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Who's been cozying up to the members of the new Congressional super committee? With the committee set to decide on a whopping $1.5 trillion in federal deficit reduction this fall, lobbyists and corporations are trying to figure out which industries are best connected to the 12 members of the new panel. You can bet that those connections will be pressed to the limit in coming months as companies and sectors scramble to ensure that federal spending they like and tax breaks they depend on aren't slated for elimination. As it looks at the new committee members, Wall Street may like...

Together We Can Beat the Deficit We did it in the 1990s and we can do it again today. By PATTY MURRAY, MAX BAUCUS AND JOHN KERRY Our country has long been a beacon of light in the world because the American people always come together when times are tough. Over the past few months, in debating the debt ceiling and deficit reduction, that light of common cause has appeared to flicker at times in our nation's capital. As appointees to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction—12 members of Congress charged with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over...

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Here is a look at some of the top donors to election campaigns for the 12 members of the U.S. Congress named to a deficit-fighting "super committee." Known as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, the panel is expected to be the most heavily lobbied body in Washington ahead of its Nov. 23 deadline for making recommendations on $1.5 trillion in additional budget savings. Unless specified, donations below combine members' campaign committees and leadership PACs (political action committees). Data is from www.opensecrets.org. SENATE DEMOCRATS Patty Murray of Washington state * Software giant Microsoft Corp...

The 12 lawmakers appointed to a new congressional supercommittee charged with tackling the nation's fiscal problems have received millions in contributions from special interests with a direct stake in potential cuts to federal programs, an Associated Press review of federal campaign data has found. The newly appointed members — six Democrats and six Republicans — have received more than $3 million total during the past five years in donations from political committees with ties to defense contractors, health care providers and labor unions. That money went to their re-election campaigns, according to AP's review. Supporters say the lawmakers were picked...

All 6 Democrats on Deficit-Reduction Panel Earned 'F's From Taxpayers’ Union Thursday, August 11, 2011 By Terence P. Jeffrey (CNSNews.com) - All six Democrats that have been assigned to the special joint congressional committee that will recommend means for cutting the nation’s anticipated spending by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years compiled voting records last year that earned them grades of “F” from the National Taxpayers Union (NTU). House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) announced today that she has assigned Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (S.C.), Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra (Calif.) and Budget Committee Ranking Member...

n the first of what will be a closely watched selection process for a powerful new deficit panel, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he will appoint Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.), Max Baucus (Mont.) and John Kerry (Mass.) as his three choices for a super committee charged with finding more than $1 trillion in spending cuts by the end of this year. Murray will serve as co-chair of the 12-member panel. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will select her co-chair and two other panelists, as required by the debt limit agreement signed into law by President Barack Obama last week....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Tuesday he's naming Sen. Patty Murray to co-chair a powerful "super committee" charged with finding more than $1 trillion in deficit cuts this fall. Murray will be joined by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., on the panel, which was established last week by hard-fought legislation to increase the national debt.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Tuesday he's naming Sen. Patty Murray to co-chair a powerful "super committee" charged with finding more than $1 trillion in deficit cuts this fall. Murray will be joined by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., on the panel, which was established last week by hard-fought legislation to increase the national debt. Murray, who is chairwoman of the committee to elect Democratic senators, is a longtime protector of Democratic priorities such as Medicare, Social Security and veterans' benefits, as are Kerry and Baucus. Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement that Murray has "a...

From page 3: For McConnell, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) is widely expected to get the nod, given his conservative credentials, ties to McConnell and his work in the Biden group. But if Republicans stay united, they’d need one additional Democrat to break ranks and back a cuts-only approach - so McConnell may want to choose a senator with bipartisan appeal who is loyal to leadership, like either Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) or Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). At a townhall in Winchester, Ky. on Monday, McConnell told a crowd that he wanted “significant entitlement reform” to be part of...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will appoint Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Max Baucus of Montana, and John Kerry of Massachusetts to the new super committee tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction by November 23, according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with Reid’s decision, which is expected to be made public as early as Wednesday. Additionally, Murray is expected to co-chair the committee, officially named the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, along with a still unnamed House Republican. A spokesman for Reid did not respond to a request for comment. Reid’s decision to...

