Max Baucus Kills The Public Option?

Max and Wanda have great health insurance that we pay for but he opposes health insurance for us

An invitation to a "barbecue & hoedown" at the Sieben Ranch north of Helena from Max Baucus reminded me I need to call Baucus today. He wouldn't come to the phone, of course, but when I asked his assistant if he'd be willing, like Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, to give up his summer recess to stay in Washington to address the health care crisis, she said that even if there's a recess Baucus would still be working on the issue.

It's important to him. As head of the Senate Finance Committee, he's in a position to raise an awful lot of corporate loot-- and he does-- and not just at barbecues and hoedowns near Helena. Look at the list of the dozen largest sources of his campaign funds.


No one serving in the Senate today has taken as much money from the Medical-Industrial Complex as Baucus ($2,865,881) other than notorious corporate whore Arlen Specter ($4,066,433) and two former presidential candidates, John Kerry ($8,163,141) and John McCain ($8,672,260). Baucus even tops Medical Industry shill Mitch McConnell ($2,755,468). And when it comes to the Financial Sector-- the banksters, Big Insurance and Big Real Estate-- Baucus was also on the payroll in a major way. His $4,675,393 in donations put him in the Top 10, with corporate whores like Mitch McConnell, Alexander Lamar, Arlen Specter, Joe Lieberman, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Chuck Schumer... basically the folks who oversaw the economic legislation that dragged the economy right over the cliff.

Yes, yes, Max Baucus will work diligently over the recess-- with his Republican allies to kill real health care reform. Max Baucus, Wanda Baucus and Zeno Baucus are very well-taken care of by the taxpayers of this country, with platinum-plated health insurance that we pay for. Max and Wanda and Zeno should have the same health insurance that the rest of us has and the same opportunities to understand how private health care functions that the rest of us has before he legislates on it. According to a report from TPM this evening, Baucus is reporting that he will do exactly what his campaign donor Insurance Industry CEOs asked him to do: destroy the public option.

Just now some poor woman from the DSCC called soliciting money from me to help elect more Democrats so they could complete the work that we started by electing president Obama and enact the policies Americans care about most. I asked her what those policies were. She seemed stunned by eventually she said "health care." I asked her how many Democrats were in the Senate. She didn't know. I asked her if she knew who Max Baucus is. She didn't. I asked for her supervisor. He said he'd pass my misgivings along... to someone. If you hear from the DSCC let them know why you won't be donating to their scam.



Tonight's must read: Baucus' confessional, I'm Such A Shitty Senator.