Helena Independent Record, Montana:Sen. Max Baucus on Thursday defended his insistence on a bipartisan process for delivering a health care reform bill to the floor of the Senate, claiming that an approach involving both Republicans and Democrats has the best chance for success, both in the near term and in the future, when the bill needs tweaking.
In a 50-minute interview with the Independent Record’s editorial board, Baucus defended his huddling with just two other Democrats along with three Republican senators to hammer out a health reform package, at a time when his party controls the White House, the House of Representatives and has a 60-vote majority in the Senate.
"I just think if it is bipartisan, it’s more sustainable, it’s more durable, long-lasting. There will be more buy-in around the country," he told the paper. "We’re going to make some mistakes. If it’s bipartisan, it will be easier to fix the mistakes, work together to fix the mistakes. It’s just better for the country." He also told them that a bipartisan bill was needed to overcome a filibuster.
"It is true nominally there are 60 votes in the Senate, but that’s just nominally," he said. "Ted Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) very ill, he didn’t go to his sister’s funeral. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) is very ill. There are four or five Democrats who say they will not support a public option. They have publicly declared they will not do so. So 60 might be there in theory, but I’m not sure it’s there in practice."
Here's the thing, you don't need 60 votes to pass a bill, you need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. People who may vote against the bill may also vote for cloture -- especially if the party stresses unity.
And the filibuster may be a moot point anyway, since there's talk of using budget reconciliation to pass the bulk of the bill. Then you only need a simple majority. Baucus is talking as if there's no way this would ever happen. The Independent record reports "he appeared to have little appetite for [the reconciliation] route." I find no reason to care how he feels about it. Baucus has tried to put a parking brake on this thing from the beginning.
So, is Max's foot-dragging a result of his desire to represent the wishes of his constituents? Not if you ask them -- this isn't the desires of his constituents. A new Research 200 poll shows that only 41% of Montanans approve of his approach to healthcare reform and 47% support a public option. 21% say his opposition to a public option would make them less likely to vote for him, as opposed to 17% who say they'd be more likely to. If Baucus joins a GOP filibuster of healthcare reform over a public option, 27% say they'd be less likely to vote for him and only 15% say they'd like him more for it.
In short, this is killing him with the home audience. If the summer recess ends and senators return to DC to find a bipartisan approach dead, Baucus can have as big a shit fit over it as he wants -- but the truth is that they'd be doing him a favor and saving him from himself.
