Minnesota Democrat, Senate Finance Chair, MAX BAUCUS, Takes Lobbying $$$ To Block House-Passed Bill To Close Corporate Tax Loopholes: WHY LOBBYING MUST GO! - RI10

Minnesota

Democrat,

Senate Finance

Chair, MAX BAUCUS,

Takes Lobbying 

$$$ To Block

House-Passed Bill

To Close Corporate

Tax Loopholes:

WHY LOBBYING

MUST GO! - RI10

http://baucus.senate.gov/

 
(Washington D.C.) Montana Senator Max Baucus passed his CHIP plan with a veto-proof majority, which will provide 12,000 Montana kids like Abigale Tuhy, pictured above, with the health care they need to lead healthy, successful lives.
Tabacco: Move over, Santa Claus! Step back, Mother Teresa! There’s a New Kid on the block!

 

  

BAUCUS PASSES VETO-PROOF CHIP BILL
Senator Says 12,000 Mont. Kids Can Sigh Relief

August 2, 2007

(Washington D.C.) In what is being hailed as a monumental victory for children, the U.S. Senate late Thursday passed Montana Senator Max Baucus' plan to renew the Children's Health Insurance Program.
 
As Finance Committee Chairman, Max has been leading the floor debate on the legislation since Monday.
 
 “This truly is a monumental day for kids in Montana and across the country”, Baucus said. “After months of working, this feels good because this legislation represents the best of us. I will continue to push to make sure that nothing stands in the way of these kids getting the health care they deserve.”
 
The magic number: 67
 
Since President Bush has vowed to veto Max’s CHIP bill, the senator lobbied his colleagues in earnest for their support. His goal was to get at least 67 votes for the legislation. That’s the number of votes it takes to override a presidential veto. The bill ended up receiving 68 votes, more than enough to override a veto.
 
The process
 
Now that the senate has passed Max’s CHIP bill, the legislation will need to be considered by a joint House-Senate conference committee. The House passed its version of the legislation Wednesday. Baucus will be a member of the conference committee. The bill will need to be approved by both chambers once the conference committee strikes a compromise on the legislation.
 
Abigale Tuhy
 
Throughout the debate on the CHIP bill, Max featured a photo on the Senate floor of Abigale Tuhy of Missoula.
 
At the time the photo was taken she was four years old. Abigale has two siblings and they live with their mom Fawn. All three of the children participate in the Montana CHIP program.
Tabacco: A hint of deceptions to come.

When Abigale was 2 1⁄2 years old, she fell down, split her head open and had to have nine stitches – her medical care was covered by CHIP. That same year, her six year old brother broke his arm twice and CHIP paid for the surgery, hospital stay and all of the medical care that he received. Fawn, Abigale’s mother, is thankful to have CHIP not only for the emergency care it provides, but it also helps immunize Fawn’s children against childhood diseases and allows them to get the check-ups they need each year for school.
 
 
The details
 
•           Without Congressional action, CHIP, which Baucus helped create in 1997, will expire on Sept. 30 of this year.
•           On a vote of 17 to 4, the Finance Committee last week approved Baucus’ plan. Six Republican Senators supported the measure in committee.
•           The Baucus plan will provide new health care coverage to as many as 12,000 new Montana kids, while ensuring the 14,000 kids currently enrolled in CHIP keep their coverage.
•           Baucus’ plan, endorsed by The Washington Post and the Billings Gazette, will boost funding for CHIP by $35 billion over the next five years, an amount that will provide health insurance to 3.3 million more needy children across the country.
•           Baucus’ plan is paid for with a 61-cent per pack increase in federal tax on cigarettes, with proportional increases for other tobacco products.  
               
For Montana
 
The Baucus plan will substantially increase federal CHIP funding to Montana.
•           It will set aside $27.8 million for Montana in fiscal year 2008, up from the $15.7 million the state got in fiscal year 2007.
•           These funds, combined with technical changes in the bill, give Montana the tools it needs to move forward with its proposed expansion of CHIP eligibility from 150 percent of poverty to 175 percent of poverty.
•           At 175 percent of the federal poverty level, a family of three makes about $30,000 per year.
•           In addition to expanding health care to more kids, the bill also provides outreach funds for rural and Native American children, streamlines the Medicaid enrollment process for children living in poverty, and expands dental coverage.
•           In crafting the bill, Baucus worked with Montana health care providers and state officials to ensure the bill is right for Montana. He held a field hearing of the Senate Finance Committee in Billings on April 4.
 
Schweitzer, Tester Back Baucus’ Plan
      
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer:            
“This is a great day for families across the Big Sky State. As Montanans, our word is our bond, and Max gave us his word that he would expand CHIP in Washington, if we expanded it in Helena”, said Schweitzer. “This bill takes a giant step forward in our efforts to cover Montana kids. I take my hat off to Max for providing national leadership on a program that is so important to Montana”.           
               
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester:
“Montanans know this is a program that works”, Tester said.  “It is tough out there.  Millions of children lack health insurance despite their parents’ hard work and efforts to keep their heads above water.  Many families cannot afford health insurance, despite the fact that they have jobs”.
http://baucus.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=280435

Tabacco: What a GREAT GUY! Dust off that “Halo”! But wait! Could there be a 2nd face that Max Baucus will never show on his own website and that he prefers we never see? I wonder!

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Baucus Was Against Tax Loopholes

Before He Was For Them

Over the years, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D) has issued a lot of press releases made a lot of headlines railing on corporate tax loopholes and the "tax gap" - the gap between what taxes are owed and what taxes are paid. In fact, just last month, the Financial Times reported that Baucus held a hearing specifically to rail on tax loopholes that let companies hide their profits in Caribbean tax havens. "If American companies are setting up shop at the beach just to avoid their tax obligations, we can't keep our heads in the sand", Baucus thundered. This posture has allowed Baucus to sugarcoat his generally lobbyist-friendly agenda with something that seems populist.

Cut to this week's debate over the farm bill. Bloomberg News reports that House Democrats paid for part of the bill by closing tax loopholes so as to "make it harder for overseas companies to use Caribbean tax havens to avoid taxes on US profits". Sounds like something Baucus would pick up and champion when the bill comes through his committee, right? Wrong.

Here's CongressDaily from Thursday:

    "When House Democrats last week put a tax provision affecting foreign-based firms into the farm bill without committee debate, Republicans rushed to condemn it as a tax increase on firms like Switzerland-based Nestle that bring jobs to the United States...It is one of several companies cited frequently by opponents of [the] language that would see no tax penalty under the change...The Senate is likely to turn a more skeptical eye to the offset. Finance Chairman Baucus said Wednesday that the provision will not be a part of the Senate farm bill.  'We're not going to do anything that is similar to what the House did', Baucus told CongressDaily."

So, to sum up, Baucus was against precisely the kind of tax loopholes he is apparently now for - even in the face of evidence that all the Republican arguments against the Democrats' bill are actually substantively false.

I wonder...which particular lobbyists got to Baucus this time?

Posted by David Sirota at 6:13 AM
http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/08/baucus_was_against_tax_loophol.html


Tabacco: This only proves one thing –

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