Thank G we've got Obama on our side!

Not.

I hope Democrat-peasants get smart and axe Max. Or at least poke him with a pitchfork.

AARP should ne required to post a disclaimer.

"We sell insurance!"

How much does Baucus pay for his insurance or has he been kicked out of Government insurance as he at 67 is eligible for Medicare?

"What kind of corruption is that?"

It is the kind of corruption we've come to expect. All of us who supported the Dems as an alternative to the Republicans now know beyond any doubt that they are equally corrupt. Furthermore, I expect that in 2012 or 2016, depending on how well Obysmal serves his masters, we will be treated to an equally corrupt version of an Independent. Unfortunately, I think the only true alternative left will be the collapse of our country. The corporate vultures will then abandon our corpse for for new pickings in Asia, etc.

Whose surprised? They know what the polls show. The Health vultures control the debate. You don't get invited to their party unless your one of "THEM." The people are the shills in this game. In the end we will get a phony BIG CORP. plan , kind of like the so called BIG PHARMA drug scam passing itself off as a new benefit. Benefit for BIG PHARMA that is. Expect a total sell-out here from the Dems. Yes, we're all finding out the hard way that we are really in essence a ONE party state ( the BIG Corp Party) with two wings , one wing being slightly more socially liberal then the other. Other wise all of these Congress critters are completely owned subsidiaries of the BIG CORP "Masters of the Universe."

"It is the kind of corruption we've come to expect."

I think we're experiencing the effects of the 'lesser of two evils' mentality of the presidential election. That election was an exercise in normalizing extensive political corruption by teaching people to accept it with their vote.

It's peasant fatalism.

"What kind of corruption is that?"

The kind only over $1.1 million in "contributions" (2003-08, OpenSecrets.org) from the health care industry can buy...

When Dennis Kucinich said he thought profiteering on health care was immoral, when John Edwards said that we have to confront the powers that be to get fair health care, when even Hillary said that we need truly universal care--it all went flat. The crowd chanted, "YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN." when Obama said,"All I want to do is lower your own health care premium" . Well, that's all he promised and that's all you are going to get. Blame yourselves for electing him and turning a deaf ear to the others who had more compassion and more conscience than the flashy, charismatic but shallow leader you went wild for.

Aesop did say that Baucus has donkey ears.

And for those who won't hear there is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime_change

We'll all get a 2% rate cut on our health plans , if u have 1 that is. If u don't Tough shit.

When Max Baucus first got elected to the US House from MT in the 1970's he billed himself as a progressive democrat because political winds at that time made it momentarily safe and advisable. But it was very momentary, really.
Soon afterward, at the beginning of the Reagan years, he won a US Senate seat, as a democrat. But as Reagan's popularity seemed to be holding, Baucus started saying he didn't know if he was really a democrat or a republican, but that he might well be a Reagan Democrat.

During Bush I's single term, Baucus generally stuck to calling himself a Reagan Democrat, but under Clinton's 8yrs, he adopted the descriptor 'Clinton Democrat' (no doubt because he knew that Clinton was himself first and foremost a Reagan Democrat who couldn't admit it.)

Under Bush II, whom Baucus usually supported and loved to be photographed with as W signed all those horrible regressive bills, he took to saying he was a 'consensus builder' Democrat, though as soon as Obama got elected on a seemingly anti-Bush II groundswell, Max quickly let it be known around Montana that all his life he had been, in fact, an Obama-type Democrat.

Since Obama himself is now proving in many ways to be a Bush II Democrat, maybe Max Baucus will finally give up and just admit he's been a Republican all along, but only in the following manner: a purple state Duopolist who officially professes loyalty to blue but secretly favors red and in the end is always, at minimum, safely magenta.

A few years ago Baucus held so-called "Faith Summits" around the state, to which various religious leaders were invited to discuss how their faith impacted on national issues. As clerk to the local Friends Meeting, I was invited, and was looking forward to discussing the occupation in Iraq and global warming. However, I was told these were "off the table". My faith compels me to speak to these issues but I was not allowed to do so. We had to stick to what I call "safe" issues, such as drug addiction and so on.

Baucus is another Made Man.

As I have been chattering like a parrot for many moons now, in my lifetime I've seen politicians devolve into technocratic managers functioning as CEOs of wholly-owned subsidiaries of a para-corporate service delivery system of political institutions.

Well, if I was a parrot I'd have been out of breath after the fortieth syllable or so.

There are other Senators and Congressmen who posed as Friends of We the People for a while; I remember commenters becoming very upset when Congressman David Obey was criticized after he rudely blew off an anti-war constituent. Obey is one of the Good Guys, they insisted. But not for long.

Barney Frank... Conyers. During the past few years, both have become similarly openly hostile and bitchy toward anti-war, pro-impeachment, civil-libertarian constituencies.

