Obamacare payoff: WH picks Max Baucus as ambassador to China...

Sen. Max Baucus was key to getting Obamacare passed through the Senate. He would have faced a tough challenge if he ran for re-election.

Via WaPo:

The White House is set to select outgoing Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) as its pick for ambassador to China, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and a Baucus ally confirmed Wednesday.
Baucus, 72, previously announced that he won't seek reelection to the Senate in 2014.
Senate aides familiar with the plans said that the move has been in the works for several days.
The news was first reported by Politico. Baucus aides declined to comment Wednesday evening when asked about it outside the Senate Chamber.
As chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Baucus played a key role in crafting President Obama's health-care law and was among the first Democrats to publicly fret about the law's implementation -- worries that later turned out to be well-founded.

Senators ask colleagues for proposals to revamp tax code; promise to keep suggestions secret for 50 years...

I foresee another bill about to be passed in the middle of the night without being read...

Via The Hill:

The Senate’s top tax writers have promised their colleagues 50 years worth of secrecy in exchange for suggestions on what deductions and credits to preserve in tax reform.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the panel’s top Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), assured lawmakers that any submission they receive will be kept under lock and key by the committee and the National Archives until the end of 2064.
Deeming the submissions confidential, the Senate’s top tax writers have said only certain staff members — 10 in all — will get direct access to a senator’s written suggestions. Each submission will also be given its own ID number and be kept on password-protected servers, with printed versions kept in locked safes.
The promise of confidentiality was revealed just two days before the deadline for senators to participate in the Finance Committee’s “blank slate” process, which puts the onus on lawmakers to argue for what credits and deductions should be kept in a streamlined tax code.

Max Baucus on Obamacare's hidden agenda - redistribution of wealth (video)

Max Baucus points out the great socialist aspect of Obamacare.

Oh, About Those Special Deals Obama Wanted Removed from Health Care Reform

President Barack Obama has said he wants projects helping specific states removed from the health care bill, but political reality is taking over. The "Cornhusker Kickback" may be removed because Senator Nelson has requested it be taken out. Senator's Landrieu of Louisiana, Dodd of Connecticut, Baucus of Montana and Nelson of Florida want to keep their special deals. We can guess the UAW is keeping their special exemption for Michigan too. As part of Obama's 'whatever it takes' strategy, these special deals may be left in the legislation.

FOX News reported:

Axelrod also indicated the White House was backing down on an attempt to get senators to rid the legislation of a number of lawmakers' special deals.

Taking a new position, he said the White House only objects to state-specific arrangements, such as an increase in Medicaid funding for Nebraska, ridiculed as the "Cornhusker Kickback." That's being cut, but provisions that could affect more than one state are OK, Axelrod said...

Baucus Blames Right Wing Websites for Pointing Out His Drunken Behavior on the Senate Floor

From Newsbusters:

MSNBC reported this afternoon that Max Baucus is "blasting right-wing websites like Drudge and NewsBusters" for suggesting he was drunk on the Senate floor during the health care debate. See P.J. Gladnick's Bizarre Baucus Behavior on Senate Floor Ignored by MSM.

Here is the MSNBC clip.


Here is a longer clip. Was Baucus smashed? You decide.


Looks like he was celebrating the nationalization of our health care system before he made this speech.

Health Care Debate Gets Testy On Senate Floor

Senators John McCain and Max Baucus go at in this video from the Senate floor. Perhaps Baucus is still irritated because he can't appoint his girlfriend as Montana's U.S. attorney.

Baucus unveils health-care reform plan without Republican support

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus unveiled what was supposed to be a bipartisan health care reform plan. However, he has failed to get any Republican to support his plan so far.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus unveiled a much-anticipated health-care reform plan Wednesday that would require nearly all Americans to carry health insurance while barring insurance companies from discriminating against people based on their health status or denying coverage because of preexisting conditions.

Although Baucus held more than 100 hours of meetings over several weeks with a bipartisan group of Senate health-care negotiators known as the "Gang of Six," he was unable to secure a public endorsement from any of the group's GOP members -- or any other Republicans -- before releasing the plan.

At least one liberal Democrat is refusing to support the plan.

Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a member of the Finance Committee, said on a conference call Tuesday afternoon that he would not support the health care compromise proposal of committee chairman Democrat Max Baucus.

"There is no way in its present form I will vote for it," Rockefeller said in a call co-organized with the liberal Campaign for America's Future. Though he said he's worked closely with Baucus in the past, he said, "I cannot agree with him on this bill."

Rockefeller cited the lack of a government-run plan as the main reason for he couldn't support it, but also said the proposed tax on high-end health plans would affect every coal miner in West Virginia.

Democrats are sharpening their knives in preparation for the committee mark up.

Baucus should expect to see many amendments from Democratic members of the committee, said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

“There will undoubtedly be amendments in the committee process – and probably a lot of them,” Kerry said. “There’ll be some big fights over different components of this.”

Asked whether he could vote in favor of Baucus’s draft proposal that senators discussed in their meeting Monday evening, Kerry said: “I’m glad I don’t have to answer that because I know it’s not going to be the bill that we’re going to vote on because we are going to amend, we are going to have a tug-of-war still.”