“Democrat Senator & Drug Money!”

by Chuck Ness

In a story that is sure to make waves, a prominent United States Senator has accepted money from Drug cartels while sitting on the very committee that oversees such activity. This article was written by a beat reporter for the Montana Lee Newspapers State Bureau. The reporter writes for four daily newspapers in Montana and covers the area of legal and illegal drug dealings in Montana and nationally. Go here to read Amy Goodman’s complete interview of Mike Dennison and his story on Senator Max Baucus ‘s dealings with these drug cartels.

Montana Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is the Senate’s point man on healthcare reform. A new article in the Montana Standard finds that Senator Baucus has received more campaign money from health and insurance industry interests than any other member of Congress. The article says, “In the past six years, nearly one-fourth of every dime raised by Baucus and his political-action committee has come from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals.”

AMY GOODMAN:

Montana Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is the Senate’s point man on healthcare reform. Over the past few weeks, he’s held a series of hearings on the issue. Senator Baucus has said a national single-payer healthcare system is “off the table,” has refused to include any single-payer advocates in the committee hearings. He eventually met with single-payer advocates after a series of protests, in which thirteen people were arrested after being thrown out of his hearings. However, he expressed no willingness to reverse his principled opposition to a single-payer system that would eliminate for-profit healthcare.

Now, a new article in the Montana Standard finds Senator Baucus has received more campaign money from health and insurance industry interests than any other member of Congress. The article says, “In the past six years, nearly one-fourth of every dime raised by Baucus and his political-action committee has come from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals.”

The article was written by Mike Dennison, a reporter for the Montana Lee Newspapers State Bureau. He writes for four daily newspapers in Montana and covers healthcare closely. He recently interviewed Senator Baucus twice on the issue. He joins us by Democracy Now! video stream from his home in Helena. Mike, welcome to Democracy Now! Go through the financial support that Senator Baucus gets from the health insurance industry.

MIKE DENNISON:

We’re talking about the health insurance industry and the health industry, which is HMOs, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies–that’s probably where the bulk of his money has come from. The report that we prepared showed, out of about almost $15 million he’s raised in the last six years, both for his campaign….continue reading Mike Dennison’s interview here.