Max Baucus just got Punk'd

Max Baucus got in front of a real pretty backdrop and gave a little presser thereby finishing what has become the most elaborate and slow moving punking of a United States Senator in the history of that institution.

He knew that the only thing missing was Ashton Kusher jumping out from behind a camera yelling "We got you good man".

Baucus now goes to his committee, the Senate and the conference committee with a bill that he has negotiated 3 months on, gutted the key Democratic Party feature (Public Option) and promotes the failed concept of "Medical Cooperatives".


And now wait for this, put down any liquid refreshments or cover your keyboard, he doesn't have a single Republican Senator who is going to vote for it.


So now Max Baucus will be arguing that we should back a bill that will forever tie the Democratic Party to the Health Insurance Companies, mandate that every American use them, give no public option, while knowing that without any Republican votes will give permission for every Republican running against his colleagues to call every Democrat a socialist while at the same time asking them to vote for a bill that essentially turns the US government into a pimp for a private industry that makes Tony Soprano look like Mahtma Ghandi by comparison.


Now Max is facing the prospects of explaining all of this to the other Democratic Senators on his committee, with the delicious prospect that the bill that Baucus keeps saying "will pass the Senate" may not clear his committee.


so

Today should be the beginning of the defeat 'Slack' Baucus movement. Today.

while doing it.

this is just pure unadulterated unstitutionalized bribery, and it pisses me off to no end. :grr:

we live in a total corporatocracy/plutocracy. :argh:

This bill should NOT serve as a "base" bill for further legislation.

I think you would need a national exchange to put pressure on the insurance industry at this point. There is no state that has been able to get a handle on health insurance.

as much as he's interested in what his corporate benefactors want. If he gets their bill passed without any republican support, who got punk'd?

so he'll have cover to do *something* on healthcare, and join the majority.

Maybe I give him too much credit.

The only thing worse than a DINO is an actual Republican.

like the public option, and we did, so we hope some will vote for it".

PUNK'D!

Hopefully this will serve as a "teachable moment" for other Democrats eager to deal with the cockroaches.

This is his bill more than Baucus's.

eloquent perspective.

Does baucus think his collegues and the American People are as stupid as he is greedy?..and stupid?

I am hoping for lots of messy blowback on Baucus and his buyers.

by the lobbyists - it was too generous.


This bill died faster than ant going under the tread of a Sherman tank.

big wet kiss to the insurance industry.

he said something about not just accommodating, but *anticipating* their needs.

what a total whore, i wish he (baucus) could be thrown out of the senate. :grr:

who showed up at a party with a primo bag of weed that he snarfed from his older brother, and manages to "hang out" with all the cool jocks while they smoke his dope. In the end, he gets sent on his way with the back of his tighty-whiteys up over his head and an empty zip-lock baggie.

.. $3 million is pocket cxhange for the Insurance Companies. I wonder if got kissed before he bent over?

And Max has given it to them.

I thought the whole POINT of Baucus pissing off public option supporters was so he get Repub support.

Boy, is he looking like a fool by BOTH parties now.

Except for Grassley saying that a couple of months ago lol

There is NO BILL, I repeat, NO BILL, that will garner Republican support. They want to kill any attempt by Democrats to pass Health Care Reform as a purely political/partisan tactic.

Baucus is from a backwater state trying to force us to buy health insurance that we can't afford. Of course the insurance companies love him. Why doesn't President Obama shut him up. The President should be in charge of the bills, not some old geezer.

what an auspicous entry into the world of DU

We need MORE of him!!!

He's had his chance and has failed spectacularly.

He may have salvaged his re-election campaign by satisfying the insurance companies, but politically, he's a loser.

It's such a pleasure to see a first post like that!

I would not use that reference for ANY state in the Union, including wherever you hail from. We are all in this together, sink or swim.
Fifty lashes with a wet noodle and a Montana consciousness-raising session for you!

Here are some things to get you started on the latter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana

http://mt.gov/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Rankin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Mansfield

http://www.native-languages.org/montana.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_M._Johnson

http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm

What the hell. These negotiations are more like a sex act. We're getting bent over and talked into positions you won't see on the most depraved porn sites. Worst of all, those that represent us are smiling as if they like it. Then, after we've had it put to us like a cheap hooker the insurance industry walks away with bigger profits. Talk about getting pimped out.

bending over for penetration.

I am not saying that your wrong though . . .

This bill's purpose is to appease corporate whore Democrats like my own Ben Nelson.

"Bipartisanship" is a ruse to cover their Republican light asses.

and the insurance co. are blocking the working class from access to medical treatment? Remove both these entities and move in the health care people and the citizens who are going to be accessing medical services, and make it more user friendly.

