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Max Baucus Regrets Killing Single-Payer, Sanders Says
WASHINGTON - Sen. Max Baucus met with advocates for single-payer health care in a closed meeting on Wednesday and expressed regret that he had not included them in the earlier negotiations for reform.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, talk with reporters after a closed-door committee meeting on financing an overhaul of the health care system, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Baucus is under pressure from the White House to get a health care bill to the Senate floor quickly, say single-payer advocates who met with the Senator today, and that it is too late to include them and further hearings.
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Health-care point man Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, took a statewide beating
last week for dismissing the possibility of a single-payer system early
in the debate -- leading to the meeting with health care professionals
and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is the sponsor of
the Senate's only single-payer bill.
"I don't like paraphrasing other people, I don't like being paraphrased, but I think it's fair to say that what he said is that when he said something to the effect that single-payer is off the table, I think he regrets having said that," Sanders said following a morning closed-door meeting with Baucus. "I think in retrospect he thinks there probably should have been hearings, it should have been part of the process, and then it would have been rejected."
Baucus is under pressure from the White House to get a health care bill to the Senate floor quickly, saying according to those in the meeting, that it is too late to include them and further hearings.
The Montana senator did, however, agree to use the power of his office to fight for leniency on behalf of the dozen or so doctors and nurses who had been arrested for demanding a single-payer program during committee hearings on health care.
Sanders and the assembled single-payer advocates said they remain committed to advancing a universal, government-run program, though without Baucus that task is much tougher.
"I find it somewhat incomprehensible that if we are serious about getting to health care reform, if we are serious about tackling the outrageously high cost of health care, that we are not engaging in serious discussion about a single-payer health care system," Sanders said.
- Posted in
149 Comments so far
Show AllAs many on this site predicted, this meeting was a classic "dog and pony" show - a fraud.
Supporteres of single-payer health insurance need to keep up the pressure, especially in Baucus' home state.
And by the way, Baucus's decision to exclude the sigle-payer option from consideration is not a mistake; it is a calculated risk.
q
Does anyone else find this the silliest, most pathetic excuse a leader has ever given? "It's too late now????" Why is it too late? What has changed? Is an asteroid about to crash into the Capitol, or what? Turn up the heat!
Surely Max Baucus must have been misquoted when he was suggesting that it would be healthier for Americans to eat more cake.
Mamakat D
I suggest we all go on a diet...no more health insurance payments EVER. Stop going to clinics that demand health insurance cards and start showing up en masse in emergency rooms across the country for all our medical needs. What would happen if we simply refuse to do business with the corporate piggies and start our own health care collectives instead?
now you talking, problem is with the activists who refuse to rise above street protests level and start registering all of us
edweg
Well, I can't speak for anybody else, but I sure feel a hell of a lot better!
I hope there will be a You Tube clip showing Senator Baucus consoling the single-payer advocates at the meeting with his tapdancing-- "Tea for Two" is always pleasant.
· Yr Obd't Servant
What a f*cking bastard.
Well said.
That's being polite and diplomatic.
I agree, and I don't think you went nearly far enough.
In reality, he's a FUCKING bastard, that's what he is. (Who exactly are you afraid of offending? Baucus?)
Last time I used really profane language on here my account and IP was banned, had to come back under a new name. I try to control myself these days :-)
Oh. OK. Thanks for the head's up.
What's REALLY profane is what is being said and done in our names, but no one bars them peoples from the public discourse.
Life ain't fair, I tell ya.
That's interesting. I notice that your comment is flagged, and zmann's prior with the * is not. Z, if I ever figure out what the * is for, I'm telling Mom. But so far the only lead I have is some old drawings in BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS by Kurt Vonnegut.
To prevent this from happening to you again, substitute "cabron" for the F word. Or, if you want to be a little more polite, use "pendejo". Or you could use "paskudnyak", the Yiddish word for a MoFo.
Let's save "paskudnyak" for a thread about Israel.
q
Eh, I just use "schmuck".
