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In the David Broderian-sense, Max Baucus is the most honorable of politicians — he and his staff are loyal to the "right" people. They’ve been bought and they’re staying bought. The White House has not seen his plan, it is not clear how many senators have seen his plan, but he and his key staffer, a former Health Insurance executive have shown it to the groups that own him:
ROBERT GIBBS: I was told that — that K Street had a copy of the Baucus plan, meaning, not surprisingly, the special interests have gotten a copy of the plan
(pic via Meldroc2000)
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Nobody’s dancing to the Blue Dog Polka (featuring Baucus on the Chemnitzer concertina). So sorry, Max.
Because that would be outrageous. America won’t stand for two things: socialism and politicians who won’t stay bought. Thank God Max Baucus isn’t a socialist. Thank God Max Baucus is a crony capitalist preventing the entry of competition into a closed market like health care, whether he’s getting paid for it or not, because competition isn’t what made America great. What made and continues to make America so great is capitulation to corporate interests that are neither aligned with the interests of consumers nor the interest in an economy that devotes far less than 18% GDP annually on health care.
Wait. I got it. It’s the health care bubble that will save the American economy. The Europeans and the Japanese and Aussies et cetera won’t know what hit them when we get out to compete in the global economy with one hand tied behind our backs. Thanks Max and President Obama and all you other courageous Democrats for making this an integral part of the American economic recovery plan. What a fool I am for not seeing the truth until I’m up early paying my expanding pile of bills.
That excellent picture deserves wide circulation.
Thanks Meldroc 2000!
Good morning, pups. It’s Dowd and Friedman today. MoDo, in “Less Spocky, More Rocky,” says President Obama is so wrapped up in his desire to be a different, more conciliatory, beer-summit kind of leader, he ignores some verities. The Moustache of Wisdom, in “Our One-Party Democracy,” says China’s one-party autocracy can impose the important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century, and asks if this is a political advantage.
Here they are.
The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got a selection of bagels and cream cheese. The Nice Polite Republicans have been devoting a lot of time this morning to covering the health care issue. I’m going to go and bang my head against the wall now… Have a great day.
One has to wonder what the f*** Harry Reid’s plan is in all this. He had the power (Hah!) to curb the ambitions and idiocy of Mad Max right from the get go and yet has seemingly abandoned all interest and input in the health issue. He is, of course, about the most useless Majority Leader since the position was invented and has ceded all influence and power to the wishes of his lord and master Orin Hatch. I can only assume that the moron church is in the insurance business or gets scads of money from the insurance business?
One has to wonder if Baucus has seen his plan or he hasn’t yet gotten around to reading what the insurance lobbyists wrote.
The irony is that IF the Public Option goes through, it probably will cost billions because it’s going to attract those with expensive illnesses who can’t get private insurance and it may not have enough of the low-cost people to balance it out. Where a one-payer system could conceivably run at no additional cost to the taxpayer but isn’t even being considered.
This will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Offer a program that is sure to be expensive and forgo one that might have been cost-effective.
IN the end polititicans are all whores and the ins. and pharma. have paid them in freedom of speech money to screw the people . And they will.
.
Morning all, Mandatory fines for not having insurance will be be up to $3800 per family. These fines will go directly to the insurance companies because they are the ones who are being cheated out of the profits./s
We’re going backwards.
What’s the status on the Supreme Court case? I’m seriously thinking about leaving this country after retirement.
Jeebus if we are going to have the Baucus plan why didn’t we sit back and wait for the insurance companies to finalize their plan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZhS0tNZSEo
Mandates without a public option is a crime against humanity.
How’s that for a slogan? [ungrammatical, I know, but the best I could do]
They have
We did.
And in other good news, the subprime mortgage crisis is so last year.
a saying promoted by corporatists in their attempt at ending government programs so they could reap unending profit
The campaign finance case? Arguments start today.
Since the mid-1990s I’ve felt the DLC/Clinton-type “centrist” Dems were created specifically to undermine any actual Liberal reforms from within the DemocratIC Party, which makes them that much more destructive than just running as Repubs. I’ve mostly been mocked or ignored by my fellow “Liberals” when I bring this up, including in a recent thread here by the “Obama suckZ!1!!” Krew.
So since we have such a pure example in front of us with President Balkus, Mike Ross, etc. I’ll ask again – what is motivating Mad Max?
Is it more reasonable to assume he’s a Infiltrator who is purposely stopping Liberal reform from within the DemocratIC Party, or does it make more sense to think he’s simply proposing what he thinks is really the best policy for Montanans, even though his proposal does exactly the opposite of what he says he wants, meaning bringing down costs and improving healthcare? His/their actions during this healthcare debate make that an easy answer I’d say.
Luckily, our President has never been a part of these groups and has in fact fought with them many times in the past, just as he is now.
