Source: AP

Sen. Max Baucus' decision to release his long-awaited health care overhaul bill with no Republicans on board dims the chances for a bipartisan compromise on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The Senate Finance Committee chairman insisted Tuesday that he'll keep negotiating with the three Republicans and two fellow Democrats who've been in closed-door talks with him for months on the bill he was to reveal Wednesday. Baucus, D-Mont., said he hopes that by the time the committee votes on the bill, as early as next week, Republicans will be there.

But for now, despite numerous gestures to Republicans, Baucus has fallen short in his quest to assemble a coalition of senators from both parties behind his proposal. Obama also hoped for bipartisan support behind plans for reshaping the nation's $2.5 trillion health care system to hold down costs and cover the uninsured.

"The door's always open — always hoping that somebody, all six, will be on the bill," Baucus told reporters Tuesday evening after the latest meeting of his so-called Gang of Six senators. "We're just going to keep the door open, keep working, keep discussing."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090916/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul

since Baucus is all about being corporate friendly and anti-public option.

His bill should be named "leave no insurance exec behind bill".

I've seen a few mentions of "Liberal Democrats" on CNN and elsewhere, but always with a sort of casual dismissal, as though they're a fringe not representing any constituency or interest.

as the media, especially CNN, which has pushed it constantly. Judging from Rockefeller's and Kerry's comments, it would seem that this is likely not even the bill that could get the most votes in the Finance committee. With no Republicans, it is hard to explain why this is better than a substitute bill (Rockefeller's, the House bill or the HELP bill - or a variation on them).

It may be naive optimism, but this looks like Baucus and Conrad spent a huge amount of time and failed - though it does prove the Republicans did not negotiate in good faith.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8557

Senator Baucus and His Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act


Source: Huffington Post, September 15, 2009

President Barack Obama last week quoted Wendell Potter's recent Congressional testimony. Yesterday, speaking before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Wendell "warned that if Congress 'fails to create a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the president might as well be called the Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act. ... Potter, who was previously a vice president of communication at Cigna, also sharply criticized Democratic Senator Max Baucus' health care reform bill in a conversation with reporters Monday, calling the plan an 'absolute gift to the industry.'" In his testimony he stated that the Baucus plan "would create a government-subsidized monopoly for the purchase of bare-bones, high-deductible policies that would truly benefit Big Insurance. ... It's hard to imagine how insurance companies could write legislation that would benefit them more."

The guy has taken millions from the health insurance industry, and when he gets his sorry ass thrown out of office, he'll undoubtedly end up working for them as a lobbyist or some other form of Washington bottom-feeder. The health industry loves "reform" proposals because then they can either prove how fucking dumb some Americans are or they get a huge chunk of money out of it to pad their bottom lines. These people are plain evil, and what we ought to be supporting isn't public option, it's single-payer.

It sounds like a Republican bill without Republicans.

It looks like a big show to me. They'll probably "compromise" (in other words, make it even worse) in order to get Republican support, then claim that they started with a Democratic bill but had to move to the right in the name of bipartisanship.

and laughed their silly asses off when they speculated how the two wings of the Democratic Party were going to fight like hell over it. No wonder they wanted to stay a mile away.

They've seen all kinds of stories about how they're the obstructionists, now they're going to look forward to seeing the progressive part of the Party getting that label in the media. Popcorn futures are up.

Just like the bailout. Let the GOP eviscerate it, then none of them vote on it.

will stop the appeasement and put in a very strong public option-- like Medicare opened up to all who want to buy into it on a sliding scale.

Any need to be "revenue neutral" should be within the next ten years, so we can have time to see how a serious public option will perform.

Guess it doesn't matter. Most bills are one huge compromise to the GOP and the Blue Dogs.

"The Senate Finance Committee chairman insisted Tuesday that he'll keep negotiating with the three Republicans ..."

I bet no-one in Montanta owns more bridges in Brooklyn than Baucus

After cutting (excluding) anything and everything meaningful from the bill, they now see fit disassociate themselves from it. Do I detect an indelible support for the status quo here? What degree of fool should Baucus and the other two Democratic "Gang of Six" Senators see themselves as being right about now? It's sure a great and wondrous thing that Baucus's committee bought itself another 6 weeks with which to build a solid bipartisan "consensus". Sure Max, "Keep working, keep discussing", and better yet keep STALLING so that true reform never sees the light of day. The door is open all right, only it's the barn door and the public option has not only left said barn, but it's arriving at the slaughterhouse.

support us.

the gop does not want to acknowledge the left, but i fear, to destroy it.

