The Deficit: Max-ed Out

An ironic testimony to the bi-partisan moral perfidy of the current Congress is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had to name Montana’s Democratic Senator (and chairman of the Senate finance committee) Max Baucus (NRA RATING: A+) to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Talk about the fox in the henhouse! Baucus has been on Big Pharma’s payroll since early in his Senate career, having taken in almost $4,000,000 in contributions from it and other healthcare interests before declaring a moratorium (out of shame?) in 2009.
He then proceeded to violate his own moratorium, only to get caught at it and forced to give the money back (not, of course, including any of the original $4M).
And now this outrageous giveaway to Amgen (one of whose 74 Washington lobbyists is Baucus’ former chief of staff), nauseatingly detailed in today’s New York Times.
Too bad the 17th Amendment didn’t call for national direct election of senators, or public revulsion might have enabled us to deep six people like Baucus who survives politically because he brings back such a large slice of federal bacon to his constituents in Montana (pop. 989K, roughly 1/300th of the U.S.).