It’s too short to quote – essentially, the retiring Senator is telling Bloomberg TV (autoloads) that there’s more coming down the pike – but I do have to admit; I was wondering why Baucus had suddenly decided to bail. Maybe now I know.
Tag: max baucus
Max Baucus (D, Montana) cuts and runs.
And this is pretty epic, too: between his warning of the upcoming Obamacare trainwreck (that Max Baucus helped crash in the first place, mind), and his display of the Hawaiian Good-Luck Symbol to gun-grabbers last week, old Max there isn’t retiring so much as he’s smacking the self-destruct button on his secret volcano lair on his way to the escape pad.
Max Baucus was on my list as being at Some Risk: turns out that what I thought was Baucus feeling invincible was just Baucus getting disgusted at his own party. Alas. Alack.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Shorter Max Baucus (D, MT).
See also The Volokh Conspiracy. I should also point out that a competent Washington press corps might have deigned to notice the fact that Baucus treats ‘sleep with me’ as a job requirement earlier than just after his re-election. Oh, yes: there’s a history.
Crossposted to RedState.
Worse than you think, Ace.
When you’re a Democrat, not only can you use “I’m sleeping with her” as a stealth job prerequisite for an US Attorney’s position – HI, Senator Max Baucus (D) of Montana! – but when you’re a Democrat you can also publicly disrespect inconveniently conscientious female journalists (even if they’re African-American ones) when they insist on doing their jobs. Although I will admit that at least Bobby Gibbs didn’t use the word ‘uppity’ in public:
Yet. They’ll be saving it for after the midterms, no doubt.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Democrats Against Breast-Feeding.
Or possibly just working mothers.
You may remember the ‘tampon tax‘ discovered in the Baucus bill – short version: Baucus went out and did a mass tax on medical devices to supposedly pay for his ‘compromise;’ unfortunately for him, things like condoms and tampons are classified as ‘medical devices’ – and you’d think that the resulting loud objections would have caused the Senator (more accurately, the Senator’s staff) to more thoroughly vet their policy changes.
You’d think. What Baucus did was do a quick hack and make the threshold for taxation $100. Amanda Carpenter points out the problem with that:
But, just wait for the revolt to start again because women will still pay a price under the new structure. Particularly new moms who want to use a powered breast pump to bottle milk for their babies. Those devices, labeled class II, typically retails for more than $100.
And, all the rest of the more expensive, higher-class medical devices used by both men an women — such as pacemakers, ventilators, X-ray machines, powered wheelchairs and surgical needles — will be taxed, too.
Speaking as a stay-at-home dad, I can say with some authority that breast pumps make it a lot easier for working mothers to do both. I am stunned that the Democrats apparently care so little about either working mothers or the poor (who will be disproportionately affected by this legislation, as usual) that they’d blithely write legislation as slipshod as this. And that’s just the breast pumps. What are we going to say to somebody who can’t afford the tax on his or her pacemaker? “Sorry?”
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Please read bills before you defend them, Mr. President.
If this is a problem, don’t go on national television and give exclusive interviews.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You were against the individual mandate…
OBAMA: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: …during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t
How is that not a tax?
[snip of semantic-free commentary by the President]
STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it’s still a tax increase.
OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The — for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.
Via Jazz Shaw, the relevant passage:
Excise Tax. The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax. If a taxpayer’s MAGI is between 100-300 percent of FPL, the excise tax for failing to obtain coverage for an individual in a taxpayer unit (either as a taxpayer or an individual claimed as a dependent) is $750 per year. However, the minimum penalty for the taxpayer unit is $1,500. If a taxpayer’s MAGI is above 300 percent of FPL the penalty for failing to obtain coverage for an individual in a taxpayer unit (either as a taxpayer or as an individual claimed as a dependent) is $950 year. However, the maximum penalty amount a family above 300 percent of FPL would pay is $3,800.
Please note for the record that the transcripts show that they were talking about Baucus’ tax bill. Points to George for pressing the point – and bringing in the dictionary definition, which the President responded to with all the – but points taking away for not demolishing the President on the spot with that one. Ach, well.
Video making this point after the fold.
Moe Lane Continue reading Please read bills before you defend them, Mr. President.
Montana town offers to take Gitmo detainees.
Hardin, Montana – a very small, very poor town with a very new, very empty jail, is willing to take on the responsibility of holding Gitmo detainees:
Hardin borrowed $27 million through bonds to build the Two Rivers Regional Correctional Facility in hopes of creating new employment opportunities. The jail was ready for prisoners two years ago, but has yet to house a single prisoner.
People here say politics in the capital of Helena has kept it empty. But the city council last month voted 5-0 to back a proposal to bring Gitmo detainees — some of the most hardened terrorists in the world — to the facility.
Montanan Senators (both of whom are Democrats) wet themselves in response:
The state’s congressional leaders have lined up against the plan. “Housing potential terrorists in Montana is not good for our state,” Max Baucus, the state’s senior Democratic senator, wrote to [economic development director Greg Smith]. “These people stop at nothing. Their primary goal in life, and death, is to destroy America.”
Adds Sen. Jon Tester, “I just don’t think it’s appropriate, that’s all. I don’t think they know what they’re asking for.”
Continue reading Montana town offers to take Gitmo detainees.
Democrats: taxing health insurance back on agenda?
Why not? It’s not like this would affect them any.
WASHINGTON – The Senate’s top tax writer said Tuesday he is considering limits on the tax-free status of job-based health insurance to help pay for President Barack Obama’s plan to cover all Americans.
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., described his idea as senators began to grapple with how to pay for the costs of the plan, which independent experts put at about $1.5 trillion over 10 years. There are no easy options.
Baucus is carefully not saying at what income level this would start at, which is of course Senatorese for “a lot lower than you’d expect from earlier rhetoric.” Which should come as an unpleasant surprise or two to folks entering the workplace after it comes into effect; well, the ones who aren’t union employees or government workers, at least. Your standard ‘kids out of school, with first real white-collar job’ types, in other words; if this passes, it’s going to be reduced health benefits for new hires, less take-home pay to cover the taxes, or the joys of negotiating with the central government for elective health procedures. None of which is going to be very fun for them.
No, avoid schadenfreude. We want them voting their class interests, remember?
Moe Lane
Crossposted to Moe Lane.