max baucus

Senate Democratic leaders have amended their newly released health reform bill to include a contentious provision allowing some workers to receive cash vouchers toward exchange coverage in lieu of enrolling in employer-based plans. Here’s an explanation from a statement released moments ago by the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.):
Under the Senate legislation as it [...]

Neither chamber takes aim at the underlying fiscal problems of Medicaid, the state-federal partnership that covers the poorest Americans.

As we mentioned here last week, the recently passed jobless benefits extension, though packaged as a boost for Main Street, provided many times more funding to the nation’s businesses, including the largest corporations. Specifically, the law allows companies to recover already-paid taxes by applying recession-year losses to income made over the past five years. The [...]

On the Fence
Likely Supporters
Likely Opponents

9
51
40

On the Fence

Senator

Stance

Home State Data*

Evan Bayh (D-Ind.)
Rachel Maddow Show: “Sen. Bayh told us it is extraordinarily unlikely that he would filibuster health reform. He said there is nothing in the bill he is aware of now that would cause him to vote to filibuster and he said that he currently ‘can’t [...]

Lest you should think that Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-Mont.) “no” vote on the Environment and Public Works Committee’s climate bill signaled his opposition to comprehensive climate legislation in general, look no further than his opening statement this morning at the first hearing on the legislation in the Finance Committee, which he chairs:
[...] I am committed [...]

Over a complete Republican boycott, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed its climate bill last week by a vote of 11-1. The lone dissenter was Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) — a name you’ll be hearing a lot more if you’re keeping tabs on the climate debate. Baucus chairs the powerful Finance Committee and [...]

“This bill represents a textbook example of how not to deal with the economic challenges that our country faces,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas).

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), interviewed today in The Washington Post, points to the central reason that a health reform bill that hits the floor with a public option already included stands a better chance of ultimately keeping that provision: Namely, the burden of getting 60 votes would shift from supporters trying to add it to [...]

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have been patting themselves on the back for passing out a health reform proposal that both saves money over the next decade and costs hundreds of billions of dollars less than similar legislation moving through the House. What often goes unmentioned is the inconvenient fact that the Finance bill [...]

Until now, the Senate’s health reform debate has been largely partisan, with Republicans blasting the various reform bills as a step toward socialized medicine, and Democrats, despite some criticism, firing back that the GOP is merely protecting the insurance industry at the expense of patients. Ideologically driven arguments, both. And the committee votes have reflected [...]