WASHINGTON —As President Obama’s effort to overhaul the health care system seems to hit one roadblock after another in Congress, he is counting on Senator Max Baucus, a political shape-shifter and crafty deal maker who is not fully trusted by either party, to help him clinch his top domestic priority.Other Democratic lawmakers can claim more experience on health issues, or can boast of far more legislative achievements. But more than anyone else, Mr. Baucus, the Montana Democrat and centrist chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, may have the best shot at getting his committee’s measure passed into law.
This is true, having followed the debate its clear there have been two sides, often made up up of uneasy allies. On the one hand is the President, liberals in Congress, and liberal interest groups. the plan put forth by Rangel and Waxmen (if you could call it that) last Friday or the ideas floated by Kennedy are textbook liberalism. Of course the President has been happy enough to chime in with his own plan. Of course his primary job lately has been lying to the public about the savings to ease fears about government spending. Something he has done repeatedly over the past month for that check here, here, here, and here. In contrast Baucus has been working with the GOP, industry, and other Democrats and he has been pushing ideas such as health care co-operatives with a public plan only as a fallback of last resort:
June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Most Senate Finance Committee members are “inclined” to support creation of member-run health cooperatives to bridge a partisan divide over revamping the nation’s health-care system, the panel’s chairman said.
Chairman Max Baucus said lawmakers in both parties may embrace cooperatives as an alternative to a government-run health plan, supported by Democrats, to compete with private insurers. Most Republicans say a public plan threatens to undermine insurance companies.
“I am inclined, and I think the committee is inclined, toward it,” Baucus told reporters today after a closed-door meeting of his panel to discuss the idea. He said lawmakers don’t want a broad effort to overhaul the U.S. health-care system to “crash” under partisan disputes as it did in 1994 under President Bill Clinton.
Baucus who has been described as a centrist (he voted for the Bush tax cuts) has managed to raise the ire and suspicions of his own party, but when a fight is on has tended to be a key point man for the Democratic party. (He led the Fight against Bush's Social Security Reform). Having suffered a freak accident while running a super-marathon (50 miles) he ended up having brain surgery at the Mayo clinic, which interestingly enough was not covered by the Federal health program. So what can we expect as the debate unfolds?
Mr. Baucus takes great pride in working with Republicans, especially Mr. Grassley. Last week, as Republicans pummeled Mr. Dodd over the cost of his bill, Mr. Baucus huddled with some of those critics, including Mr. Grassley, to develop a bill that Republicans could support.
Mr. Baucus also delayed his first public drafting session until after the Fourth of July to work on lowering the bill’s cost.
Soft-spoken but tenacious, Mr. Baucus in recent weeks successfully strong-armed several lobbying groups into muting their criticism of his legislation, part of a concerted strategy of assuring interest groups that they had his ear as long as they did not chew on it.
Some Republicans called it heavy handed. “They’re literally being intimidated,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.
It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination that Cornyn is referencing events like the 80 billion in savings from the Pharm industry announced on Monday, a deal Baucus put together. How much actual savings for the government though is questionable. Anyway its clear Baucus, who has so far controlled the Health Care agenda even more then the President, came to this legislative battle prepared:
In more than a year of preparation, Mr. Baucus largely developed a new model for writing complex legislation, bringing in an array of interest groups, lobbyists and other experts to lay out issues and options for senators and aides. He laid down his marker after the November election, releasing a 98-page white paper on reshaping health care.
The Presidents choice is quite simple, go along with Baucus and craft a bi-partisan piece of legislation that does not include a public plan, or fight tooth and nail along with his liberal allies against a coalition of moderate democrats, the GOP, and the health care industry. For a link to Baucus's White Paper on health care reform.
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