New West Blog
Baucus Shouldn’t Be Leading On Health Care Because He’s From a Rural State?
By Courtney Lowery, 7-28-09
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| Montana's senior Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) listen during the first of three roundtable discussions on health care reform. Photo by Carolyn Bunce, courtesy of the office of Max Baucus. | |
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There are many reasons to criticize the job Max Baucus is doing leading health care reform, but one that has emerged in the last week seems to me misguided: The notion that Baucus should not be making these decisions because he, and the other so-called “gang of six,” are from rural states.
From Matthew Ylegias today:
Not to just keep flogging a dead horse endlessly, but it does strike me as worth noting that when you read a puff piece in The New York Times about the Gang of Six bipartisan dealmakers in the Senate that vast power is being wielded by people who, in a democratic system of government, would have almost no power. We’re talking, after all, about Max Baucus of Montana, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, and Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Collectively those six states contain about 2.74 percent of the population, less than New Jersey, or about one fifth the population of California. The six largest states, by contrast, contain about 40 percent of Americans.
And, from Gail Collins in the New York Times last week:
Meanwhile in the Senate, everyone is waiting on Max Baucus of Montana. Nothing is going to happen on health care without the approval of Baucus, whose vast authority stems from the fact that he speaks for both the Senate Finance Committee and a state that contains three-tenths of one percent of the country’s population.
Should it really matter where Baucus is from?
Bozeman businesswoman and blogger Bridget Cavanaugh doesn’t think so. She put it nicely when she weighed in on the Collins’ remark last week: (By the way, what does Collins have against Montana? See previous comments here.)
I’d like to point out that Ms. Collins and I commonly live by the same constitution whose Founding Fathers purposefully skewed political power to favor rural America by giving all states equal representation in the Senate. So why is she angling on Montana’s lack of population? It’s a non-issue and completely irrelevant in these matters. It’s funny, but is politically ignorant. Which should be surprising coming from a newspaper serving 6% of the entire US population.
What’s uncommon between us is that I don’t have a chip on my shoulder about Senators from highly populated urban areas who assert their influence for policy making.
Food for thought.
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Comments
If Montanans dumped Max, think of the message that would send to the other corporate shills in Congress. It really is time for the people to stand up for themselves, since Congress won't do it.
RH
We need to dump him a lot sooner than that.
Or he could say he was going to pay the premiums for those new private "health care coops" (that will be ready to go in 2013 if they all are left-handed and born during a leap year) and not have to pay anything until then or isn't re-elected.
This whole story is so strange. It's hard to believe that I'll be in DC tomorrow (provided that my wife wakes me up at 2:30 a.m. when she gets home from work) after driving there with a dozen strangers in a van to talk to Congressmen about the public option. If you had told me 6 months ago that I would be doing this I would have asked what you were smoking.
There probably won't be very many of us, and you won't see us outside warming up with our signs and megaphones, but we'll be there.
Times have changed. Apparently I have, too, along with a few million other recently unemployed people.
Well worth the trip even though no sleep in 24 hours with driving. Looked like a thousand or more gathered in the Senate park. Hot, humid weather. I pulled a chair under a tree next to the bottled water. Lots of good speakers at the rally.
Many young people there. I asked them why health care reform was in their top three priorities when last year it was 15th. They said it was never number 15-- they just felt like they had to get involved now. They treated Rep. Conyers and his health staff like celebrities. I am encouraged about this visible change in the participation of people who seemed to be 25-35 yrs old. I am still however, a bit puzzled by this change, and they seem so intense.
Had a hard time getting around the Capitol. A dozen big black SUVs and one big black Caddy parking in front of it. Didn't know if someone from the White House was dropping in, or whether these were there for Dicks Armey and Gephardt, and the other lobbyists that are being funded $1.3 million per day by insurers and drug companies for health care reform-- had them there to which off their "guests" for dinner and drinks after the session. Lots of walled-off areas, and had to back track and walk an extra mile to get to our meetings. Apparently some people, visitors or homeless, left back packs around the area-- not a safe situation these days.
Got more interest in my little book than expected from people. Will make another 20 copies next week. I figured all this would be over by now. I was wrong. I expect to hear some local reports about how Baucus and Grassley spend their one month of vacation, after postponing action on health reform. 14,000 more people per day lose their employer-based health care, like clock-work. Maybe Grassley will sit around and just watch that Iowa corn grow.
Baucus needs to go.
The $$$ being lauded on he and the so called Blue Dog democrats makes one want to puke.
Anyone else for the Senate in 2014!