As long as we're in a thread here about language, I'm reminded by some of the suggested euphemisms that Vaclav Havel, in his play Memorandum, has an insurgent cell of office workers inventing and installing into the office a language called called Ptydepe that almost no one, especially the bosses, understood. That way the workers could cuss and their employers wouldn't understand. Words in ptydepe were based on their frequency in English (was it Czech?) usage and the most popular office word was "whatever" but they reserved the letter f for the one word used in an office even more often than "whatever." So how DO you say Max Baucus in ptydepe?
How about Motherbusher? Make Bush a swear word, they are long lived. The F word is just a criminal charge from old England.
"Henceforth, all toilets in the kingdom shall be known as...Johns!"
Hey you beautiful Cats, Keep The Fires Burning.
I just got done writing a strongly worded letter employing the same verb to Mr. Sellouts Senate Office.
I am sincerely looking into seeking citizenship in New Zealand. I have just about had my fill of this bullshit.
Stay, and run for office.
I've thought about applying to be a mail-order bride to Canada but don't think there is such a service.
Not a good idea, I read a few weeks ago they're already planning to evacuate some areas of the country for when sea levels rise.
Re: you could use "paskudnyak". The right word is paskudnik. As in Likudnik. Means exactly the same.
perhaps he's a facking bustard...
WHOEVER FLAGGED THIS COMMENT IS ANTI-FREE SPEECH !!! PERIOD!!!
I'M REFERRING THE THE POST MADE BY SPIRITWARRIOR AT 3:57PM ON THIS TREAD BECAUSED HE/SHE SPELLED OUT THE SLANG OF "SEXUAL INTERCOURSE." WELL THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AMERICANS BY THESE POLICIES.
AS YOU FLAG THE OFFENSIVE COMMENT BABIES, KIDS AND HARD WORKING PEOPLE ARE DYING IN OUR STREETS, FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES BUT ALL YOU HAVE TIME TO DO IS FLAG A PERSON WHO IS EXPRESSING HIS TRUTH.
WHILE YOU ARE DYING AS WE WILL ALL DO, MAKE SURE YOU DON'T CUSS OR YOU WILL BE A HYPOCRITE!!!
I REALLY WONDER ABOUT THE SANITY OF PEOPLE AND THE KIND OF LIFE THEY MUST HAVE LIVED TO HAVE A NEED TO SURPRESS OTHERS. I KNOW WE LIVE IN A COUNTRY DOING HORRORIBLE THINGS IN OUR NAMES BUT DO WE HAVE TO BE HORRIBLE TO ONE ANOHER IN A FREE SPEECH FORUM? ON A PROGESSIVE NEWS SITE. LIKE I SAID MAKES ME WONDER HOW BAD OFF WE REALLY ARE.
THE ACT OF SURPRESSION IS DANGEROUS FOLKS. LOOK INSIDE AND SEE YOUR TRUTH. LOOK HARD UNTIL YOU GET A SENSE OF WHO YOU ARE REALLY, NOT YOUR PERSONALITY, NOT YOUR VIEWS BUT WHO YOU ARE REALLY. WHEN A WARM SMILE APPEARS ON YOUR FACE YOU HAVE PROBABLY FOUND THE TRUTH, UNTIL THEN YOU NEED TO KEEP SEACHING.
GOOD LUCK. PEACE AND HEALTH. PLEASE EXCUSE MY CAPS.
Quit complaining. Anyone can flag a comment. His post is still there. What happened to xyy's perfectly civil unflagged comments?
Yeah, it's just too late to consider the only option empirically proven to be in all ways better than what we have now. After all, the whole health care problem is going to disappear in a couple of months anyways, so if we don't solve it before that, there's really no use.
NOT!!!
Who has a barf bag? I want to hurl.
Here you go, Mordechai.
That'll be an $85 co-pay.
Have a nice day.
Where's the referral?
If laughter truly is the best medicine, than I AM CURED.
Thank you for that, brother.
(And since I no longer need health insurance, it's one big *U** *OU to Mr. Baucus.)
I agree with Spirit Warrior, best laugh of the day, but please don't send me a bill...