Five executives from America’s leading oil companies were marched in front of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday morning for a public scolding, and told to defend industry tax breaks while Americans are being charged $4 for a gallon of gas. In other words, Thursday was judgment day the CEO’s of the country’s five largest oil companies. And because most of the committee’s Republicans were attending a budget meeting at the White House, the executives were left to face a very partisan, very unhappy panel of Democrats. Representing the scorned oil industry was John Watson of Chevron, Marvin Odum of Shell...

Three Senate Democrats angry about the high price of gasoline propose to raise taxes on the firms that produce it. No, it does not make any sense to us, either. For Democrats, expensive gas is just the price of scoring a moral victory over Big Oil, and American consumers will be expected to pay any price and bear any burden that Harry Reid & Co. inflict upon them. The “Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act” is a minotaur’s labyrinth of economic illiteracy, with Democratic senators Robert Menendez (N.J.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Claire McCaskill (Mo.) lurking at the center of...

Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy or to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing. "Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding." American Hospital Association ... the AHA, along with Sen. [Max] Baucus (D-MT) and Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA), are responsible...

WASHIGNTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg today sent a bipartisan letter along with 33 co-signers to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco , Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) questioning an “emergency” information request that will require federally licensed firearms retailers to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles. The proposal was included in the Federal Register and specifically calls for firearm retailers to report multiple sales, or other dispositions, of two or more .22 caliber or larger semi-automatic rifles that are capable of accepting a detachable magazine and are purchased by the same individual within five consecutive business days. “It’s not just...

President Obama on Wednesday urged lawmakers to reach a compromise on tax extenders but a glitch in the bill caused some senators to scramble for a correction without endangering its outcome. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., came to the Senate floor Wednesday to announce a "mistake" in the legislation. She said a program to extend low income housing tax credits for people who lost homes during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was left out of the bill even though it was a deal that all sides approved. Landrieu said the money is needed for 2 more years to complete the projects and...

LIBBY, Mont. (AP) — Instead of saying thanks, some residents rebuked Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Max Baucus on Monday for the very law that could help potentially thousands of asbestos victims here. The health care reform law passed last year expands Medicare coverage for the sick residents of Libby, where years of asbestos pollution from a vermiculite mine made this the nation's deadliest Superfund site. About 400 Libby residents have signed up for the new coverage as of this week, Sebelius said. But many of those from this northwestern Montana town of 3,000 who came to listen to...

During the debate over what later became the health care bill that was recently signed into law by President Obama, a number of federal representatives and senators both admitted that they had not read it. Some, including Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) even boasted of this fact. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) famously stated that “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”Presumably the actual people who wrote the bill might have at least some idea what was in it. Unfortunately that isn’t the case with Max Baucus (D-Mont.), lead sponsor of the Senate...

Byron York of Washington's Examiner has done us all a great service. His column draws on the unguarded statements of Sen. Max Baucus and former Gov. Howard Dean. (Well, Baucus, maybe. It's hard to say whether Howlin' Howard has ever made a guarded statement.) Both of these men's statements might have been lost in the clamor following the passage of President Obama's historic health care bill. What York has done is dash into the fire and pluck out some of these red-hot quotes. "Health reform is 'an income shift. It is a shift, a leveling, to help lower income, middle...

As Democrats tout the moral underpinnings of the federal health care system overhaul -- ensuring health care coverage for nearly all Americans -- one senator appeared to go off message when he said the legislation would address the "mal-distribution of income in America." After the Senate passed a "fix-it" bill Thursday to make changes to the new health care law, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the influential Finance Committee, said the overhaul was an "income shift" to help the poor. "Too often, much of late, the last couple three years, the mal-distribution of income in American is gone up...

After the Senate passed a "fix-it" bill Thursday to make changes to the new health care law, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the influential Finance Committee, said the overhaul was an "income shift" to help the poor. As Democrats tout the moral underpinnings of the federal health care system overhaul -- ensuring health care coverage for nearly all Americans -- one senator appeared to go off message when he said the legislation would address the "mal-distribution of income in America." After the Senate passed a "fix-it" bill Thursday to make changes to the new health care law, Sen. Max...

