Earlier this month, Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board has declared a health care emergency on the reservation. The tribe has asked Congress to look into delivery of medical care by the Indian Health Service. Tribal officials say there is a shortage of money for equipment and personnel, and that many people have to be referred off the reservation for treatment.

The article goes on to state that “Baucus did not detail what he wanted the department to probe but asked for a ‘thorough investigation of IHS and how it keeps America’s promise to its first citizens.’”

This is almost a step in the right direction, but we need more concrete action on this issue. Talk is great as long as it is followed by walk. It’s too early to tell and I’m reserving my judgement, but I do want to see serious action taken and quickly.

A huge patchwork of privately owned forest in northwest Montana — much of it abutting wilderness, and together almost a third the size of Rhode Island — will be permanently protected from development under an agreement announced Monday by two private conservation groups, the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land.

The groups will pay $510 million for about 500 square miles of forest now owned by Plum Creek Timber, a lumber and real estate firm based in Seattle. It is one of the biggest sales of forest land for preservation purposes in United States history, conservation experts said.

And  Baucus deserves credit for  setting up the federal bond that allowed for this to go through. We, as Montanans, need to prioritize conserving Montanan’s beauty - it’s what makes Montana Montana.

“When the flaws in the democratic system allow this type of misrepresentation to occur, it must be challenged,” she said. “What I’m going to do is see if there is enough constituent interest to say, ‘What happened here was wrong.’ ”

Voting: a flaw in the democratic system. That ought to make a catchy campaign slogan. Here’s a thought for Lovaas and Lange—in addition to concerns about state law, what sense does it make to run against the Baucus Machine and the Kelleher Juggernaut if they couldn’t beat just one of them?

For one thing, said Barrett Kaiser, a Baucus spokesman, there will be no debates.

“Max plans on talking to Montanans across the state and they’ll have ample opportunity to ask him questions,” he said. “But we don’t want to subject him to what will become a circus.”

Dear me, no. How dare citizens “subject” their rulers to debates? If what Kaiser means by “talking to Montanans across the state” what I think he does–endless ads featuring that incredibly creepy voiced guy giving Baucus credit for the sun shining and the rain falling, this $10 million is going take way too long to spend.

Bob Kelleher

Are Max Baucus and Dennis Rehberg feeling like the two most fortunate people in politics tonight, or what?

No, certainly not because I think he would be an effective Senator, but because he offers the promise of the most entertaining race this fall, even better than Bob Kelleher.  While Lange told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that he thinks he can defeat Senator Baucus this fall, I am most interested in seeing his defense of the following positions:

• Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid
• Cuts in College Assistance for Students
• Cuts in Federal disaster relief
• Cuts in farm support
• Private contractors rounding up illegal aliens for deportation
• and much, much, more

If we’re not going to get a close Senate election this fall, Montanans at least deserve an entertaining one, and Mike Lange is the man to bring that to us.

“I want the Finance Committee to be ready, to be ahead of the curve,” he said. “That’s why I’ve begun hearings, getting the facts out, pushing the edge of the envelope.”

As much as I’d like to believe that Senator Baucus is truly interested in protecting the the 47 million Americans without health insurance, I have to admit that it crossed my mind as I read the piece that Senator Baucus might just be saying this because he is running for re-election. After all, hasn’t he had a few decades in Washington on the Finance Committee to make this happen?

No, instead of being ahead of the curve on universal health care, he’s chosen to be ahead of the curve on incredibly irresponsible tax cuts, Medicare giveaways to giant pharmaceuticals, and protecting the economic interests of struggling farmers to make millions every year. While there certainly have been some positive steps from Senator Baucus, like his work on the SCHIP program, no one can seriously believe that he can be at the forefront of ensuring universal access to health care.

Consider what he said in 1992:

`No more scotch tape and baling wire,” said Senator Max Baucus, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, who spoke at the AAPS regional meeting in Great Falls, Montana, on June 20. “It’s time for fundamental reform, not tinkering.”

Although he does not believe that significant changes will occur in this session of Congress, he thinks they will not be long delayed. . .

Medical insurance as an employment benefit was an “accident of history,” the Senator said, a side effect of the Nixon wage- and-price controls. Increases in health benefits were not counted as a wage increase.

And today? 16 years later?