I don't get it either, but that's the way it is.

A Corporate Punk !

There is a cold wet winter ahead, and the fast growing weeds of the Corrupt Capitalists are at the end of their life, spreading seeds of dicontent for next spring.

As a farmer, I am out in nature all the time. I can see the change occuring in the seasons simply by watching what sprouts. Right now, the Winter Annuals are starting to grow, getting ready for the cooler weather. The weeds are dying out and are receiving competition by the new growth.

Plants run on an Annual cycle, and are easy to observe, but Mankind has it's own, distinct cycle. We are seeing the beginings of Population Overshoot. The Global climate is changing, and the majority of the people are taking notice that the leaders in charge, who "Ought to Know Better" aren't taking any actions. This is the trigger, if you will, for the next crop of Society.

Using the farming analogy, the easiest way to prevent the weeds from returning is to overwhelm them with beneficial species, that deprive the weeds seeds from germinating in the first place, or have serious competition if they do, thus reducing population of the weeds. Another aspect is that the beneficial species changes the soil structure and fertility in such a way that the Weeds just aren't that willing to grow. If the energy and resources are present, we can manually remove the weeds before they seed, and recyle their matter for reuse on better things, like food..

Our political system is intent on creating ground suitable for weeds. This is obvious in the lack of real education, the shutting of libraries, demonization of Unions, disregard for the Rule of Law, Corruption, and Lack of Accountability. The media plays a big part in this.

We need to acknowledge that we have an infestation of fast growing, invasive noxious weeds in the Government, and take steps to make the climate less welcoming to them. On the far, at the right time, during the Dicot stage of weed germination, I sometimes use a flame gun to reduce the population, and use the sterile seedbed approach. Start fresh, without the previous remnants of generations of weeds.

Other times I just use plain water, which many weeds cannot handle at all, simply because it gives them too much competition. A third approach is transformation, by planting a cover crop that removes their preferred growth environment.

All of these strategies are applicable to out current situation. We just have to promote a good species while starving the bad species. None of this happens overnight. Things take time to Grow, just like Concrete takes time to cure, just like paint requires time to dry. There is no instantaneous switch.

Obama has abandoned the Wholistic systems view of our problems, and has bought into the "Miracle Gro" cure for the sick crop, while ignoring the weeds infesting the garden. In fact, he can't even recognize the weeds, because he hired most of them for his Cabinet. He still believes in this so called Economy, which is a complete Fraud, and is allowing the Fraudsters to continue to run the show. He has not done any serious Weeding at all, and its just not going to work in the short term.

I thought my life sucked.

K&R.

Hey you inspired another OP lol

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6569170&mesg_id=6569170

The Insurance Companies sure got bang for their big bucks with this stooge, he must be delusional to think that this was going to float at all. I can't believe that Baucus could use the word affordable when describing this joke of a plan, this pipe dream for his benefactors.

Old Max is certainly a front runner for biggest democratic (in his case in name only) whore in the Senate.

triangulating at its worst.

Before you jump on me. I know that it's sheer corruption and not genius.

If they stand firm we will have a public option or no bill at all.


Had there been some Republican Senators there would have been pressure to compromise.

They gave up single payer in exchange for nothing.

1) Public Option for uninsured and small businesses

2) Expand Public Option for all

3) Single Payer state by state

4) Single Payer for the country.


Canada didn't swtich to single payer all at once.


The folks that put initiated the public option are single payer advocates who understand that it is unlikely to get the country to switch to single payer all at one time.

We've paid enough to the MIC all these years to have financed it 10 times over.

Time for a little payback for all that waste, and 3 trillion dollars that went AWOL on the DOD.

All of the advanced societies that passed single payer did so with a Parlimentary system where executive and legislative power are concentrated into a single coalition led by a single strong executive.

Those in Congress who favor of single payer did not push it for the very reason that in a system that divides power between the executive and the legislative parts of government and then divides the power of the legislative into two and then requires a supermajority to pass legislation that passing this legislation to convert the entire system in one bill is not going to happen.


The folks who designed the Public Option are all single payer advocates.

Even Canada did not pass single payer for the entire country at once.

Your position is without any realistic foundation given the political structures in this country.

We were able to gather the will to create the Nuclear Bomb, and then drop it on Japan, Twice.

We were able to creat a stockpile of necler weapons that would destroy the surface of the eart 200 times over, and then frighten the world for decades on Mutual Assured Destruction.

We bailed out the Banks, which are still nothing more than a Ponzi scheme for Trillions of dollars.

I think, given the BS we've put up with, Universal Halth Care is not only doable, but the only option.