President Barack Obama made a campaign promise that he would not raise taxes on individuals making under $200,000 or couples under $250,000. However, Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, made a statement on the floor this week that seems to dispute Mr. Obama’s tax pledge. “One other point I think that is very important to make is that it's true in certain cases taxes will go up for some Americans who may be making less than $200,000," said Mr. Baucus.

Heard this just moments ago on Hugh Hewitt’s show, one of the most intelligent on radio today. I can’t say this surprises me at all. They told us they want to control us. They have told us taxing capital is just the cost of the new America.

Max Baucus is the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and the Democrat most responsible fo Obamacare's final shape other than Nancy Pelosi. In an unusual speech on the Senate floor moments ago, Max Baucus declares that the "healthcare bill" to be "an income shift, it is a shift, a leveling to help lower income middle income Americans." Baucus continued, "[t]oo often, much of late, the last couple three years the mal-distribution of income in America is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy, and the middle income class is left behind. Wages have...

Members of the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a long-awaited bipartisan jobs bill Thursday morning – only to have it scrapped within hours by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid killed the bill after hearing complaints from members of his own caucus who argued that Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had gone too far beyond the core goal of job creation in order to win over Republican support. It was a major rebuke for Baucus, who’d spent weeks working with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on his committee, trying to come up with a bill that Republicans would...

Governor Bill Ritter and US attorney nominee Stephanie Villafuerte had an affair as early as 2006, confirming reports circulating among political "in-the-know" for years... The Senate Judiciary Committee will review Villafuerte's nomination for US attorney soon. Senator Max Baucus created controversy by nominating his mistress for a US attorney position, making the Villafuerte's relationship with the Governor relevant. Greg Kolomitz, Governor Ritter's disgraced former campaign manager, first made the allegations in 2006, when he traded insults with Jim Carpenter, Ritter's chief of staff at the time. Now more staff are admitting there was an affair. If there was an affair,...

10. Canadian health boards wanted four more years of having somewhere to send their citizens to get medical care. 9. The benefits were supposed to start sooner but Senator Baucus had a few too many before writing the bill. 8. Harry Reid doesn’t care that 20.5 million people will lose health insurance between now and then. 7. To ensure Obama can run for reelection before the health care disaster hits (oh wait…not a joke). 6. To give the Democrats time to reinstall the inheritance tax before the death panels get going.

Fiscal Policy: The new year saw the death of the estate tax. But like Freddie Krueger, this epitome of class warfare and wealth redistribution is sure to return to wreak havoc among the living. Once dubbed the "Paris Hilton" tax, the levy is supposed to target the inherited wealth of the super-rich who really didn't earn it or don't really need so much of it. Or so we're told. But at some point, even inherited wealth was created and taxed in its creation. The death tax is double taxation, and just because you can't take it with you doesn't mean...

The U.S. and Roman Senates, the Festival of Bacchus and the Festivities of Baucus Though, in times past, the festival of Bacchus fell on March 16, there is little doubt that New Years Eve would have been a big day for the Greek god of wine and intoxication. In light of this, and in light of your recent spectacle on the floor of the United States Senate, I offer the following. · Should you wind up in a condition anything like that witnessed in the Senate chamber, please do not go from stupid to dangerous by getting behind the wheel...

An update on Sen.Max Baucus,MT. OK, fine. Whatever you say. Senator Max Baucus has finally come forward with an attack on his attackers who wondered, as did I, if booze was responsible for his bizarre behavior on the Senate floor last week. Bauchus called the whole thing outrageous.

Was Democrat Senator Max Baucus of Montana flagrantly drunk as he gave a speech several minutes long on the Senate floor last week? You know, plastered, sloshed, wasted, or the more proverbial...drunk-as-a-skunk?! According to a now-notorious video that Was Democrat Senator Max Baucus Drunk During His Senate Floor Speech? has spread like wildfire across the internet as well as the dedicated reporting of conservative bloggers, there sure seems to be a compelling case for Baucus' insobriety, indeed.

