Baucus calls 2nd closed door session on health care. No public, no media, no record.

Here is what the press release says:

Rarely Used Closed Doors Slammed Again in U.S. Senate Health Care Reform



Here is more about the last "closed door" meeting. No media, no public, no congressional record.

Baucus holds closed door meeting on health care

There were a lot of questions, few answers, and the session got heated.



I agree with a man who is no longer in party national leadership, and who is seldom mentioned in the media about health care...though he is trying to lead on an important topic.



We are learning that our health care will be going sky high next year. So high that we may just decide that seeing a doctor is just not worth it.

We worked our butts off to get Democrats in office. Is this all we will get from them? Closed door sessions with no media, no public, no record?

...same thing - it was him and the gas, coal and oil companies - everyone else was shut out. No media, we STILL don't know who was in those meetings.

and the surveillance ... and the military tribunals ... and "the poverty draft" that is forming up an ELITE professional and righteous military ... no hope of repeal of DADT ... Trillions of dollars and more printed for CORPORATE AMERICAN with no strings attached ... Single-Payer Health Insurance is not on the table ... people continue do die because they are not wealthy enough to afford BASIC Health care ... but don't Joe and Barack look good when they slum out with us "little people" at that burger place? :(

:shrug:

So all the CIA guys get re-elected?? :rofl:

for the media and constituents - more power to them.

On health care? Which is not a national security topic?

I should have known.

Cheney's secret energy meetings...

Of course, I've been with him on a lot of things, like calling the Republicans the "party of rich white guys."

He's a straight-shooter.

John Kerry and others indicated early that not much was going to happen.

I felt that Hillary was told by Harry Reid in no uncertain terms that the Senate would not be doing much on health care reform and made it clear that her interest (and leadership) would be totally marginalized. I always thought the offer at State was to get her out of the Senate and out of the way. It worked.

The candidates can't tell us enough or listen to us enough when they are running for elections. Once they are elected, our voices aren't needed or listened to. From everything I have heard and read, most Americans want Single Payer Healthcare. Our wishes and voices are locked out of the debate and the insurance companies and big pharma are the people who have Congress' ear.

Baucus.
A false majority. A false sense of superiority. A false notion that a Democratic agenda will prevail.
Really it makes no sense to me (although many here will disagree) WHY we encourage republicans to be Democrats and why having the majority is so important if all we do is support the right wing agenda (except for the occasional crumb that is allowed to slip through from time to time).
The majority of Americans are TIRED of the RW agenda.
I would RATHER sit through one more republican majority in order to elect a REAL Democratic majority and leave ass-klings like Baucus and the Nelsons behind to rot in their rightwing filth.

and would prefer REAL Democrats in our party.
Baucus need not apply.

On another note, I would like to know why this was assigned to this particular committee and not a more appropriate committee.

Oh wait, I already know, guaranteed control of the issue by a wholly owned senator of the insurance industry. Look to Harry Reid - he is the biggest problem. He is not our friend.

as far as Baucus?
I sincerely doubt he is the best Democrat to choose from in Montana. He is the filth beneath the cow shit. Even people in Montana know that.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20090519/NEWS01/905190301
>>>snip
"Why have they taken single-payer off the plate?" the woman asked to the applause of members of the crowd. "And why is Senator Baucus on the Finance Committee discussing health care when he has received so much money from the pharmaceutical companies? Isn't it a conflict of interest?"

Single-payer health care — in which the federal government provides health insurance for all Americans and pays doctor, hospital and other health care bills, thereby replacing the private insurance industry — is off the table, Baucus said.

According to the group Consumer Watchdog, health insurers and pharmaceutical manufacturers alone contributed $5.5 million to the top 10 recipients in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives during the last two election cycles. Baucus received more campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries than any other sitting Democrat in the House or Senate, receiving $183,750 from health insurance companies and $229,020 from drug companies during that period.

Oops. One of the best, but he's not a Democrat.