And then what? They were planning on hitting the lottery?
dirty hippies for getting Max Backside for slipping a stealth provision into the health care bill, a la Arlen Sphincter and the Patriot Act, for legalizing reefer.
dirty hippies and Max Backside for legalized reefer. Now.
I’m not defending these people or the banks that lent to them.
It’s just another gift that will keep on giving from the Bush-Greenspan Boom.
And if you can’t pay the $3000 fine to the insurance company, your whole family gets sent to the workhouse.
Raw Story provides some details on the Baucus/Fowler/K Street Plan:
“The Baucus plan would require insurers to take all applicants, regardless of age or health. But smokers could be charged higher premiums. And 60-year-olds could be charged five times as much for a policy as 20-year-olds.”
and:
“Penalties for failing to do so would start at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. Households making more than three times the federal poverty level — about $66,000 for a family of four — would face the maximum fines. For families, it would be $3,800, and for individuals, $950.”
Most of the biggest changes to systems, such as the development of Canada’s current healthcare system, first had incremental steps. History shows that organized people united behind a clear goal were able to make sure the progress didn’t stop.
Even this tepid “reform” will be by far the largest move in the correct direction in my lifetime regarding healthcare. The key will be for as many people to stay motivated and organized to push it to a single-payer system next. History shows we can do this!
Hell, single-payer has been one of my top three issues for my entire adult life and I’ve done lot of on the ground action about, and I’m thrilled that so many people even know what single-payer means now. This is great progress, and we’re doing it with basically a total BigMedia blackout on the issue. Onward and upward!
C-Span has this Pete DuPont guy on who has managed to pull together every lie from the right.
And finally, NPR goes to one of the bipartisan wise old men of Washington for his sage advice:
Gingrich’s Advice To Obama: Split Health Bill
Would that be before or after he serves divorce papers on Michelle at the chemo center?
Ciao.
Yes, thank you.
Do you mean this SCOTUS case?
If SCOTUS goes the way the NYT says it’s going to go, we’ll all be leaving with you.
And this very important fact has now come out in the MSM. Even John McCain was standing up yesterday in the Senate commenting how awful this little fine system would be.
Is that the same Six-Pack Pete of the illustrious DuPont family from Delaware who once ran for President? Didn’t the DuPonts conspire with the Morgans and others to have a Nazi takeover of the U.S. government?
ghostof
One and the same.
As I understand it the next crash will be in commercial real estate…
He has an excuse. The DuPonts are known for their inbreeding.
Pat Buchanan wanted so very much to have Hitler be the President of America.
Brokaw just previewed this on Joe. He mentioned at the end that this was “the public option”. The Mission Continues
I don’t think it’s the next crash, it’s going on now
as business can’t afford to stay in business they have to sell theri property which will of course flood the market
at a time when nobody is opening new locations, any commercial property is going to take a long time to sell till the prices make that property valuable
I’m in a business where if we were doing this badly 5 years ago we would have sold the property and moved on however in this market our property is close to worthless so now we are actually forced to stay in business otherwise let the property fall to taxes
I saw him. What a hack. I turned the station.
Since the supposed Max plan will affect some of those on K street, likely more than any one individual here, there is nothing wrong with allowing them to give feedback. No different than having the Sierra Club give feedback on environmental legislation.
If you don’t think that most all of these Congress people working on this plan have bounced things off of all the stake holders, you have another thing coming.
Aside from that, the source for this “story” of bouncing around on K Street is not very clear. Just because a reporter says it is “bouncing around” doesn’t mean that is the case or that that accurately describes the case. It is nothing more than a rumor without some other verification.
Maybe a true rumor, but it is odd how people can generate an entire scenario from a statement from a reporter.
Kind of like the Downing Street memo. What one guy said he heard at a meeting about what another guy said he was told that some guy in the US told this other guy what this someone he knows understood about what some higher ups thought about something.
C-Span now has on Richard Kirsch from Health care for Amerka now.
Unlike the financial “crisis” this one is more directly effecting more people and there is a specific target for anger and anxiety – for profit insurers. The financial thing rippled down but was mostly a crisis down in Wall Street. People who lost jobs can’t be angry with their employers who laid them off – work was not there. People can be frustrated by the collapse of the housing bubble which sucked away money they thought they had in their property. No one to target there. Banks who wrote creepy mortgages are targets for anger, perhaps the brokers involved.
Health care is something we all face, either because we self ration, or denied care by insurers, or go bankrupt paying the bills. This is happening to 10s of millions if not more. Even those with insurance are paying enormous amount in premiums.
People are pissed and the polls show it and it will be interesting to see if the pols can deny the people what they want – affordable health care. Will the people roll over, or what?
