"QUESTION: The Finance Committee — well, actually, Senator Baucus’s draft has been, now, bouncing around for a few days on Capitol Hill.
First, has the president seen it (inaudible) his outline?
GIBBS: I don’t — I don’t believe — I don’t believe anybody here has — I’m — we’ve seen what we’ve read in the paper, but I do not believe that we’ve seen paper on the plan.
QUESTION: I understand it’s bouncing around K Street.
GIBBS: I was told that — that K Street had a copy of the Baucus plan, meaning, not surprisingly, the special interests have gotten a copy of the plan that I understand was given to committee members today."
Baucus distributed his plan to corporate lobbyists before giving it to other committee members; and as of this morning he had not bothered to give a copy to the White House.
One of the problems with passing the public option, according to the pundits, is that it might cause Democrats to lose seats in the Senate like Baucus's. To me, getting rid of this on-the-take criminal is a feature, not a bug.
Update (two minutes later:) If you need any more convincing about what a slime this guy is, consider this, from Daily Kos:
"Seriously, you'd think that people would be laughing Max Baucus off the political stage after he spent the past year coming up with this load of junk.
It's obvious why the insurance industry loves his plan: there's no public option to give families an affordable insurance choice and it requires all Americans adults under the age of 65 to buy health insurance in the private sector, fining those who don't up to $3,800 per family.
In a more reasonable age, we'd call this plan a criminal plot, but today we're calling it "bipartisan." It's a total joke, but if we don't defeat it, the joke will be on us."
And it's no wonder why he's cooking it up with the aid of insurance lobbyists, but not other Democrats.
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