Other People’s Money – Baucus Gets Confused – President Carter Is Even More Confused
This just in from yesterday’s WSJ – Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) appears to be confused while shaking down another healthcare related industry:
The relatively high fees resulted from a lobbying move that some senior congressional aides and industry officials say represented a strategic error on the device industry’s part.
Device makers were among the health-related industries that went to the White House this spring to volunteer financial concessions as part of an overhaul. They were then asked to offer a dollar amount in savings, representatives of the device industry and congressional aides said. Instead, the companies suggested that the government levy a tax on their adversaries: hospital-purchasing groups that negotiate for lower prices on medical supplies and some devices.
Some senators, including Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), were troubled that the device makers were “offering up other people’s money,” said a person close to the negotiations. This person cited a line that has come to represent the maneuvering among health-care industries, the White House and Congress: “You either come to the table early, or you end up part of the dinner.”
Max, this whole thing is being paid for with “other people’s money”. But let me help you out with how to pay for your program:
From Real Clear Politics
All he has to do is ask the eight richest Democratic members of Congress (John Kerry, Jane Harman, Jay Rockefeller, Mark Warner, Jared Polis, Frank Lautenberg, Dianne Feinstein, and Harry Teague) – all of whom are in favor of Obama’s plan – to donate any assets in excess of $25 million to help fund Obamacare. John Kerry’s contribution alone would be $142.55 million.
Really, why can’t these Democrats squeeze by on just $25 million in assets so the rest of the country can be granted the “civil right” of health care coverage? After all, didn’t all these folks support Obama’s vision of “spreading the wealth around” to help benefit the lesser among us? Now’s the time to prove it.
Try that on for size, Max. Members of Congress don’t want to be put into the new system, the least that they can do is pay for it.
Moving on … we now have the former President Jimmy Carter jumping into the fray… it appears that he believes “The “overwhelming” portion of animosity towards Obama is racist”. That is a comment that is so demeaning to Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama is an intelligent man who has simply misunderstood the American public on the issue of healthcare. Carter’s statement demeans Americans across all political boundaries and implies that Mr. Obama shouldn’t be subjected to the political criticism of his predecessors. This is what you get from an elitist with shaky core values.