This is a valid comparison. The Sierra Club is a corrupt organization. This is a dee cee group who uses the environment for fundraising. It has done nothing to stop the pollution of our air land and water. Certainly that is one of K-Streets most important duties, polluting the environment. Toxic pollution makes people sick, which helps Liz Fowler, and the Health Insurance industry. Didn’t Liz write a great health care program for BIG BAD MAD BAUCAUS, and for corporations? Certainly this can be compared to the Downing Street Memo, as neo-cons can start wars and stop health care for the worthless low net worth individuals.
We are always glad here, to welcome K-Street lobbyists such as yourself.
We are seeing a fairly rapid unwinding of our economy. No consumer demand. No jobs for shops selling consumer products, Malls are going without tenants. Commercial space is going unrented. All real estate values are still going down because people are scared to lose if they buy as the bottom moves further south.
The downward trend is a self fulling event – it is gathering momentum.
How can we sustain our economy when 1 in 6 or even 1 in 5 are not working?
I don’t see things getting better, rather getting worse. In 3 years we won’t even recognize this nation.
Health insurance is blackmail and fraud. If medical expenses weren’t so outrageously usurious, perhaps an argument could be made that making a “slight” profit on the fear of sickness, disease and injury is a service for those who want to pay a little more for the peace of mind of TOTAL medical coverage. But when people can’t afford to pay for ANY health insurance coverage, and when that means they will suffer and die younger than necessary, and when people who have been making payments subsequently have their claims denied for “technical” and or “legal” reasons, health insurance is nothing but a sham a scam and a ripoff. In my mind, it always has been and has been exceeded the moral and ethical boundaries of a civilized society. When the greedy rat bastards of the world win, we are all diminished by their immoral and deviant corruptions.
Worse than bought
Depicting Baucus as bought and paid for by the industry actually understates, dangerously, the problem. If Baucus were in the wrong about health care financing merely because he had sold his vote, it would be possible to get him on the right side by making him a better offer. Specifically, a single payer proposal would give him the option of painlessly turning coat on his former paymasters, because it would destroy them and their ability to fund any potential challengers. And looking at the sort of corruption we have in our politics today from the wider perspective of the voters, if Baucus worked for voters who, while they might overlook his taking money from the industry as long as the interests of the industry did not seem much at odds with their own, would predictably not tolerate him voting against their interests when, as now, the conflict of the industry’s interests and their own has become an issue; then Baucus would be deserting his industry paymasters right now because foregoing their campaign cash, while painful, would be the prerequisite for the voters rehiring him at the next election.
But that’s not the world we live in, the world created by our tolerance of a system that everyone would consider bribery if only the money were used for anyting but political campaigning. The worst, most systemic, corruption that results from allowing our legislators to have paymasters other than the people, is that they lose the ability to perceive the public interest because they are too pre-occupied with scoping out the interests of the folks who pay more of what they need to survive as legislators. Upton Sinclair once observed that it was amazing what simple and obvious truths people could fail to understand if their paychecks depended on the failure to understand. It’s obvious if you listen to the man talk about health care policy for two seconds that Baucus doesn’t understand the first thing about the topic. He doesn’t need to know anything. He just listens to his experts, the folks with the proven ability to make money off of health care, and the willingness to share some of that wealth with legislators such as himself. You can’t buy loyalty, but you can buy blindness and inattention, and that’s the real problem with Baucus and his ilk. He doesn’t know enough about public policy issues to even know when to sell out the industry to get himself a better deal elsewhere.
But it’s unfair and unwise to blame the servant. The real puzzle here is why the master, the voting public, tolerates their servants taking money on the side from other paymasters. Sure, maybe that arrangement would seem to be no big deal when there are no great issues up for discussion in which the other paymasters have interests that diverge from the voters’. But that isn’t the case anymore.
Look, Baucus is a lost cause. Forget about changing a mind that isn’t paying attention anyway. But if you want to change the minds of the voters, people whose ox looks likely to be gored if the state of play in the debate isn’t changed, then Baucus could be useful. The money he has received from the industry for his shilling for them is a quid pro quo just waiting to be presented to a jury. You’ld have trouble finding a jury that wouldn’t vote to convict. Go for it. The spectacle of Baucus and his paymasters behind bars is the one thing that would most surely and speedily get us health care financing that serves the public interest. It may be the only thing that can get us there.
The Congress is back in session and doing the dirty work for the Medical Industrial Complex.
mcconnell $3.3M, hatch $2.9M, baucus $2.8M, grassley $2.7M,
lieberman $2.6M, burr $2.4M, ensign $2.4M, cornyn $2.2M, kyl $2.1M,
conrad $2.1M, cantor $1.8M boehner $1.7M, coburn $1.2M were
paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform.
Follow the Money: Link
Call Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!
Sign Single-Payer Petition: Link
Don’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.
SEMPER FI!
You guys keep mis-spelling his name, it’s Max Bought-us
http://soundingcircle.com/news…..000205.htm
Sounding Circle: Jefferson Was Right