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Sen. Max Baucus Esq.


Self Description

January 2006: "After graduating from Stanford Law School, Max opened a law practice in Missoula in 1971. He then served as both Executive Director and Committee Coordinator for Montana's 1972 Constitutional Convention, which crafted what was considered one of the most farsighted state constitutions in the nation.

In 1973, Max was elected to the Montana State Legislature. He served as a state representative from Missoula until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974. He was re-elected in 1976. Max was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 and has served consecutively ever since."

http://baucus.senate.gov/about/index.cfm

Third-Party Descriptions

December 2011: "Want to lower the capital reserve requirements for investment banks? Then-Goldman CEO Hank Paulson takes a meeting with SEC chief Bill Donaldson, and gets it done. Want to kill an attempt to erase the carried interest tax break? Guys like Schwarzman, and Apollo’s Leon Black, and Carlyle’s David Rubenstein, they just show up in Washington at Max Baucus’s doorstep, and they get it killed."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/a-christmas-message-from-americas-rich-20111222

June 2010: "How this boon to tax advisers happened is yet another chapter in the partisan gridlock common to Washington these days. At the end of 2009, Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, tried to extend for three months the existing estate tax laws, put in place in 2001. But when that motion failed, the estate tax expired for the first time since 1916."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/your-money/estate-planning/12wealth.html

July 2009: "As his committee has taken center stage in the battle over health-care reform, Chairman Baucus (D-Mont.) has emerged as a leading recipient of Senate campaign contributions from the hospitals, insurers and other medical interest groups hoping to shape the legislation to their advantage. Health-related companies and their employees gave Baucus's political committees nearly $1.5 million in 2007 and 2008, when he began holding hearings and making preparations for this year's reform debate."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/20/AR2009072003363.html

June 2009: 'President Obama has made his own preferences clear. In a letter to Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Max Baucus of Montana, the chairmen of two key Senate committees, he wrote: “I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/business/economy/28view.html

May 2009: 'The Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate tax-writing committees, Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York and Senator Max Baucus of Montana, said in statements that some of Mr. Obama’s proposals reflect ideas from their panels. But Mr. Baucus kept his distance, saying “further study is needed to assess the impact of this plan on U.S. business.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/business/05tax.html

May 2009: 'By one Congressional estimate, taxing this “Cadillac coverage,” as some call it, could yield $100 billion in revenue over five years. No wonder Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is a leader of the health reform effort, seems keen on the idea. And although the candidate Barack Obama criticized the notion last year when Senator John McCain promoted it, the concept now has some support in his administration as part of an overhaul of the health care system.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/health/policy/08healthtax.html

October 2008: '“Women often fare worse than men in the individual insurance market,” said Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/us/30insure.html

April 2008: 'The rise in fraudulent tax returns was an issue at a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week called by the committee chairman, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). "I am disappointed that the IRS does not notify a taxpayer when someone else has filed a return using the victim's Social Security number," he said.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/13/AR2008041301979.html

October 2007: Last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and its ranking Republican member, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, sent letters to Carlyle and four other private-equity firms asking for information related to their ownership and management of nursing homes. The committee has authority over nursing homes and health care.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102101034.html

October 2007: In August, Sen. Max Baucus brought current EPA Administrator Steven Johnson to Libby for a hearing on why EPA headquarters thwarted efforts to institute the emergency declaration. When the Montana Democrat threatened to subpoena the documents showing what happened, Johnson agreed to provide them.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/334357_asbestos05.html

August 2007: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) yesterday called the new requirements a 'drastic change' that 'jeopardizes coverage for tens of thousands of children in low-income, working families. New policies like this warrant greater transparency before changes are made. I hope the administration will reconsider.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082002159.html

June 2007: 'There has to be a bright line between drug company spending on medical education and spending on marketing,' Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the committee's chairman, said in remarks echoed by Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the panel's top Republican.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062601963.html

June 2007: Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who leads the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican member, introduced a bill that would tax as corporations all publicly traded partnerships that derive most of their income by managing other people’s assets, like Blackstone and the Fortress Investment Group, which went public earlier this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/business/15tax.html

May 2007: 'Federal health dollars are just too scarce to lose to fraud and abuse in Medicare,' Baucus said in a statement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902355.html

January 2007: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), whose committee would vet any Medicare drug bill, said in a statement this week that he favors eliminating the ban on government price negotiations -- a stance that increases the chances that some kind of legislation will pass.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201399.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Member of (past or present) Democratic Party / Democratic National Committee (DNC) Organization Jan 11, 2006
Student/Trainee (past or present) Stanford University Organization Jan 11, 2006
Member of (past or present) US House of Representatives Organization Jan 11, 2006
Member of (past or present) Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) US Senate Organization
Colleague/Co-worker of (past or present) Sen. Charles "Chuck" E. Grassley Person Jun 18, 2007

Articles and Resources

42 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Dec 22, 2011 A Christmas Message From America's Rich

QUOTE: The entire ethos of modern Wall Street, on the other hand, is complete indifference to all of these matters. The very rich on today’s Wall Street are now so rich that they buy their own social infrastructure. They hire private security, they live on gated mansions on islands and other tax havens, and most notably, they buy their own justice and their own government....nobody even minds that they are rich. What makes people furious is that they have stopped being citizens.

 Rolling Stone
Jun 11, 2010 Confusion Over the Dormant Estate Tax Keeps Advisers Busy

QUOTE: THE disappearance of the federal estate tax this year has created confusion and frustration among the wealthy, even among those who stand to benefit from it.

 New York Times
Oct 09, 2009 Should Medicare Benefits Start Later in Life? (Economix)

QUOTE: Instead of heeding the frightening messages emanating from self-styled “protectors” of Medicare, such as Ms. [Betsy] McCaughey, the elderly might search their souls on the moral platform for the political economy of sharing in a civilized society.

