WP: Max Baucus, the Democrats' dud

[godai]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/09/AR2010120906436.html

Like it or hate it, one thing you can say about the tax deal that President Obama struck with Republicans is that it sure beats the one hammered out by Democratic leaders in Congress. That's because Democratic leaders never actually produced one that had a chance of being enacted. For my money, there's no better example of the failure of the Democratic leadership than the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus - and, in particular, his performance on the president's deficit-reduction commission.

While Max's vote against the plan surprised nobody, even commission members were surprised by his ludicrous explanation that it was bad for rural America. Of particular concern to the senator from Montana were a proposed 15-cent increase in the gas tax, cuts in farm subsidies and the transfer of coal mine cleanup funds from Western strip-mine states to Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

While voters and politicians from rural states talk a good game about cutting the government down to size, it turns out they are the biggest beneficiaries of the federal tax-and-spend machine. The conservative Tax Foundation calculates that the most rural states receive somewhere between $1.50 and $2 in federal spending for every dollar of federal taxes they pay; urban states receive 60 cents to 90 cents. But never mind the facts - Max was not going to stand by while rural America was forced to share in budget-balancing sacrifice.

Max's other famous bout of dealmaking came in 2001, when George W. Bush was trying to push his famous tax cuts through the Republican Congress. The first member of the Senate Finance Committee to break from unified Democratic opposition was none other than its ranking member, Max Baucus. It was, therefore, a bit ironic Saturday when Max took the Senate floor last to lead the Democratic effort to prevent extension of the very same Bush tax cuts for upper-income households. That effort failed as well.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Brings to mind this old Onion article:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/im-such-a-shitty-senator,10801/

[The Magistrate]

2. A Timeless Classic, Sir

Truer and truer as the years pass....

[Enrique]

3. ha ha!

:rofl:

i sent that link to the author of the article in the OP.

[displacedvermoter]

4. Had never seen that before now and

I still have tears running down my face. Fucking funny and so true!