It's as if things hardened to a point where Taking Care of Bidness is the prime directive, and We the People need to stay in line and not foolishly stick our noses into complicated Bidness We are not capable of understanding-- and are not MEANT to understand in any event. That's how it comes off to me, anyhow.

It's as if during the political desert of Bush Crime Family rule, all of the remaining conscience and integrity and principle melted out of both sides of Duopoly Street. Now we are openly practicing what William Wilberforce wisely decried as "politics without principle".

Everything is reduced to a political calculus, and boldly implementing long-overdue paradigms of universal health care involves Risk and Inefficiency; it is recklessly rocking the national boat already threatening to capsize in a storm-tossed economy; it threatens grievous harm to thriving corporations.

Now my mumbo-jumbo term "para-corporate service delivery system" may become clearer. It's not elected officials working for the common weal, and an independent financial community providing essential services in a free market. It's the professional class of politicians and businesspersons in a symbiotic riparian relationship-- "riparian" meaning river-dwelling. In this case, not only rivers, but streams, lakes, and oceans-- of revenue.

The political status quo isn't just LIKE organized crime-- it IS organized crime. Time is money, money is money, and money talks-- bullshit walks.

Remember, Obama enthusiastically supported the original "bailout", and has commended and endorsed his financial ministers as literally billions and billions of dollars have been poured down the rathole, no questions asked.

There's no more accountability or responsibility for these dubious excesses as there was when J. Paul Bremer oversaw the influx of millions of dollars in cold cash into Iraq just after the invasion; it eventually turned up missing.

The mere fact that Obama, riding in on a tsunami of Hope™ for reform (branded "Change™"), immediately imported a cadre of Goldman-Sachs banksters into his administration and ceded the financial policy racket to them, supports my admittedly bleak view that our political elite isn't working for us; rather, We the People are simply a food source hunted by both politicians and capitalists.

Which brings us back to the present: Baucus steps to the podium like a corporate vice-president firmly explaining to the querulous stockholders that no, there will NOT be any budget to R & D "single payer", because a management decision has been made that the project's a non-starter at this time-- and for the foreseeable future.

· Yr Obd't Servant

It's apparent. The charade is over. The corporations are in control. It's time for the Senate and the House to change our official name to USA inc.
Any suggestions out there, on how to get it changed back to USA?

I don't think the USA was ever anything but the USA,Inc., though our country is hardly alone in having massive flaws and incredible blinders.
As for changing things -- read on:

Seemingly in weary regret, a longtime powerful member of the US Senate, Dick Durban, stated on TV the other day that "...the banks run this place."

Durban wasn't referring to the TV station.

Despite it coming from such a high placed (conscience afflicted?) insider, Durban's admission wasn't news to anybody, so it caused no widespread indignation -- and certainly no alarmed conclusions like '...bankers running the government is the functional equivalent of a coup d'etat...!!' --- as it should have.
Instead, Durban's damning insider honesty was routinely broadcast around the county by the MSM, with no more importance or commentary attached to it than the story of Obama's new Portuguese Water Dog.

A political movement articulating honest, humanist values to motivate a decadent populace like America's to change-out its pseudo-republic for a real republic, is at this point probably not gonna happen.
Armed violence to overthrow the System being no realistic solution either, genuine progressive changes are likely to come only incrementally and mostly locally for the foreseeable future, if at all.

Guys--calm down. Think for a minute...

If the corporations were in total control of our country, we wouldn't even be talking about universal health care. The internet would be gone, and we'd be preparing for our invasion of Iran. Our wounded vets would still be lying around in their own urine, and no one would know. Republicans would still be in power, and Democrats would be carried off to be tortured every day. Blackwater--excuse me, Xe--would be patrolling our streets even as I speak.

Thank god (sic) for small favors...

-30-

As a Montanan, I've followed the career of Max Baucus since his first election to the Senate in 1978. He has straddled the fence the whole time, and now the fence is broken. He is a corporate democrat all the way, and his allegiance is to the powers inside the beltway. The Republicans here can't find anyone to beat him, and the democrats don't have anyone to run against him in the primary. He had millions in his campaign war chest for highly polished TV commercials for the 2008 campaign, and no one can even remember his opponent's name from last fall's election. The margin was something like 80-20. Max is a democrat in name only and he's not gonna jump ship and become a republican, because he's in too good a position as it is. So it will be up to you, fellow citizens in this country, to shine a big light on him and expose him for what he is. Maybe then, he might be disgraced and voted out of office (in 2014). That's way too long to wait though, so you'll have to expose his corporate-sponsored health care plan for what it is, just another big corporate welfare handout, just like the Medicare drug program and the bank bailout (which he strongly supported). Please help.