 New York Times
Oct 04, 2009 Discrimination by Insurers Likely Even With Reform, Experts Say: Economic Pressure Could Give Rise to New Biases Against Prior Conditions

QUOTE: simply banning medical discrimination [in health insurance] would not necessarily remove it from the equation, economists and health-care analysts say.

 Washington Post
Sep 05, 2009 Health Care Debate Revives Immigration Battle

QUOTE: During the summer recess, members of Congress faced persistent questions from constituents worried that health care changes could leave taxpayers footing medical bills for illegal immigrants.

 New York Times
Jul 29, 2009 Texas Hospital Flexing Muscle in Health Fight

QUOTE: One of the largest sources of campaign contributions to Senate Democrats during this year’s health care debate is a physician-owned hospital [Doctors Hospital at Renaissance] in one of the country’s poorest regions that has sought to soften measures that could choke its rapid growth.

 New York Times
Jul 21, 2009 Industry Cash Flowed To Drafters of Reform: Key Senator Baucus Is a Leading Recipient

QUOTE: Top health executives and lobbyists have continued to flock to the senator's[Max Baucus] often extravagant fundraising events in recent months. During a Senate break in late June, for example, Baucus held his 10th annual fly-fishing and golfing weekend in Big Sky, Mont., for a minimum donation of $2,500.

 Washington Post
Jul 15, 2009 Why We Must Ration Health Care

QUOTE: Health care is a scarce resource, and all scarce resources are rationed in one way or another.

 New York Times
Jul 06, 2009 Familiar Players in Health Bill Lobbying: Firms Are Enlisting Ex-Lawmakers, Aides

QUOTE: The nation's largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues.... public interest groups and reform advocates complain that the concentration of former government aides on K Street has distorted the health-care debate,

 Washington Post
Jul 06, 2009 Paying for healthcare overhaul may fall unevenly on states: States such as New York are most likely to pay higher taxes to fund expanded coverage but have less to gain, policy analysts say.

QUOTE: Some of the "bluest" states that propelled Obama into the White House are among those most likely to pay more in taxes to fund expanded health insurance coverage and make other changes to the system, analysts say.

 Los Angeles Times
Jun 27, 2009 Economic View: The Pitfalls of the Public Option

QUOTE: IN the debate over health care reform, one issue looms large: whether to have a public option. Should all Americans have the opportunity to sign up for government-run health insurance?....Even if one accepts the president’s broader goals of wider access to health care and cost containment, his economic logic regarding the public option is hard to follow. Consumer choice and honest competition are indeed the foundation of a successful market system, but they are usually achieved without a public provider.

 New York Times
Jun 26, 2009 Bailout of U.S. Banks Gives British Rum a $2.7 Billion Benefit

QUOTE: Congress inserted the tax benefits for companies other than banks in a fog of confusion and panic after the House of Representatives rejected the first attempt to fund the bank support effort urged by then President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Jun 19, 2009 Tax Breaks Under the Microscope: Should nonprofit hospitals be forced to stop behaving like greedy corporations?

QUOTE: $93.5 billion in federal subsidies are provided every year [to nonprofit hospitals] in the form of tax breaks. But research shows that nonprofit hospitals behave no differently from for-profit ones. And in some cases, nonprofits have been caught mistreating the poor for the sake of financial gains.

 Slate
May 07, 2009 Taxing Those With Insurance to Pay for Those Without

QUOTE: Simply put, the government would tax the people who already have the most expensive health benefits, as provided by their employers....the additional taxes could affect many workers who are far from affluent and put the cost of adequate coverage further beyond the reach of many Americans. Some critics also warn that the taxes could undermine the employer-based coverage that is the bedrock of the nation’s health insurance system.

 New York Times
May 04, 2009 Obama Calls for Curbs on Offshore Tax Havens

QUOTE: President Obama on Monday called for curbing offshore tax havens and corporate tax breaks to collect billions of dollars more from multinational companies and wealthy individuals....He estimated the changes would raise $210 billion over the next decade and help offset tax cuts for middle-income taxpayers as well as a permanent tax credit for companies’ research and development costs.

 New York Times
Nov 20, 2008 Hurt by Losses, Pension Funds Criticize Rules

QUOTE: Stung by outsize investment losses, some of the nation’s biggest companies are pushing Congress to roll back rules requiring them to put more money into their pension funds, just two years after President Bush signed a law meant to strengthen the pension system....With cash now in short supply for companies, they are asking Congress to excuse them from having to replenish the required amounts.

 New York Times
Oct 29, 2008 Women Buying Health Policies Pay a Penalty

QUOTE: "Striking new evidence has emerged of a widespread gap in the cost of health insurance, as women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage, according to new data from insurance companies and online brokers."

 New York Times
Apr 14, 2008 A Call for Action On Tax Scams (Federal Diary)

QUOTE: Filings of fictitious tax returns to steal refunds have jumped dramatically, perhaps because con artists can file them electronically and get a direct-deposit refund long before the real taxpayer finds out...The rise in fraudulent tax returns was an issue at a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week called by the committee chairman, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

 Washington Post
Oct 24, 2007 Inquiries at Investor-Owned Nursing Homes

QUOTE: A report last month in The New York Times said that private investment firms had bought thousands of nursing homes and often cut expenses and staff, sometimes below minimum legal requirements, to increase their profit.

 New York Times
Oct 22, 2007 Under Pressure, Carlyle Issues Patient Promise: Buyout of Nursing-Home Chain Sparks Worries on Staffing Levels

QUOTE: The pledge comes in the wake of concerns over whether the private-equity firm might cut staffing and reduce patient care in pursuit of financial goals.

 Washington Post

42 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]