A recent blog entry at the Huffington Post highlights the progressives’ criticism of Senate Committee on Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) for the failings of the liberal health care reform agenda.
Blogger Chris Weigant complains that Sen. Baucus is responsible as being “almost as obstructionist as the Republicans in getting to the point we are at now. Meaning he is responsible for the dwindling amount of time we have left to get healthcare reform passed this year.” Indeed, this has been a common grievance of the far Left: leading Democratic lawmakers are to blame for not utilizing a hefty majority to make their dreams of a single-payer, universal health care system a reality.
Weigant worries that there is simply not enough time left in the legislative calendar to ensure the passage of an adequate, sweeping government plan that would overhaul the health care industry:
There are only two and a half months left in Congress’ legislative year. In this short period of time, Congress usually takes enormous chunks of time off for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So there just aren’t that many weeks left to pull this thing together. Reid, to his credit, has already cancelled a Senate week off for Columbus Day, but cancelling Thanksgiving and Christmas is a whole different ball of wax.
Weigant’s assessment is correct. There are plenty of procedural speed bumps that would mean that even if the bill is deemed favorable by a majority of Congress, an unlikely fate at best, the unavoidable legislative route would take plenty long enough and could disrupt Leftists’ ambitions for a speedy takeover.
The article isn’t shy about pointing the finger at Sen. Baucus, ultimately blaming the Finance Committee chair for what seems to be a likely doom for the hopes of progressives everywhere, thanks in part, Weigant argues, for his attempts at bipartisanship:
But whatever the chances are, and however it is handled by the congressional leadership, the point is we just wasted two and a half months. And by “we,” I mean “Senator Max Baucus.” Before August happened, the talk was all of “bipartisanship” (ah, those naive days of early summer…) and the “Gang of Six,” who were going to hammer out a bill that lots of Republicans would vote for. By the end of August, the Republicans were all but smirking into their sleeves on national television saying: “We were never going to vote for anything that would help Obama politically, and we just burned up a month proving that to the Democrats.”
But then, even after we got to that point, we then sat through another month and a half of delay. And that delay can be laid at the feet of Max Baucus. Is the bill the Finance Committee going to vote on tomorrow substantially different than what they had at the beginning of September? No, it is not. Is it substantially better? No, it is not. Is it going to win over any Republican votes (other than, perhaps, Olympia Snowe)? No, it is not. Were those six weeks wasted? Yes, they were.
Which gave time for the healthcare industry to mobilize against Baucus’ bill. Meaning Baucus is largely responsible for the attack coming now.
And while the far Left is busy demonizing Sen. Baucus, it’s pretty certain that the majority of American people are exhaling a large sigh of relief, thankful that the bill, as bad as it is now, is at least somewhat better than the deepest held hopes of progressives: a complete and utter destruction of the private sector to level the playing field by making health care equally as awful for everyone.
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Tags: Barack Obama, Baucuscare, Chris Weigant, health care reform, Huffington Post, Max Baucus, Obamacare, Olympia Snowe, Sen. Max Baucus, Senate Committee on Finance
