Republicans are attacking the Obama health care plan, but with a sizeable Democratic majority in both houses of Congress the major obstacle to progress on health care reform is not the minority party but conservative members of the majority who appear to have chosen the interests of the for-profit health care industry over those of the American people. The worst of the worst among these is Montana senator and health industry lackey Max Baucus, one of the Senate's biggest recipients of campaign contributions from the health industry and a true profile in cowardice.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Baucus received more than $3.9 million in campaign contributions from the health industry between 2003 and 2008, including more than $850,000 each from pharmaceutical companies and health professionals, more than $780,000 from the insurance industry, and more than $465,000 from HMOs/health services, the vast majority of which came from outside Montana. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus wields considerable influence over any health care legislation that comes out of Congress, and acts in his position neither as a loyal Democrat nor as a public servant of the people of Montana, but as a self-serving "unilateral," dragging his feet and gravitating more toward Republicans who want to kill health care reform than toward members of his own party who support it. Baucus' behavior has frustrated fellow Democrats and sparked charges against him of a conflict of interests between his role on the Senate Finance Committee and his financial ties to the health industry (Democracy Now!, National Public Radio, Roll Call, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post).
Baucus has now been targeted in a TV ad from Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, currently running in Montana, pointing to the vast sums of campaign cash he has received from the health industry, and attracting a great deal of in-state attention. Meanwhile, rallies in support of health care reform are planned for July 24 outside Baucus' offices in Missoula and five other Montana cities. It appears that the good people of Montana want meaningful health care reform as much as anyone, and their efforts deserve the support of progressives everywhere (Great Falls Tribune, KULR, Missoulian).
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
