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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 4/25/13

Exit of Wall Street-Friendly Max Baucus is No Loss for Democrats

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Source: The Nation

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Max Baucus talks with reporters on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Montana Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat who frequently clashed with his party's economic populists as the Wall Street-friendly chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, will step down at the end of his current term.

Baucus, who will retire from the Senate after 36 years, played a critical role in the health-care debate that led to the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Given substantial responsibility by the White House, the Montana senator declared that "single payer was not an option on the table." That drew the ire of activists, who charged that Baucus was tipping the balance in favor of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and Finance Committee hearings grew so contentious that the chairman ultimately ordered protesting doctors and nurses removed.

New York Times profile of Baucus later reported: "He conceded that it was a mistake to rule out a fully government-run health system, or a 'single-payer plan,' not because he supports it but because doing so alienated a large, vocal constituency and left Mr. Obama's proposal of a public health plan to compete with private insurers as the most liberal position."

The senator frequently split with progressive Democrats on critical issues. For instance, he voted to authorize President Bush to attack Iraq and provided high-profile support to President George W. Bush's tax cuts in 2001. A frequent defender of corporate tax breaks, he was criticized for his tepid response to efforts to crack down on abuses of overseas tax havens. In 2005, he opposed repealing the tax subsidy for US corporations that offshore manufacturing operations.

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John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.

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