Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and who recently killed a public insurance option in the bill his committee approved, has more than a passing interest in the current health care debate.
In the past five years, Senator Baucus has received $1,066,188 (according to www.opensecrets.org) in campaign contributions from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries not including an extra $510,941 from health care professionals. That’s a total of more than $1.5 million.
42% of all of the money he has raised in that time period, $4.9 million, has come for political action committees, not individual donors.
Pharmaceutical companies certainly approve of Senator Baucus and the Finance Committee’s version of health care which not only voted against a pubic option but also counted out any prescription drug negotiations. “We remain convinced that the approach taken by the Senate Finance Committee provides the best blueprint for comprehensive reform,” said Ken Johnson a senior vice president for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a lobbying group that has given Baucus $10,000 in the last five years.
In a cursory review of his voting record, Senator Baucus has voted:
NO to prevent mortgage foreclosures and preserve home values. – Vote 174: S 896: Durbin Amdt. No. 1014;
NO to restore Second Amendment rights in the District of Columbia. – Vote 72: S 160: Ensign Amdt. No. 575;
NO to provide assistance for States with percentages of children with no health insurance coverage above the national average. – Vote 30: H R 2: Hutchison Amdt. No. 93;
NO to protect family businesses and farmers without increasing our nation's debt by providing for an estate tax that sets the exemption at $5 million and the rate at 35 percent, with the benefits of the exemption recaptured for estates over $100 million, paid for by closing tax loopholes that allow offshore deferral of compensation and transactions entered into solely for the purpose of avoiding taxation. – Vote 76: S CON RES 70: Landrieu Amdt. No. 4378;
NO to provide sufficient funding and incentives to increase the enrollment of uninsured children. – Vote 292: H R 976: Kerry Amdt. No. 2602 As Modified;
Please contact Senator Max Baucus to let him know that regardless how much money he has been paid by pharmaceutical and insurance lobbies, you support a public option in health care reform:
http://baucus.senate.gov/
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651 (Office)
(202) 224-9412 (Fax)
Sources for this post include:
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00004643&cycle=2010
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b000243/votes/against-party/
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/fec/?commid=C00021972&page=campaigns&order=TOTAL&cycle=2005-2006
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/fec/?commid=C00021972&page=campaigns&order=TOTAL&cycle=2007-2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLVUQM6eOQwc&pos=7
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