According to today’s Billings (MT) Gazette: Sen. Max Baucus' office Monday denounced a widely viewed Internet video that suggested Baucus was drunk on the Senate floor last week, calling it an "untrue, personal smear" designed to attack Democrats’ health-care reform legislation."This is beyond the pale, and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public sphere," said Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf. How can unedited CSPAN footage of Senate proceedings posted on YouTube comprise a “smear?” Any reasonable person viewing the clip would conclude that Baucus was drunk or had something else wrong with him. Baucus' office did not...

Google has begun to spike the "suggestions" which appear via "AJAX" when you enter "Baucus" into the Google search box. Yesterday, the first suggestion at the top of the list was "Drunk". Today, even if you type in the entire phrase "Baucus Drunk" - the suggestion is GONE. This is that annoying feature of Google's whereby stories that reflect negatively upon Democrats disappear and/or get quickly 'modified' or hidden, while anything even slanderous against a Republican or especially Sarah Palin will zip to the top of the rankings and STAY THERE. What the Google AJAX suggest algorith suggested yesterday. You...

Montana Senator Max Baucus, who led the Democrats' health care reform legislation through the Senate last week, is responding to accusations that he was intoxicated while delivering a speech on the Senate floor. Video of the speech posted to YouTube over the weekend shows Baucus appearing to slur some of his words and repeating himself at times. Baucus' spokesman Tyler Matsdorf released a statement on Monday refuting claims that the Senator was drunk, calling it an 'untrue personal smear Internet rumor.' Matsdorf said, "This is beyond the pale and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public...

Sen. Max Baucus' office Monday denounced a widely viewed Internet video that suggested Baucus was drunk on the Senate floor last week, calling it an "untrue, personal smear" designed to attack Democrats' health-care reform legislation. "This is beyond the pale, and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public sphere," said Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf.

Yesterday we posted the video below, of Senator Max Baucus is making a weird rant on the Senate Floor. The Montana Senator is slurring his words and it seems as if he delivered this impassioned speech on the Senate floor a bit "Pickled." Today, Tyler Matsdorf, spokesman for the Baucus, released the following denial: "When his friend of 30 years Ted Kennedy, with whom he had fought so hard to provide health care to children, was being used as a cheap foil to oppose health care reform, Senator Baucus gave a passionate defense. Unfortunately, those who want to kill any...

Video of Baucus drunk at link We have already complained about the media double standard in the coverage of Senator Max Baucus' (D-MT) recent ethical problems. Now comes the clearest evidence yet in the form of this video. It already has 176,000 views on YouTube but it has so far been ignored by the major TV networks and newspapers. Let's remember that Baucus is the architect of the Senate-passed health care plan.Let’s also review what else has the media has virtually ignored. Baucus recommended Melodee Hanes, his live-in ‘girlfriend,’ to the White House for nomination for Montana’s U.S. Attorney’s post....

A speech by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on health care has been generating buzz on the Internet, as the Drudge Report and others are suggesting that Baucus was slurring his speech and possibly "intoxicated" during his remarks. "DRUNK WITH POWER? TOP DEM SLURS ON SENATE FLOOR..." reads the Drudge Report headline. Newsbusters.org writes: "How can one explain this incredibly bizarre performance by Max Baucus on the Senate floor? Was Baucus so intoxicated by the sound of his own voice that he went off the deep end? Or perhaps he was so drunk with power over shaping the Senate health care...

See the video of an obviously drunk, slurring and sputtering Max Baucus on the Senate floor. Then decide for yourself - ignore the MSM spin-doctors attempt to cover this up. Do pay attention to which MSM outlets either ignore this huge story or attempt to spin it for the Democrats - instead of reporting the news, most of the MSM has resorted to cheerleading and spin-doctoring the news to suit the DNC. This video deserves its own thread as the MSM attacks on it have already begun. The lapdog MSM is going into damage control mode to cover up this...

There's a video going around that claims Montana Senator Max Baucus is drunk on the floor of The Senate as he spiritedly takes on Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker in a talk about Health Care Reform. In fact, the video that started the Conservative's nasty attack on Baucus is from Think Progress, which pointed to Baucus' articulate claims of Republican partisanship" I want to tell the Senator that that is not what happened. I was in the room constantly, constantly. I talked to those Senators many many times. That is not what happened. I'll tell you what did happen. Your...