That's what LOGIC and FAIRNESS demand!!!

Start from a show of STRENGTH - not a watered down REPUKE bill that REPUKES won't end up voting for!!!

DON'T YOU FUCKING DEM LEADERS IN CONGRESS KNOW WHEN YOU ARE BEING PUNKED?!!! THESE REPUKES GUTTED THE BILL EVERY WHICH WAY, AND NOW THEY WILL NOT VOTE AT ALL FOR THEIR FUCKING BILL!!! THEY SUCCESSFULLY STOPPED MEANINGFUL REFORM!!! GET A FUCKING CLUE!!!

Everything is rolling along just as planned. The insurance companies are getting full value for their campaign contributions to the Blue Dogs.

reconciliation? They will not get 60 votes unless it doesn't have a public option in it. So, just ram it through. To hell with what the pukes want.

mind. Is this what the congressional whores have in mind, too?

Of course the insurance cos. and their bought/paid for congressmen like the coop option b/c they know it will take quite awhile for nonprofit health care coops to get organized, operational and able to compete with Big Insurance. Meanwhile, Big Insurance will continue to reap their obscene profits while putting their own people on the coop boards because "they have the experience."

That's how I see this playing out, based on my own experience with founding a nonprofit group while working full time elsewhere.

IOW, who among us holding down jobs or running businesses will be able to put in the time and has the expertise to make a regional health care coop a go?

:shrug:

An economics expert from Yale, Jacob Hacker, told a House committee yesterday in hearings that the co-op model was studied and it will fail because it will not be big enough or financed properly to negotiate any beneficial premium rates or terms with the insurance corporations.

He also stated "triggers" will not work.

What option did Mr. Hacker state had the best chance of providing competition and lower premiums - A PUBLIC OPTION LIKE MEDICARE.

The experts know it, we know it, but Congress has too many members on both sides that are willing to look the other way in exchange for the lobbying dollars.

It appears Obama may be willing to do the same since he does not want to fund the version of public option he mentioned in his speech, nor does he want all Americans to be able to freely select a public option over a private one.


Mandates for all Americans to buy private insurance while doing absolutely nothing to fix the problems already created by those very health insurance corporations will not only NOT fix the health care crisis, it will give them millions of new victims upon which to raise premiums at will, deny coverage and care.

Even with this absolute sellout of a bill, Baucus still can't get any Republicans to get on board. SO WHY NOT SCRAP IT AND DO A BILL THAT MAKES SENSE, THAT PROVIDES REAL REFORM?

"Why don't they quit fucking around and just use the reconciliation? They will not get 60 votes unless it doesn't have a public option in it. So, just ram it through. To hell with what the pukes want."

Because the Dems don't want a public option either. The Republican party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the corps, but so are most Dems. We have no representation.

Source: Politico



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27225.html

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I know that Co-ops get a bad rap here, but as long as the Senate Bill has a provision for alternatives to an exclusively for-profit insurance system, I'll accept that as a starting point for negotiations with the House.

...we have the votes ~~ get it done and get it done right. There will NEVER be a better time than now.

Settle for this bullshit from DINO Baucus? GMAB! :grr:

It will be interesting to see if the President comes out in support of this piece of shit.

...the Baucus gift to the ins industry is a POS designed to HARM citizens.

Fuck Baucus and his ins asskissing garbage bill.

JMHO

Co-ops are like non-profits. They will not answer to the people who belong to them, the subscribers, through their government. They will answer and their policy will be determined by boards of directors. Do you know who sits on boards of directors? The same rich people that back the Bush administration, socialize smugly at fundraising events, live in gated communities and travel in private jets all over the place. We don't need them, once again, running everything.

Non-profits choose their board members from the same elite crowd that runs everything else. The job of a board member for a non-profit is to raise charitable donations for the non-profit. The oversight is usually not good. It's just an old-boy and old-girl network. I scratch your back. You scratch mine.

What do you want to bet that Tom Daschle will be the first to get an appointment to a top position in a co-op if that form of management is chosen? Tom Daschle or someone like him? Harry Reid anyone? That's the way they put these nice guys out to to pasture on guaranteed big bucks the rest of their lives.

Oh, and the top spot will pay only slightly less than the top spots in other health care companies. Can't have any savings you know.

There are two reasons for having co-ops. The first is that the co-ops will be worse run and more expensive than the public option. They will be too small and too corrupt. They will not be well run. In other words co-ops will fail. They will not present a viable competition for the for-profits. A public option would. That's the primary reason that the health care industry wants them. This is how the CEOS in for-profit companies want to justify their mega-salaries.