Maybe it's time to "reach out," "join with," and "be inclusive" of groups beyond republicans and conservatives. This would be a great time to appoint a non-democrat to something.

Sanders.

It's 1993 all over again.

Fucking idiots.

I would say the insurance industry is damn smart.

at least back then the White House supported the attempt.

I think '10 will make '94 look like a cake walk the way these assholes have been going.

but we are.

:evilfrown:

without the People having insight as to what was going on at that meeting, in detail.

Just my two cents.

They will all reassure themselves that "we" don't matter.

They will throw us a bone next week. Perhaps declare a national "Clean Out the Glove Box" awareness day.

Can these traitors table the healthcare issue behind closed doors?

"and another that would require employers that don’t offer insurance to their employees to pay a fee."

Why should employers be forced to provide health insurance? There was a time when no employers provided health insurance. Then in order to be more competitive, some did as a "perk" in lieu of salary.

Now it's to be a legal requirement?

The degree of stoooopid amazes me. Health insurance bureaucrats who contribute NOTHING to the real economy and do nothing for anybody except themselves get a huge, huge windfall at our expense.

Every other business -- all of them -- goes down. Unemployment will go up. They get a windfall. We get the shaft.

I'm halfway through Med Lab Tech school with a 4.0 in pre-med sciences and 3.9 overall average. Whether or not I decide to finish the 2nd half or walk away from 18 months of grueling work and expense depends, at least in part, on what they decide.

I know the health insurance companies bilk "clients" because I was one of the ones they left to die without even spending 10 lousy bucks on a CBC.

But I also know that they put enormous squeeze on the delivery people -- those who invest years of their lives and many tens of thousands of dollars in training, who work ungodly hours, and who are daily on the front lines of emerging diseases and anti-biotic resistant pathogens.

There's a point where you say it's just not worth it. Better to make minimum wage at a shit job...

I already told a couple of my employees (sort of as a joke) that as of January 1st of 2011 I would no longer be picking up the tab.

I also told them I would give them paid time off to take to the streets in protest or lobby in Washington for single payer.

If every employer announced that we are going to stop paying for health insurance at a point certain in the future - we would have single payer in place in a heartbeat.

committee for conflict of interest. Senator Baucus has taken huge amounts of money from the insurance and PhRMA industries. I heard someone say he has taken the most in Congress but haven't verified it yet but it seems plausible. However, he clearly has been bought and can't offer an unbiased study of the issue.

I have felt hope before that we could change things, but now the media doesn't mention the progressive efforts at all.

were not so blatantly for sale.

"We worked our butts off to get Democrats elected" - in the end we were only used.
They should just put Baucus on the payroll of an insurance lobby since all pretense has been dropped anyway.

:kick:

not one senator objected when Baucus moved for these closed door meetings during the third roundtable discussion.


yay! CLOSED HEARINGS TO FIX HEALTHCARE
no objections

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5638355&mesg_id=5638492

And no one objected. :-(

have received from the for-profit "health" care industry. I agree with Howard Dean, if the administration and Democrats sell us out on this issue, not only will the Democrats lose seats in 2010 but Obama will be a one-term president. This is Obama's "read-my-lips" moment. Either he at least fights for and gets a public option into which anyon e can opt to buy or he will meet the fate of Bush the First.

And forget it by 2010. Or 2012.

and will selling us out on credit card interest limits, Gitmo, the fiascoes in Iraq and Afghanistan, Don't Ask Don't Tell, etc., etc., etc. It is just too much and too many disappointments and spits in the eye!

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200905202038dowjonesdjonline001055&title=us-democrats-split-on-taxing-employer-based-health-benefits

"WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A senior Democratic senator is facing an uphill battle to convince members of his own party that the U.S. should begin taxing some employer-sponsored health benefits, in order to help cover the uninsured and pay for other expansions to the health care system.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, wants to take up sweeping health system overhaul legislation next month, and he says a tax on job-based benefits could be part of a plan to pay for a better healthcare system.

