Now I know why Baucus and others are fighting so hard against public option

[loyalkydem]

Curious about why some democrats seem to be so dead set against the public option. I did some research.

Montana Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is the Senate’s point man on healthcare reform. A new article in the Montana Standard finds that Senator Baucus has received more campaign money from health and insurance industry interests than any other member of Congress. The article says, “In the past six years, nearly one-fourth of every dime raised by Baucus and his political-action committee has come from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals.” (Democracy Now)

The following table from Health Care beat shows how much money each senator has received from the health care industry (Mahar 2009)

Senator Cycles PAC $
Baucus (D-MT) 3.125 $141,250
McConnell (R-KY) 3.125 $110,750
Nelson (D-NE) 3.125 $106,123
Kyl (R-AZ) 3.125 $106,000
Gregg (R-NH) 3.125 $103,500
Grassley (R-IA) 3.125 $95,000
Lincoln (D-AR) 3.125 $91,000
Enzi (R-WY) 3.125 $87,000
Chambliss (R-GA) 3.125 $86,750
Ensign (R-NV) 3.125 $85,750


Maybe its time for us to start voting some of these idiots out of office.

[EFerrari]

1. Or sending these numbers viral. Tweeting them. Something. n/t

[global1]

7. What A Great Idea - It's Worked For The Iranians Why Shouldn't It Work......

for us.

'Tweet the cheats' is what I say. Yes they are cheating - they are cheating us taxpaying Americans. We elected them to represent us and they are not representing us. They are representing big insurance; big pharma; big medtech; etc.

It's time that they be outed. Exposed. Tweat the Cheats. Let everybody know why they are against single payer or a public option. It's because they are being paid off to vote against it.

Right now - everyone that can Tweet. Go Tweet and expose these cheats.

[EFerrari]

8. I'm writing into a deadline. But if someone puts this up as an action,

I'll support the thread. :hi:

[OHdem10]

2. Baucus got into some serious trouble in home state when he

(the only Democrat permitted to be in the room when Republicans
drafted their Medicare Drug Bill) cut a deal with GOP and passed
the Medicare Drug Bill. You all remember the Medicare Drug Bill
favored Health Insurance and Drug Companies over the American People.

[Cleita]

4. Yes, it was quite a gift to Big PhRMA, yet I still go without

medicine that would help me have a better quality of life because I still can't afford them.

[defendandprotect]

3. How about making BRIBERY illegal . . . oops! it is . . . and it's Un-Constitutional, as well-!!!

Campaign finance BRIBERY -- not good for democracy and people's government!!!

[Cleita]

5. If nothing else, legislators like Baucus should be required to recuse themselves

for conflicts of interests.

[county worker]

9. That would mean that everyone Senator who got campaign donations from someone should recuse

themselves when ever a bill that benefited the contributor came on the floor.

I'll bet a lot of money came from DUers to the Dems. So when any bill that benefits DUers comes up all the politicians those DUers gave money to need to recuse themselves. Kind of makes campaign contributions useless doesn't it?

[Cleita]

13. Don't be silly.

It's those whose corporate money have been taken in excess who should recuse themselves. If someone gets a small amount from Phizer or Humana, I'm not saying that they need to but if the majority of their contributions are from one industry then they need to recuse themselves from any legislation involving that industry. DUers contributions are considered individual contributions and wouldn't count in that respect.

[defendandprotect]

26. Corporations should be barred from any participation whatsoever in our elections--!!!

[Cleita]

29. I won't disagree with you there and I hope we start working towards this.

Publicly financed campaigns would do the trick, but I have a feeling there is going to be as big a fight about that as a public option in health care.

[defendandprotect]

32. You'd have to be very careful that you don't give them carte blanche entre . . .

into government pockets. There would have to be tight public control on how the money
is spent -- great changes needed in our campaigns . . .

and decisions on how, when, where and how.

Media/TV ... etc.

Obviously, we now have 4 year campaigns for the presidency!

I would say that 3-4 months would be sufficient.

And we should return to anyone in Congress running should have to resign --

We'd have to give a lot of thought to this and be sure we had control over it --

[defendandprotect]

25. No ... a people's government is intended to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people .

NOT for special interests --

"People" are the central interest of a people's government --

And our laws do ban bribery -- our Constitution bans bribery - with a remedy of

impeachment for president, vp, officials.

[EFerrari]

10. We don't have to wait for legislation if WE CAN SHAME THEM

in public.

I'm on thin ice here. But Baucus LAUGHED at us on television. Why is that okay? We need to remind him why he's in Washington. Jog his memory a little bit.

[Cleita]

16. It's not okay and we do need to remind him.

One of the Montana DUers says that Baucus has pissed off his base there, so maybe he won't be re-elected. He seems to be ignoring the signs. A reporter on the radio interviewed on the radio, who knows him, says he's very inflexible. Once he makes up his mind on something, nothing will make him change it, even walls crumbling around him.

[defendandprotect]

27. We need to keep talking about corporate BRIBERY . . .

and that also impacts Obama who had the second largest donations from insurance and
"for profit" health care corporations, after HRC.

[county worker]

6. Your saying $141,200 is enough to buy his vote? I would expect the numbers would be in the

millions for it to make a difference.

What your saying is without that $141,250 for whom ever Baucus would have voted for single payer?

I really doubt that. Do you know how many individual donations made up the $141,250? I would think that not one of them was enough to buy influence.

I think it is more like the industry knows how Baucus thinks and that motivated them to give him campaign donations.

[nyc 4 Biden]

12. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

Also it doesn't take much to buy a politician and have him throw b/millions of taxpayer's dollars your way.

[defendandprotect]

28. Wow . . . naive . . . corporate money guarantees reelection . . .

it also guarantees MSM preference because 80% of that money gets passed on to them.

That's another reason why Edwards, Kucinich were so easily dismissed by MSM/debates.

Also consider that the public gave Obama near a trillion . . . do you see that we have

any leverage over him? Of course not.

But corporations and lobbyists insist on results.

[havocmom]

36. Thinkin ol Max, like Burns & former gov Racicot, is lookin to the future

and that future doesn't contain Montana winters. Bettin he and his get cushy jobs in the industry he has served as senator.

[Greyhound]

11. I have to wait for four years to vote against Ensign.

:(

[defendandprotect]

31. DLC won't permit someone to the left of him/someone less corporate to challenge him . ..

Emmanuel/DLC are very busy hatching little blue eggs!

[Greyhound]

33. Exactly. I've given up, we are just too fucking stupid to survive anymore.

I'm concentrating on simply acquiring enough to to get the fuck out now.

It's just become so clear that the majority are absolutely determined to bring on the very worst possible future, endure the very worst hardships, and then probably, seek refuge within the most heinous, short-sighted "solution".

We are in for a very rude awakening IMO.

As always, I'm hoping that I'm completely wrong.

[EFerrari]

14. global1's ACTION THREAD HERE:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5923714

GO DU IT!

[Cha]

15. Rec'd!

Thanks, loyalkydem.

[The River]

17. See Them All Here

http://boldprogressives.org/PublicOption/factsheet.html

[MrsCorleone]

20. Here are contributions to Baucus

http://boldprogressives.org/PublicOption/factsheet.html


Senator Max Baucus
Insurance: $1,182,613
Health Professionals: $1,031,276
Pharmaceuticals: $740,605
Hospitals/Nursing Homes: $568,491
Health Services/HMOs: $450,500

TOTAL: $3,973,485

I'd say that he's officially bought & paid for, if these #s are correct.

[The Doctor.]

18. Indeed, we have the best democracy money can buy!

[Dr Fate]

19. So these donors are those "constituents" I here so many excuses about. n/t

n/t

[MrsCorleone]

21. Here's a comparison between Baucus' & Feingold's constituent donors. Stark difference, I'd say.

See graph under Sector Totals for donor breakdown.

blue = individuals
yellow = PACs


Sen Baucus:

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?type=C&cid=N00004643&newMem=N&cycle=2008


Sen Feingold:

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2008&type=C&cid=N00000036&newMem=N&recs=20

[NorthCarolina]

22. Maybe we could start a fund to raise cash

topping that received from private insurance interests, and then offer that cash in exchange for their strident support of single payer. If Baucus is siding with insurance interests for $141,250....what if he was offered $150,000 to support single payer? :shrug: :eyes:

[Hawkowl]

23. Why can't we bribe them double?

Seriously. Why can't the public just raise the money and buy these mother fuckers off? I'm insulted that they are selling all 300 million of us for a measly $100k. Couldn't we just push for a line item giving each and every congressman and senator a million dollars upon passing the "public option"?

Perhaps we should call these senators and mention this idea.

[defendandprotect]

30. Because we gave Obama near a $1 trillion and have no leverage over him . . .

corporations otoh are constantly there, pressuring, lobbying --

with expectations.

Citizens have no leverage over politicians which is why I keep saying we need to

hire lobbyists, lawyers -- how about starting with Erin Brockovich?

We need signed pledges --

but most of all we need to get rid of campaign finance BRIBERY --

We need to bar corporations from any participation whatsoever in our elections!

[Catshrink]

24. says it all.

[ColbertWatcher]

34. After the declaration by HHS and the EPA regarding Libby ...

... it would seem Baucus is for government healthcare for Montanians, but no one else.

Asshole.

[WhiteTara]

35. call them all

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
here are their numbers