Second, co-ops are yet another way that the power elite can reward themselves and their cronies when they can no longer get elected to office or can't make it for some other reason. Your neighbor, that ordinary nice guy down the street, gets fired and has to try to get another job when things go wrong at work. Those who fit in with the power elite get appointed to soft jobs in fields like health care co-ops. No, no, no.

A public option is something we can control somewhat indirectly. A co-op will be just another private organization that "they" control without being accountable. No, a thousand times no.

He managed to draw out and prolong this debacle which is what Pharma/Fox/Repugs wanted. They got enough time to stage elaborate gun-bearing, racist, death-panel Tea Party rallies, got time for to insult the Prez on national TV and raise money on it; and best of all! They got to avoid a substantive discussion of facts and issues that might have appeared in a completed.

Baucus serviced his 'base'.

and Insurance between 2003-2008, how has this impacted your proposed bill?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/20/AR2009072003363.html

snip: "As his committee has taken center stage in the battle over health-care reform, Chairman Baucus (D-Mont.) has emerged as a leading recipient of Senate campaign contributions from the hospitals, insurers and other medical interest groups hoping to shape the legislation to their advantage. Health-related companies and their employees gave Baucus's political committees nearly $1.5 million in 2007 and 2008, when he began holding hearings and making preparations for this year's reform debate." snip

"The sector gave nearly $170 million to federal lawmakers in 2007 and 2008, with 54 percent going to Democrats, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics. The shift in parties was even more pronounced during the first three months of this year, when Democrats collected 60 percent of the $5.4 million donated by health-care companies and their employees, the data show." snip

"But Baucus, a senator from a sparsely populated and conservative Western state who is serving his sixth term, stands out for the rising tide of health-care contributions to his campaign committee, Friends of Max Baucus, and his political-action committee, Glacier PAC. Baucus collected $3 million from the health and insurance sectors from 2003 to 2008, about 20 percent of the total, data show. Less than 10 percent of the money came from Montana." snip more....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/20/AR2009072003363.html

The only good thing I've heard is ending discrimination on those with preexisisting conditions. OK, so it's like one step forward and ten steps back.

Baucus is one of the biggest Senate beneficiaries of pharma/HMO contributions. He knows who his true constituents are.

and also go to I did send them this and ask how in the hell is even checking out anything the news SUCKS!!!

this shows how much money he received..he is a whore

http://www.opensecrets.org/

They are going to see a lot of people in the streets if they think this will pass as health care reform......

Date was not set as of Sunday, when there was a small pro-public option rally in DC with maybe a few thousand attending.

It's almost October so I'm hoping for the Halloween rally because the Fauck-us bill is "scary."

Mr. President,

I listened very carefully to your speech last week to Congress. You made a statement that any health care bill signed by you will not add even one dollar to the budget.

Mr. President, my question is WHY CAN'T WE SPEND SOME OF THE TAXPAYER'S MONEY ON REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM FOR IT'S CITIZENS?

We are spending $800 BILLION a year in military budget and 2 wars, yet not word from you or Congress about the deficits created by that spending. Why not a few less bombs, close a few military bases in other countries (especially Europe, which has the financial ability to pay for their own protection)?

You and Congress spent billions on "saving" Wall Street, saving a few big banks you deemed "too big to fail," but not a couple of billion for the people who will be forced to pay for your corporate pork fest for years to come?

WHY ARE WE THE ONES WHO PAY TO SUPPORT THE SYSTEM BEING DENIED THE ONE THING THAT CAN PROVIDE US SOME RELIEF FROM THE CONSTANT THREAT OF FINANCIAL RUIN (WE ARE ALL ONE MAJOR ILLNESS AWAY FROM BANKRUPTCY, EVEN IF YOU HAVE INSURANCE COVERAGE?

WHY MUST WE LIVE IN CONSTANT FEAR OF ILLNESS, OF DISEASE? AFRAID TO GO TO THE DOCTOR TO FIND OUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH US BECAUSE OUR INSURANCE MIGHT BE CANCELED?

WHY DO WE HAVE MONEY FOR BOMBS & BROKERS, BUT NO MONEY TO SPEND ON THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE ALL THAT POSSIBLE?

Mr. President, you are approaching health care reform from a corporate point of view, not ours. That is the exact opposite of what you promised us during the campaign.

That's why we worked so hard to get you and other Democrats elected.

Why are you punishing us for believing you????

Shove it down their throats and up their asses.

Show them what happens when they play difficult.