Of course, the U.S. is broke, and the Corporations are holding all the cards, and Obama sold out to the DLC.

You are repeating propaganda and Opinion Shaping soundbites from the DLC Propaganda machine. But, you are consistent in your belief that somehow this administration is different from the last. Unfortunately, you are mistaken.

I have definate boundaries. Obama has violated those boundaries, much to the dismay of many others on the left. The Health Care Debacle is just another giveaway to the DLC Corporatists, and you are buying the propaganda.

We as a nation can do anything. We have no other duty than to demand excellence, not some shoddy unusable widget.

Your understanding of how power is divided by the constitution specifically to make radical political change more difficult borders on that of a junior high student.

We have a power structure that is structurally divided, the legislative body then being divided again with the nondemocratic house having supermajority requirements.

The proof of that is that the people who have worked the longest and hardest for single payer have not embraced your view.

They have taken the Public Option approach then expanding to state by state single payer.


If you haven't convinced them, and you cannot even convince a majority at DU that an abrupt change to single payer for the entire country in one step is viable then by what conceivable standard of logic do you think that you can convince a working majority in the country?

All this time and all this hype and it isn't worth the paper it's written on. It'll cost me more than I pay now and I pay a lot. Taking 13% of our paychecks right off the top that goes straight to the insurance industry's pockets!! That isn't even the worst part...its gets darker from there. Who's side his he one?!? Screw you Max!

greedy bastid!

:toast:

and gigantic time waster. Anybody on the board from Montana? What are his chances of getting steamrolled out of office. You know, I bet if he does lose next time, he'll switch parties and run for something as a repub. JERK!

Oh yes, K&R

... he has 6 more long years to try to earn the GOP validation he so desperately craves.


What a colossal idiot...

I don't see ol Max losing anything except his senate seat on this deal, and that only to take up a lucrative lobbying position. So who really got punk'd here?

crap that is called Health Care Insurance. I mean really, do the health insurance corporations really pay for anything? They certainly take your money, but the minute you get sick, they find an excuse to drop you. And don't get a real illness like cancer, because despite taking your money for years, they suddenly don't know you.

It's a waste of money to buy Health Insurance in America but Baucus Will Not Give Me A Choice. I don't have health insurance because it is useless. Now Baucus wants to take 13% of my paycheck to pay for what exactly? If I don't sign up for fake health insurance, he'll give me a big fat fine. What kind of choice is that?

yet more eerie prescience from these folks..

I'm Such A Shitty Senator

By Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
May 2, 2001 | Issue 37•16

I've been "serving" the great state of Montana in the U.S. Senate since 1978. You'll notice I put "serving" in quotes, because, let's face it, I suck. My wife has been pleading with me not to say this publicly, insisting that it's not true, that I'm a capable and dedicated public servant, blah, blah, blah. Bless her dear heart, but she's just being nice. Because, folks, I am telling you, I am hands-down the shittiest senator in the history of the Senate. The worst.

The other day, I was in my office, thumbing through some old pieces of legislation I'd either authored or co-sponsored. The whole time, I was thinking, "Christ, what a hack I am." Take my 1993 masterwork, S.915, the Semiconductor Investment Act. Section 2a of the bill states, "IN GENERAL–Section 168(e)(3)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to three-year property) is amended by striking 'and' at the end of clause (i), by striking the period at the end of clause (ii), and by inserting at the end the following: '(iii) any semiconductor manufacturing equipment.'"

more at the link:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33420

that NO DEMOCRAT stood next to him or co-signed the bill he offered.

I think he signed his own defeat in a primary challenge. There is no excuse for his behavior. $12,000 out of a paycheck of 400% of poverty ($32, 500 for singles/ $66425 for couples)? What kind of shit is that? If you can't pay your housing, utilities, and food costs with what you have, TOO BAD!

He is like no Democrat I've ever seen.

I guess we shouldn't say anything at all about this guy...since there is nothing good to be said.

they STILL aren't supporting it!! so what was the point of negotiating with the R's if they constantly move the bar just out of reach and are only using health care to play politics? why not craft a bill that actually makes sense, will save money, create better outcome, and will work instead of turning it into a watered down giveaway to the ins. industry? OH that's right $3,000,000 in campaign contributions. i forgot.

At the end of the day, Baucus will have little influence on this process. But, he will have pleased his millions-of-dollars-donors.

is in charge of the Senate's version of Health Insurance Reform.

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

http://www2.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Senate+Votes+Economic+Stimulus+Package+DT96oDO5SZWl.jpg

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill February 6, 2009 in Washington, DC. According to reports, Senators have reached an agreement on the economic stimulus package worth about $780 billion.