Baucus Says New Deadline For Health Care: Sept. 15, With Or Without The GOP
After delaying and delaying health care legislation, and then missing the deadline to complete work on a bill by August recess, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) now says the new deadline for health care reform is September 15--one week after Senate returns to work.
Crucially, though, he says his committee will begin marking up legislation with or without GOP support. In other words, it's put up or shut up time for Republicans.
Baucus may have little choice. Mid-September would leave precious little time for the bill to be merged with the Senate HELP committee's legislation, debated, and passed on the floor before October when Congress is set to pass a budget reconciliation bill. A budget reconciliation bill can't be filibustered, and Democrats have kept alive the possibility of passing reform legislation (or certain aspects of reform legislation) via reconciliation, if Republicans don't allow a vote on a stand-alone reform bill by the fall.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Crucially, though, he says his committee will begin marking up legislation with or without GOP support
Maybe some of the pressure is finally starting to get through to him? This is the only good news out of this.
It's infuriating that a single Senator, from the President's own party, might ultimately be the reason for failure.
July 31, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish I shared your optimism, but I'm ultimately more cynical about Baucus than what you are suggesting. My read on this is that Baucus doesn't want to kill health care reform (or at least he doesn't want to get blamed for it) but he does want to milk his time in the spotlight for all it's worth. He got a lot of money out of this and got to play king for a while. He probably even fooled himself into thinking he could stand up to the President (although that's more because Obama didn't want to pull on the brass knuckles rather than because the President is actually powerless against a single Senator).
Come September, Baucus will put out a bill and probably expect everybody to thank him for making such a grand contribution to health care reform.
July 31, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a fucking disaster he has been for this whole process! I am mortified.
July 31, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think you're wrong about Baucus. I don't think he's interested in the spotlight AT ALL. During this entire process, Baucus has not been on any cable news or Sunday shows. He never gives interviews and he doesn't need more money.
I think he's just pathetically lame and inept. I also think he's doesn't really want healthcare and is letting the repubs punk him.
Think about it: he's been in the Senate for 31 years and he's known for NOTHING. No bill, no particular fight, no issue. NOTHING. Why? Because, despite 31 years in the Senate, he is not a legislator. He should have remained a back bencher.
July 31, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think he's seeking the limelight. I think he is stalling for the GOP.Baucus may not even be asked back after the break. And whereis he getting this date from?
I'm glad I don't watch our local TV stations. I can imagine the ads that both sides will be airing during this break.
July 31, 2009 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I suspect that Sen. Baucus really sees himself as being one of the good guys, one of the few politicians in Washington not yet to fall into the trap of partisanship that so many of his fellow politicians have fallen into.
Since he is from Montana he takes a very rural view of national politics. That's one reason he gets reelected. He represents that rural culture. The fact that half the U.S. population is urban and takes a culturally very different view from rural people is, I suspect, the key to the way Max Baucus thinks. In a city you have to be part of a community, depend on others and have others depend on you even when you don't personally know them. In rural areas self-sufficiency and individualism is prided above community values. But that depends on personal knowledge of the majority of those you work with. That is a level of knowledge impossible in the cities. A universal health care system with the government heavily involved is anathema to rural values, but essential to urban values. Sen. Baucus' view of what is good and bad in politics is, I think, built on his rural culture.
People who believe that are the kinds of people he depends on to get elected, and when he comes to Washington, D.C. he pals around with people with rural cultural views. As a Senator, he is not pressured to listen to people he disagrees with. His staff will be trained to keep them away from him. The lobbyists cater to his views and flatter him. The media has in the past lauded him for working to bring opposing partisans together, so he sees his ability to do that as something important that he brings to deliberations in the Senate, and he has gained power as he has gained seniority. He's in his bubble as a powerful man, and with seniority and flattery from those who lobby him, the bubble has grown thicker.
That is a systemic explanation for his views rather than an unflattering personality-driven explanation. It's also one that might suggest ways to get through to him that don't depend on simply blunt confrontation and efforts to bring greater power to bear on him. He already is one of the most powerful men in Washington.
July 31, 2009 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well fine and dandy . . .
Maybe good ol' Max can come on over and milk my cow. He seems to have done a very fine job at milking the corporate interests for all that fine re-election cash.
Bessie needs a draining . . .
~OGD~
August 1, 2009 2:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
A poltice and a prayer. What else does a body need?
August 1, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too little too late! We have begun the work to replace him!
Call him to remind him that we know how much he took from Healthcare lobbyists- $1.3 million in past 2 years...We know he has been playing footsey with republicans and we know if the reform is dead -his actions are the reason. 1.866.220.0044
July 31, 2009 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Replace Baucus?
He just got re-elected in 2008. He won't run again until 2014. He would be 73 when starting his next term, having first taken office in 1978. One suspect he doesn't want to retire just yet, but one also thinks that he won't be too strung out if he walks away in 2014.
He also knows that he's going to have a massive war chest from eating all sorts of corporate and special interest money over the few years as he sits as the gate keeper on Finance.
I suspect he's low on the list of people were can scare. Snowe is up for re-election in 2012 in a state Obama won by 17% points. We barely can scare her. Think there's any fear in Lying Lieb at the moment?
John
July 31, 2009 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
There was the talk about instituting a mechanism for replacing committee chairs specifically for purposes of using it on Baucus. But that's not something the grassroots can really participate in, I don't think.
July 31, 2009 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe this is his game plan. Fuck with it and delay and leave no time for merging the bill.
HARRY.....You have failed us and does he do this bullshit with your favor or not!
July 31, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gawdammit - I have lost any confidence that MaxBlockus is telling the truth of acting in good faith. Save us from this wretched man!
July 31, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Probably hoping to resist, considering an Obama assasination. I doubt Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi would change an agenda that much.
July 31, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, but you're not making any sense. What are you trying to say?
July 31, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I call BS. He'll come back on Sept. 13 and say something along the lines of "We don't want to rush things, we want to do this right, bipartisanship, I want more money from lobbyists..."
This corrupt jerk cannot be trusted.
July 31, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I REALLY hope I never see him in person. I would spit in this bastard'as face to show my utter disgust with what he is doing.
July 31, 2009 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's accomplished his goal and given his friends the opportunity to kill the bill during their "vacation". Regular people will never have as much money as the industry has and the lies will escalate and get worse if possible. Telling senior citizens the government wants to kill them is about as low as it can get but they'll probably come up with something even more "helpful".
We must get out there and be as loud and visible as the scum who refer to themselves as patriots.
July 31, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow.
2 months late and, most likely, a bad bill.
That's a profile in courage.
July 31, 2009 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not quite as cynical as some posters here. I believe Baucus actually supported the reconciliation process (the senate rule that prohibits a filibuster for health care reform). He does want health care reform, but wants a few GOP votes to ensure that they have an ownership stake in the outcome (and, in the event that we lose the senate in the future, these same GOPers don't work to eliminate the health care reform we enact).
So, yes, he's received a ton of cash from this process, but that isn't shocking. He's a committee chair. They've all received millions from the medical and insurance lobbies.
July 31, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think that any of the Republicans are going to vote for the final version.
Even if Baucus gets a bipartisan version out of Finance, it's going to be merged with the Senate HELP bill and the House version.
Both of these versions are going to be to the left of what Finance will put out.
I don't think Snowe or Grassley will vote for the final version much less Enzi.
So they are going to have a more compromised final bill with still 0 Republican votes.
And as to the Republicans changing it back in the future - I think the reforms will actually help people and will be broadly popular before Republicans can get 60 seats in the Senate.
July 31, 2009 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pshh he is a fool if he thinks the public will see it as a bi-partisan bill with a only a couple of republican votes. The dems will own this bill for better or worse.
July 31, 2009 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another bogus Baucus unit
March 11, "Our schedule calls for the Finance Committee to mark up a comprehensive health care reform bill in June.
July 31, 2009 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
At this point I'm expecting (hoping really) that the reform part of the health care form is passed in the Senate without the public option and then a strong public option is passed in reconciliation later.
July 31, 2009 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope his buddies in the senate may have put some fear in him. I am not holding my breath though. I think he's going to come back 9/15 and either say he needs more time or he'll drag it out even more until its too late. I think he's going to pull a Billy Tauzin and get himself a cushy job lobbying for some bigtime bucks. And no he doesn't give a crap about health reform helping Americans. He hasn't done crap about it for 30 yrs though he is from a state with one of the highest uninsured rates in the country.
July 31, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can senators be recalled? Can they be impeached for reckless disregard of their constituents? Can he simply be humiliated into pretending that he isn't bought and paid for?
Can he be pushed into a closet of ineffectualness by his own party? Stripped of his chairmanship?
He probably needs to be stripped naked and run out into the street, and then go home and count his millions that he has received from his health insurance pimps. As long as he gets to keep his money he'll probably be happy as a clam at high tide.
Losers like Baucus should not be allowed to derail progress.
July 31, 2009 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to know what the typical guidelines are for removing someone from their committee chairmanship, according to the WH, and according to other senate leaders, particularly "Ball-less" Harry Reid.
In other words, at this point, WHAT does Baucus have to do to be removed from his post? What egregious behavior does he need to be caught in, in order for the right thing to be done and for this corrupt, power-hungy, sell-out coward to get jettisoned? How many Snow-Mobile parties does Baucus have to throw where Insurance lobbyists show up with fat checks to stuff in his pockets before he gets booted directly in the ass and out of his chairmanship? 10 a week? 20 a week? A fundraiser literally going 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until a bill is killed?
I'm just actually curious. Just like I'm curious what Republicans in the Senate who talk all the time about bi-partisanship and 'doing things right' use as their meter stick for finally agreeing to a bill. Oh yeah? So what's the point where you relent? WHAT needs to happen for your bi-partisanship to finally become more than a talking point, and for you to put your money where your mouth is?
Fuck these idiots-- every one of them!
July 31, 2009 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Baucus is probably trying to sound like a Dem tough-guy right now only because of the potential embarrassment over Camp Baucus, his pay-to-play lobbyist gathering at Big Sky (resort), which is this weekend. What a scumbag.
July 31, 2009 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Max had to postpone his committee's report until September 15 because he needed more time to hash out details with his staff at United Healthcare Corporation.
August 1, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Baucus is a tool.
In his defense he is a Red-State Dem. That concludes his defense.
For the prosecution: This tool is bought and paid for by PhRMA. The sooner we tear corporate money out of D.C. by the roots, the sooner we'll have clean Congress-folk who won't be in the shadow-government's pockets.
Until then, we have to turn up the heat over the August break. The only count-balance we have to corporotocracy's deep pockets is correspondence, our own Political Action Committes and in-person visits to the various legislator's local offices. We scared them into putting the Public-Option back on the table over the July 4th break. The only way to scare them back into getting this bill done with a Strong Public Option is to lean even more heavily on them during the present recess. Let's dog these dogs over the dog days of summer and send them back to the swamps of Washington scared and attentive.
Turn up the heat. It's time to fry them before they roast us.
August 2, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Start" marking up in September 15...not only did he oomit the year, he omitted any kind of estimated completion date. Don't hold your breath waiting for that markup to be completed - it won't happen this year.
August 3, 2009 7:00 AM | Reply | Permalink