Ezra Klein: What is Max Baucus Doing?

[flpoljunkie]

What is Max Baucus Doing?


Photo credit: Melina Mara -- The Washington Post Photo

No one knows what Sen. Max Baucus is doing right now. Well, that's not quite true. Chuck Grassley probably knows. And Olympia Snowe probably knows. And Kent Conrad. And a few other senators and staff members. But that's about it. The Finance Committee, in recent months, has entered total lockdown -- even from itself. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who chairs Finance's health subcommittee, has been totally shut out of the process. So too have a number of other Democrats on the Committee.

That's created a huge amount of uncertainty at the center of health-care reform. Baucus is the key senator on the key committee. And very few know what he's doing, or why it's taking this long, or what the sticking points are. House Democrats are terrified that they'll take a tough vote on an aggressive health-care reform bill only to see their legs cut out from underneath them when Baucus emerges with a tepid -- but bipartisan -- alternative. Senate Democrats are furious that Chuck Grassley and Olympia Snowe have had more of a role in the process than they have. And above all, everybody is confused.

My semi-informed guess is that if you want to see where Finance is going, look at what Doug Elmendorf, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, is doing. He is systematically, and fairly explicitly, closing off every door to control costs save for reforming the employer tax exclusion. He has dismissed any serious savings from the Independent Medicare Advisory Council proposal and the public plan and comparative effectiveness and general efficiencies. He has said that in the House bill, "the curve is being raised." This prompted Grassley to say that Finance is working to "overcome the shortcomings" of the House's effort.

more...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/what_is_max_baucus_doing.html

[valerief]

1. Lining his pockets. nt

[MarjorieG]

2. Baucus defined by way of what CBO is marking up? That the implication?

So Baucu always wanted co-ops, no public option, but has spent weeks delaying. Even giving him sincere goals, despite the biggest recipient from lobbyists, really looks like delay was his/their directive.

When all this becomes a combined Bill, Obama better push for what he needs to, as well as 1-2-3 dispeling all these myths being spread in a big speech to sell it.

[NC_Nurse]

3. Blowing the insurance industry lobbyists behind closed doors...

:mad: