New West Network

My Page: Joan McCarter

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

The Baucus debacle gets worse on a daily basis. Now that the parade has passed him by, he says he’s ready to mark up a bill the week of September 21, months behind his original deadline of April. He spent all these months getting played by the Republican members of the Baucus Caucus, and if you can believe Orrin Hatch, it’s all for naught, at least in terms of getting Republicans on board.

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

Vice President Joe Biden touchingly described the loss of Sen. Edward Kennedy in a very personal statement, saying “He’s left a great void in our public life, and a hole in the hearts of millions of Americans and hundreds of us who were affected by his personal touch throughout our lives.” I’m among those lucky enough to have had the briefest brushes with the man in his element, in a committee room in the Capitol where I was staffing my then boss in a conference committee. The Senator’s appearance was brief, but decisive. Once he walked into the room, there was little doubt that his amendment would be included in the final bill, though it wasn’t in the House version. And after he spoke any doubt that might have existed vanished. He ruled the day. He elevated the otherwise mundane proceedings, at least for me, giving me a sense of the import and the great gift I had been given to be seated at a table in the nation’s Capitol, having a hand in the people’s business.

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

In the ongoing red state/blue state, small state/big state public opinion tussle, the small states have been on the losing end lately, with small state Senators having huge influence on two major pieces of legislation, influence that is either significantly weakening, and even threatening to kill, those bills. That leaves plenty of people wondering how it is that a handful of senators who represent a tiny fraction of the nation’s population get to decide for all of us. But I think the real question needs to be whether that tiny fraction of the nation’s population is really being represented, and if not, what are they going to do about it.

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

I've been thinking a lot about Bill Schneider's proposal for healthcare reform, that is, attaching the whole shebang as an amendment to some gun rights bill, and watch the Senate fall all over itself to get the bill passed, and get it passed fast. Seriously, I'd trade shoppers in the grocery store or local mall with loaded, concealed weapons for universal health coverage and an end to the insurance companies' stranglehold over our access to care. A fair enough trade, I'd guess. Can you imagine America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP, the big guns in the healthcare denial business) and PhRMA taking on the NOA? Now that'd be a lobbyist cage match worth watching. The best part is that it would be over quickly, and maybe with less expense. Because with all of the insanity that August is bringing--the death threats, the hanging of representatives in effigy and the shouting down of any kind of reasonable discourse, it's the money that is becoming surreal. To say that it is obscene is really understating the case, particularly since so much of the fight over reform swirls around now much it costs. [more]

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

Former New West writer Matthew Frank's profile of Max Baucus in the Missoula Independent goes a long way to explaining how this unlikeliest of small state Senators finds himself at the center of the most important public policy debate of a generation. The profile shows both how Baucus got to the point of perhaps securing his political legacy, but how he might also be the very person who dooms it to failure. By putting himself in the position of power broker between right and left, Baucus is pleasing no one. [more]

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

You don't generally think of Sen. Max Baucus as a headline-seeking kind of legislator. He's not the guy showing up every Sunday on the talk shows, or getting into every Washington Post story to weigh in on the issue of the day. So you don't see a lot of Max on the national stage, and that must be the way he wants it, because the chair of the Senate Finance Committee is a pretty good platform for getting attention. But he's had a place in the headlines all week, and it hasn't been because of his stellar work on healthcare reform--it's because he's now perceived as the primary cause of delays. Oh, and the fact that he's still raking in the cash from the anti-reform lobbies. [more]

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

Six months into a new administration, plenty of jobs are still being filled, and plenty of new policies enacted. But in some key cases--a few very prominent, some obscure, agency chairs are sitting vacant. For the most part, the nominees have been picked, are ready and waiting. But for various reasons, sometimes purely spiteful and petty, sometimes principled, Republican Senators are refusing to allow the nominations to go forward. That's what's happening now with two key Interior positions, where John McCain's ego seems to be holding up the works on a number of policy fronts. [more]

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

There's a basic problem at the core of the health care reform debate. Well, a few problems, but let's start with the fact that fixing the health care mess in this country and providing health security to all Americans is not only a massive undertakng, it's on that would be a huge and historical accomplishment for the president and the party who achieved it. Which means the party in the minority has very little incentive to help make it happen--why make it easy for the opposition to do the one thing likely to secure their majority for the next generation? The idea bipartisanship works, as policy analyst Ezra Klein says, when the parties have compatible incentives. On this debate, they don't. [more]

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

Arizona has become the first state to try to make a decision for all of its residents to opt out of a public health care option, though that option doesn't yet exist, and despite the fact that every piece of draft legislation created and being seriously considered by the Congress maintains individual choice in health care. The private insurance industry isn't going to go anywhere in the foreseeable future, though it might see it's profit margin--and ability to pay exorbitant salaries to executives--somewhat curbed. [more]

Political Commentary: Joan McCarter

This week, Senator Max Baucus told the New York Times that the Senate Democrats gave too much away in going into the health care reform process.

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.