A proposal to count some of those benefits as income for tax purposes - one aspect of a wide-ranging set of options put forward by Baucus - drew the most heated discussion in a Wednesday closed door meeting of the Finance panel, according to senators and aides who were present.

Some Democrats and unions are resisting an approach that would tax plan benefits that exceed the standard option available to federal employees. That could wind up taxing as income benefits that cost more than an annual $13,0000 per family, although adjustments could be made for regional differences in the cost of healthcare.

"I am very concerned about the idea of taxing benefits," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who sits on the Finance panel. "I have people that have given up wage increases in exchange for better benefits.""

Well, we know Wyden might be interested.

I don't get the emails anymore, but I followed a link to the website.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/healthcarestories

"President Obama has announced three bedrock requirements for real health care reform. It must:

* Reduce Costs — Rising health care costs are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals and families and they must be brought under control
* Guarantee Choice — Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and health care plan they have, or to select a new doctor or health care plan if they choose
* Ensure Quality Care for All — All Americans must have quality and affordable health care"

Sounds like there is no public option mentioned at all.

http://news.muckety.com/2009/05/21/max-baucus-holds-the-cards-on-healthcare-reform-and-most-everything-else/15961

There is a graph at the site that is interesting.

"By all accounts, Sen. Max Baucus is a quiet, unassuming guy not given to speechifying or hogging the spotlight like most politicians. Nonetheless, the Montana Democrat has emerged as an unlikely kingpin. Virtually all the legislation that President Obama hopes to sign into law this year – from health care reform to new car emissions standards – needs Baucus’ blessing as the chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

..."The Montana centrist is said to have had a ‘come to Jesus moment’ on healthcare reform. He surprised many of his colleagues by releasing an 89-page white paper just eight days after the presidential election that went further than what Obama had proposed - adding a requirement that those not covered by employers’ health plans must purchase their own.

But he has hardly been a reliable Democratic player in the past.

When Democrats were in the minority, Baucus brokered the passage of two of George W. Bush’s signature first-term achievements: his massive 2001 tax cuts and his 2003 pharmaceutical-industry-friendly Medicare prescription-drug bill - earning the nickname “Bad Max” from the American Prospect and “K Street’s favorite Democrat” from the left-leaning Nation."

According to this page!! Reply to this post if you think I should create a separate thread on this! I might even wander over there from Oregon to help with the campaign if we can get something serious going! Although there's another post on this page that makes it sound like Montana doesn't have this provision too. We should get someone to verify yes or no, and what the conditions required are for a recall (if there needs to be breaking of the law, etc.). Since Nevada also allows a recall, perhaps we can also take on Harry Reid if he doesn't get Baucus "in line" with working for the people instead of the K-Street.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2096900_recall-us-senator.html

thing.

not a congressman.

Actually .... worse.

This is simply outrageous! If anyone gives one dime to the Democratic Party before we find out about what this health care reform plan looks like they are fools. NO MORE DONATIONS UNTIL WE GET A PUBLIC HEALTH CARE OPTION!

bill, I will have to give up on the Dems in Congress completely. Can they not see that the public DEMANDS it?
I expected this from Repubs, but this is worse than I ever expected from the Dems. They need to get a clue.

by insurance companies, no doubt.

:nuke:

I LET THE AIDE KNOW THAT I PRAY THAT A SINGLE PRAYER PLAN WILL BE ON THE TABLE RUN BY GOVERNMENT. HE SAID THAT THERE WILL BE NO SINGLE PRAYER PLAN BUT THERE WILL BE SOME TYPE OF GOVERNMENT INSURANCE PLAN PEOPLE CAN BUY INTO.

he should give up his government paid for insurance.

in the 1990s. Why do dems need closed door sessions to plan for national health care?

It was the same with the Clinton health care. The DLC was all over the media then saying Clinton was not being "centrist" enough...they criticized his health care plan.

They are undermining it again. The voices that speak for the people are being shut out.

I suppose their owners are fine with that, since they also own the other team.