“Now is the time to seriously address health care reform,” he said. “It’s been kind of simmering around the edges for a while, but it’s close to reaching a boil right now….

“We will have insurance companies in America,” Baucus said. “We’ll have uniquely American solutions.

“Those (other) countries have a different history of the public sector providing health insurance. That’s their history, that’s their culture. We Americans are a younger country, and we’re founded on a principle of independence, on free markets.”

This story illustrates just what is so frustrating about Senator Baucus. He talks the right talk when it comes to Democratic issues, but when it comes to vote, far too often his decisions are the ones that benefit corporate interests, from the insurance industry to major banking interests, often at the expense of individuals.

Just short of 17% of Montanans have no health insurance, one of the highest rates in the nation, and much higher than any of our neighboring states. Promises aren’t going to get them to doctors, promises aren’t going to ensure that they can stay productive and healthy. It’s time to stop the press releases about leading, Senator Baucus, and time to start leading.

Senator Baucus could have such a profound impact on the lives of ordinary, working Montanans and Americans, if he’d invest real energy into health care reform, rather than just talk about it. All these of experience in the Senate don’t mean much if they haven’t taught him who he really represents.¹

1. Standard caveat: If you’re undecided, his opponents will be worse. Just sayin’.

We’re certainly not going to restore the Democratic Party to state-wide leadership and respect if we’re afraid to tell people we are Democrats. We are, and always have been, the party of the majority in this country. We’re the party of workers, the elderly, children, the middle class. We’ll never regain that majority if we’re not proud of what our party should represent.

The best example of how our candidates should act might be seen in our national officeholders. To some extent, Max Baucus’s campaign site says as much about the Senator as anything else does. By contrast, Jon Tester, who won a hard-fought fight for the Senate by energizing the Democratic Party, has a slightly different page.

Were Mike Mansfield or Lee Metcalf ever embarrassed to be Democrats? I think not. Nor should we be.

He said people do want the right thing, even if they’re not sure what that is on complex issues. He told business leaders at the Emergency Committee for American Trade meeting that straight talk on trade issues would lead most Americans to see its benefits.

“I’d say 70 percent of people are in that big middle. There are 15 percent right-wing that are nutcakes, and there’s 15 percent left-wing and they’re nutcakes … (and) the big center. And just listen, and people do want the right thing.”

That’s certainly comforting rhetoric. 30% of Americans, according to the Senator, are insane because they disagree with his corporatist trade policy.

Concern about lax environmental standards, concern about trade imbalances, concern about stagnant or even declining wages for American workers who struggle to find manufacturing jobs, concern about granting excessive authority to the executive through fast track trade agreements, concern about U.S. endorsement of inhumane working conditions? All nuts!

Enhancing the bottom line of multinational corporations who operate above the law and whose profits rarely make it to the hands of workers who produce them? Sane fiscal policy.

At least Baucus has a sound basis for his claims, right? Well, he did cite his support for NAFTA as a justification for more free trade agreements:

Fielding questions after his speech, Baucus said he was the only statewide Montana figure who voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement and that he took some grief for it.

“But you’ve just got to stand up and say what you think is right,” he said.

The Economic Policy Institute might disagree with that conclusion, those nutcakes. Their study of NAFTA has demonstrated that it has widened U.S. trade deficits and pushed American workers into lower-paying jobs. Their insanity doesn’t even come close to that of Thea Lee, head of research on International Trade for the AFL-CIO, who argues that free the Bush free trade agenda has led to lost jobs, poor working conditions, and trade imbalances.

Good thing the Montana AFL-CIO is holding Senator Baucus accountable, right? Oops.

In the end, though, I may be being unfair to the Senator. It’s certainly possible that he believes that the majority of Americans share his viewpoint. After all, 70% or more of Senator Baucus’s campaign contributions come from people who are probably big supporters of his trade agenda. After all, between 2003-08, 89% of his PAC money is from business, with only 4.9% from labor.

After awhile, that kind of contribution might just start to influence one’s perception of “doing the right thing.”

Update: Jay has a different take.

The same day I received a full color postcard from Max (”Prepared, Published and Mailed at Taxpayer Expense”) talking about the economic stimulus package, CNN is reporting that the IRS is spending $42 million to let me know that the rebate is on its way.

I know you are running for re-election and all, Mr. Senator, but could you keep the self-promotion to your lop-sided war chest, please?