.....several weeks later a strange letter arrives from the hospital. It seems that Blue Sword Medical Insurance has denied your claim on the basis that you are one of their loser customers, thus you should be unable to defend yourself against their blatant theft.
You now owe the hospital $500 for the vomit "service" + a $39 late fee.
And that's it? They should have allowed single-payer to be included in the discussion prior to its rejection? How weak is that?
Weak, yes. But honest.
Finally, an honest politician. (Diogones would be so pleased.) How arrogant (and scary) is it that they are so in control of the process that they no longer even need to keep up the appearance of PRETENDING they have the people's intrests at heart....
And how sick is it that the vast majority of American "consumers" (it's what we've relegated ourselves to being. We no longer can be considered "citizens".) wouldn't care, or get off their fat asses and DO SOMETHING if somehow they were to find out?
Why is this article titled, "Max Baucus Regrets Killing Single-Payer, Sanders Says"?????
That is NOT what Sanders said. Here is what he said:
"I think in retrospect he thinks there probably should have been hearings, it should have been part of the process, and then it would have been rejected."
In other words, Baucus regrets not running a better dog and pony show.
That sounds more accurate than what the article expressed. It was never on the table, they just wish they did a better job of convincing the public it was, because now they have additional discontent to deal with.
A real politician would have told better lies.
This is a better reading, yes. Or, better yet, Sanders thinks that Baucus thinks that maybe he should have run a better dog and pony show.
We're not sure why Sanders thinks Baucus thinks he thinks maybe so.
So I suspect.
Where's Gertrude Stein when I need her?
"The Montana senator did, however, agree to use the power of his office to fight for leniency on behalf of the dozen or so doctors and nurses who had been arrested for demanding a single-payer program during committee hearings on health care."
How fk-ing magnanimous of Mr. Baucus!
Too little - too late!
Yep, gotta try and save face with the public however he can while taking that industry money. He locked single payer out of the process, so he can afford mercy on defeated advocates.
Does mercy these days mean going to Gitmo instead of Bagram?
Gail, I just received an update from CNA/NNOC and this what was actually said: Dr. David Himmelstein, co-founder of PNHP and associate professor medicine at Harvard Medical School, reported that Baucus had said he might be willing to drop charges of unlawful conduct and disruption of Congress against 13 people but had no intention of opening up any hearings to include single-payer. That response was after a request by Rose Ann DeMoro for him to drop the charges. Baucus can't talk without spinning.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Baucus got his marching orders from Obama. Pure and simple - the health care legislation that will emerge will be nothing more than a huge subsidy to the health care insurance industry to carry the "dirty" uninsured - those who are too old, too diseased, or too unemployed to be covered today.
big, dark clouds on the horizon, and not so far off as some might wish to believe...Mr. Baucus and the rest are playing a very serious game with very serious consequences...
Unfortunately, too optimistic a sentiment. Our fellow Americans are too lazy to hit the barricades, and by the time they get angry enough it will be on account of $5 gas, which they will no longer be able to afford, thus making them unable to get to the protest rally.
It will be easy to deny the Democrats my vote after being sold down the river to Big Insurance like this. I'd like to deny the GOP air itself for what they have done.
This is why I don't vote Democrat. They aren't progressives.
Same here. They lost me after the 2006 election and "impeachment off the table" crap. I'm gone.
My apologies for suddenly shifting on the last minute on November 1, 2008 to Obama. I too was frustrated with the way Democrats kept caving in to Bush even more after 2006 and was even going to vote for Nader but all my life I was so used to voting Democrat that I was struggling to get myself to vote Independent for the first time. Voting independent kind of felt lonely at first but I guess I'll get used to it. I wished I were brave enough last year to keep my support for Nader even though I watched everyone else going to Obama. I think that year after year, the more Democrats copy the Republicans and the more the Republicans keep their hardlining going, the more the anti-two-party sentiment will grow. It sucks that those voting 3rd party are a minority and I sincerely apologize for voting for Obama and getting egg all over myself with more to most likely come as Obama will likely foul things up some more for the next 3.5 years.