joint Committee on Taxation calculated. Unfortunately, such a move might harm the sugar beet industry of Montana and the high fructose corn producers of Iowa, the latter represented by Baucus' GOP counterpart and longtime ally on the Finance Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley. (The two are so close it's not clear who's heading the committee at times.) Thus Baucus says the proposal is on "life support." Protecting narrow state interests trumps covering 47 million uninsured Americans. Ladies and gentleman, welcome to your Congress!

There's still a chance Baucus will do the right thing and draft a meaningful healthcare bill with a strong public option that gets through Congress and to the president's desk. But it's a little scary to watch a man so compromised become the point person on Congress' most important bill.

Comments (10)

1. "There's still a chance Baucus will do the right thing..."

   You have got to be joking. When pigs fly.

   Posted by sloper at 06/26/2009 @ 12:08pm

2. Mr Berman, given you guys at "The Nation" aren't going to be satisfied with ANYTHING less than "single-payer"...

   Is it likely ANYBODY on Senate Finance would meet your expectations???

   Posted by Mask at 06/26/2009 @ 12:12pm

3. In a word: Nope.

   Posted by zmann at 06/26/2009 @ 1:34pm

4. Posted by Mask at 06/26/2009 @ 12:12pm

   Why should they, or we, be satisfied by anything less than what the rest of the democratic world has known and kept for generations?

   Posted by zmann at 06/26/2009 @ 1:37pm

5. Question: Has Baucus changed or have you folks stepped up your delusions? He will pass whatever is in his best interest!

   Posted by Happy at 06/26/2009 @ 1:50pm

6. Meanwhile looks like "the powers that be" have made a trade with Congressman Conyers! He will NOT be investigating ACORN accussed in 14 lawsuits in various states with voter fraud. Just to messy and embarassing I guess because;

   "City Councilmember Monica Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic Congressman John Conyers, pleaded guilty Friday to accepting cash bribes in exchange for supporting a sludge contract with a Houston company.

   Conyers, 44, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with accepting two payments from a Synagro Technologies official in late 2007, including one in a McDonald's parking lot.

   She entered her plea before Judge Avern Cohn at 10 a.m. with her attorney Steven Fishman.

   Conyers was solemn in court, having to be asked three times by the judge to speak up.

   Fishman declined to comment on the specifics of the case outside of court.

   "You saw her in court, report what you saw," Fishman said.

   Conyers is facing three to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

   Fishman said it will be up to the judge to decide how long Conyers will be in prison.

   No sentencing date has been set."

   The Demoncrats just keep getting their orders wrong from the Obamanation that makes desolation!!!!

   Posted by BigPasture at 06/26/2009 @ 3:18pm

7. If you are uninsured and does not have insurance, you should check out the website http://UninsuredAmerica.blogspot.com -California

   Posted by haroldhoyle at 06/26/2009 @ 11:27pm

8. When all options are on the table for healthcare reform, why then did Baucus not only refuse to allow testimony on Medicare-for-all during the finance committee's hearings but also had 13 advocates, mostly doctors and nurses, arrested?

   If it's such a bad idea then why not let debate discount its merits?

   Baucus recently held healthcare town hall meetings in Montana. The meetings were filled with supporters of Medicare-for-all; seems like he doesn't even represent his own constituents on this matter. Baucus is emblematic of all that is wrong in Congress. Few elected officials actually represent Americans and what is best for us, they are merely corporate lackeys. Time to turn up the heat and say "No more."

   Join the "Challenge Max Baucus" campaign: http://tinyurl.com/qu6kjh

   Posted by clbonham at 06/27/2009 @ 07:47am

9. If our elected public servants try to pass immigration reform or a massive health care plan without the general publics voice, their could be massive ramifications on a grand scale. Both overwhelming problems caused by years of neglect, must be resolved. Already special interest groups are spending millions of dollars, filling the airways of propaganda and corrupt info-commercials, to frighten people. Instead being mouth pieces for the special interest lobbyists, they had better take note that their whole careers representing supposedly the will of the people is in jeopardy. Because of these enormous cost attributed to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION and HEALTH CARE--the AMERICAN PEOPLE'S INPUT SHOULD BE MANDATORY? Forget the University professors, economists, think take tank scientists and the Chamber of Commerce, ACLU, Unions, big church and business entities--THE PEOPLE--should--HAVE THE LAST WORD?

   Both have their own cataclysmic cost problems to the American taxpayer. THE ONLY WAY TO SATISFY THE LIBERALS, DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, ATHEISTS, EXTREMISTS, PROTECTIONISTS, OPEN BORDER AND FREE TRADERS--IS BY A STATE TO STATE FEDERAL REFERENDUM.

   CALL YOUR SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE THE ONLY THING POLITICIANS UNDERSTAND IS PRESSURE FROM---ALL---OF US?

   Posted by Brittanicus at 06/27/2009 @ 5:11pm

10. My email has been inundated with organizations who don't like the thought of a one-payer system, trying to sell me on the usual sterile thoughts for for-profit health insurers. My family has exceptional health care, because of my years with an academic background. But my step daughter received ruthless pre-existing condition clauses and finally succumbed to Cancer. Other family members suffered because of the monopoly by the mega insurance companies, whose bottom line is massive profits for their stockholders. Health care must exist for everybody, not just for the few as it is now. Commercial insurance--FINE! But let their be a government health care system similar to Europe. Choose your own doctor and do away with corrupt PPO and other wasteful plans. Do away with co-pays, premiums and deductibles, because in a nationwide pool everybody can afford it. Our car-makers will be on an equal footing with foreign imports.

    As a New American prior to coming here I had very good health care in Europe and Australia, before the illegal immigrant invasion. Lose your job and you are unlikely to afford what is called health care. Only the wealthy families, and relatively stable employees don't want to upset the apple cart. As usual the status quo are trying to undermine any new plan for the whole legal population. No options, no exception--we all pay our share into a Universal government health care plan. With the arrival of the Obama administration we have two issues that are going to be a lightening rods, and in my way of thinking should be placed before the AMERICAN VOTER AS A NATIONWIDE REFERENDUM. HEALTH CARE AND IMMIGRATION REFORM. Of all the current issues in the chambers of Washington, these are the capstone problems facing this nation of Hurricane force.

    Posted by Brittanicus at 06/27/2009 @ 5:12pm