This video of Democratic Senator Max Baucus during the debate on the Democrats' health care takeover is all over the web. Most observers say that Baucus was drunk. We report, you decide: [click link above for video] Iclaim no expertise in this area beyond normal human observation, but, for what it's worth, I would say that he was drunk, but is an experienced drinker and was not terribly impaired. What is most interesting to me is how close he comes to articulating the Democrats' real complaint against Republican Senators: they are traitors to their class, i.e., the political class. The...

Max Baucus drunk on senate floor

How can one explain this incredibly bizarre performance by Max Baucus on the Senate floor? Was Baucus so intoxicated by the sound of his own voice that he went off the deep end? Or perhaps he was so drunk with power over shaping the Senate health care bill that it explains his strange rant. In any event, if a conservative such as Jim DeMint or Jeff Sessions had acted this way in the Senate, the mainstream media would have featured the video over and over and over again. Instead, since this was Democrat Max Baucus, this video was almost completely...

During the general debate on the health care legislation that recently passed the Senate, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat from Montana, took to the floor of the Senate and engaged in a drunken tirade. Oblivious to the fact that he was slurring his words and mangling his sentences, Senator Baucus shouted down opponents as he let loose a rambling, and at times incoherent, tirade against those dastardly Republicans who refused to be bipartisan. This drunk is the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, charged with overseeing our taxpayer dollars. As is clearly evident from this video, the less than honorable Baucus...

Baucus is drunker than a skunk, but I'm just as upset as him railing on the Republicans not being "Bi-Partisan" on healthcare. Other than that, funny (and sad sad sad) stuff.

Ilya Somin writing at Volohk Conspiracy fleshes out what is sure to be a court challenge against the constitutionality of individual or business mandates to purchase health insurance. His point - there is no "consensus" among constitutional scholars on the issue "In an important recent speech, Senator Max Baucus claims that there is a broad consensus among legal scholars (that the individual mandate is constitutional. He claims that 'those who study constitutional law as a line of work have drawn th[e] same conclusion' as congressional Democrats. Similar assertions have been made in parts of the liberal blogosphere. For example, Think...

WASHINGTON -- The spirit of Christmas seems to have escaped Congress, maybe even the country. Have you ever encountered such mean spiritedness and political conniving as are now on display on Capitol Hill? In the past, we have had great philosophical divisions in the struggle for civil rights, especially when southern legislators ran the show. In praise of democracy, fortunately they lost. And of course there also was the "red scare" fomented by Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., in the 1950s when he led the commie-hunting movement that ended up victimizing government officials, academia and Hollywood. We recovered from that, too....

I’m not from your state, but I feel we share a common bond, and that is, we are all Americans. We are Americans who face these shameless politicos and their hijinks with a shrug and a “oh well, they all do it” attitude. We have our cross to bear in North Caroline and it will be rectified – term limits are a partial answer, but constantly reminding the effete political class they work for us is an equally good idea. If Max Baucus makes decisions based on his gonads regarding his live-in girl at the Pied Noir, imagine what he...

If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current health-care bill. Any measure that expands private insurers' monopoly over health care and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real health-care reform. Real reform would insert competition into insurance markets, force insurers to cut unnecessary administrative expenses and spend health-care dollars caring for people. Real reform would significantly lower costs, improve the delivery of health care and give all Americans a meaningful choice of coverage. The current Senate bill accomplishes none of these.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Capitol Police are investigating a suspicious package with a powdery substance that was found at the office of Sen. Max Baucus. The Montana Democrat is chairman of the Finance Committee and a leader in the Senate's health care debate. Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said there were no reports of illness. Schneider said the substance is being tested. An Associated Press photographer at the scene, in the Hart Senate Office Building, heard officers say there was a threatening note with the package. Schneider would not confirm there was a note.

To some observers, the Democrats' race to pass national health care seems irrational -- even suicidal. Don't party leaders understand how much the public opposes the bills currently on the table? Don't they know that voters are likely to take their revenge at the polls next year? Given that, why do they keep rushing ahead? Just look at the RealClearPolitics average of polls, which shows that Americans oppose the national health care bills currently on the table by a margin of 53 percent to 38 percent. That's not just one poll that might tilt right or left, it's an average...