Max Baucus

1.9 trillion is an amazing number. It is almost impossible to relate to. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a trillion of anything. But I am sure that it represents a ridiculously large amount of money. Since it’s so hard to wrap your mind around, lets put it in some perspective. With $1.9 trillion dollars we could:

• Have 33,000 times the net worth of Bill Gates.
• Go into McDonalds and buy 2.5 trillion hamburgers,
• Purchase 1.9 million of Jerry Jones’ new state of the art football stadiums
• Send 270,655,270 kids to public universities on a full scholarship
• Buy 20,357,130 thirty-second Super Bowl ads
• Build and purchase homes for more than 11 million families
• Give $6,000 to every person in the United States

1.9 trillion is simply an astounding sum. It is the equivalent of spending $61,000 PER SECOND for an ENTIRE YEAR! But this is exactly how much Congress has just voted to raise the debt limit by. Moreover, simply stating the figure they are raising the debt limit by risks masking the true national debt figure – $14.3 trillion, or about $40,000 for each man, woman, and child in the United States.

Congress is acting like a greedy teenager that has no shame in maxing out their credit cards. But unlike the average citizen who is brought down to earth with a “CARD DECLINED” signal, the federal government keeps on spending freely. As Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said,

“We have gone to the restaurant. We have eaten the meal. Now the only question is whether we’ll pay the check. . . We simply must do so.”

Ok. Well this must’ve been an all you can eat buffet because the government has gorged over the past year on a Wall Street bailout, a stimulus plan, and a marked increase in the size of the federal bureaucracy. But now it’s time to back away from the trillion dollar Twinkies and go on a fiscal diet. Sadly, and despite recent protestations from Barack Obama, Congress is unlikely to make the wholesale changes necessary to stop the spiraling debt figure. As Andrew Taylor of the Associated Press writes,

“Less than a decade ago, $1.9 trillion would have been enough to finance the operations and programs of the federal government for an entire year. Now, it’s only enough to make sure Democrats can avoid another vote before Election Day.”

But $1.9 trillion should be more than a stopgap. It should be the end of a line. As Ron Paul predicted back in 2004 after Congress had just voted raise the ceiling $800 billion,

“Does anyone really believe this will be the last time, that Congress will tighten its belt if granted one last loan? What a joke! There is only one approach to dealing with an incorrigible spendthrift: cut him off.”

So we must cut them off. Come November we must vote for real change, not simply more promises to be better next year. We, the young people of America, simply can’t afford more promises. Eventually this debt limit will be ours and it will be our responsibility to pay it down. We are not the one’s incurring the debt but we will be the one’s paying for it. So let us make our voices heard. Let’s cut off the spendthrifts who over the past year have sunk us further into debt than ever before.

Not scared yet? Check out: http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Brandon Greife is the Political Director of the College Republican National Committee (hat tip Matthew Cavanaugh)

The usual trolls didn't think much of my post yesterday about Max Baucus and the "legal briefs" he consults for filling vacant U.S. Attorney posts, but it did remind folks here in CT that this isn't the first time Senator Max Baucus has been accused of trying to dip his pen in the company inkwell.

You see, a decade or so ago Baucus's chief of staff, former CT congressional candidate Christine Niedermeier, accused the Senator of trying to include a physical relationship as part of her job duties. (mind you, this was right in the middle of  the Senator's now lapsed marriage)

Last week my blood just didn't race in that Paula Jones way when Roll Call ran the story that Montana Senator Max Baucus, 57 and married, had fired his chief of staff, Christine Niedermeier, 47 and not married, under contested circumstances. He said it was because of staff complaints that she was a lousy manager who was causing staff defections. She said (and only reluctantly when she realized there was going to be a story critical of her) that it was because she had asked him to stop making sexual advances

It's also interesting given the recent concern over guest lists at White House state dinners that before the blowup Senator Baucus brought Ms. Niedermeier to such an event as his guest.    

Niedermeier did sue Baucus, but the suit was tossed because the deadline for filing such actions against members of Congress had lapsed. (No Lily Ledbetter law for them!). She now runs a solo law practice in a small CT town.  Quite a comedown from being someone who nearly was elected to Congress in 1987.

So, evidently Mel Hanes was an exemplary employee for Senator Baucus who deserves a high powered post at the Department of Justice; and Christine Niedermeier was a shrew who deserved to be kicked to the curb.  The fact one consented to a physical relationship with her employer and the other didn't obviously had nothing to do with the assessment the Senator had about one of his top subordinates.

Excuse me for not buying that one, Max.

There's an old line about one event being an incident, twice is a coincidence, and three times consitutes a lifestyle.

We have two incidents of Senator Baucus either confirming or being accused of having a relationship with a female employee. Can we have any confidence that this is the whole list, or is this going to end up looking like the Tiger Woods scandal if folks look under enough rocks?      

On that note, anyone really think that someone trying to bed a staffer in 1999 waited almost a decade before trying again?

It might be interesting to see if other former female Baucus staffers have landed plum jobs from his friends in the government and K Street,  dontcha think?  Like I said, this looks like a lifestyle for "Mad Max".

Over a decade ago, Republican Senator Bob Packwood was run out of office for exploiting his job so he could exploit women.   We haven't much progress in improving the ethical standards of the Senate if people are now speculating that the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is up to the same monkey business.

One other thing. How many other Senate mistresses have the Obama Administration put on the public payroll? "Most ethical ever". Please!

well, the sound you hear is that of breaking glass in the Democratic glass house.

 Montana Sen. Max Baucus nominated own mistress, Melodee Hanes, as U.S. attorney

It's a shame Max's mistress took a powder from going for the U.S. Attorney post. I was really looking forward to hearing Tiger Woods testify on her behalf. I'd really like to know what this woman has got going that Mad Max can't keep his "Hanes" off her "Hanes"?

Now the bigger question. Evidently Ms. Hanes got a consolation prize in the form of a position in DC at Main Justice. And presumably, Attorney General Holder and/or White House staffers blessed this hire.

Is Attorney General Holder going to answer questions about the propriety of this?  Or is this useless partisan hack going to be as tongue tied on this as trying to explain why we are trying Al-Queda masterminds in civilian court in Manhattan?.

Eric Holder has accomplished the unbelievable. He is making the Alberto Gonzalez era at DOJ look relatively competent and apolitical.

 And perhaps we ought to questions whether Max Baucus has the sort of hmmm..."leadership".. we are looking for in a rather sensitive matter like health care reform.? What other secret deals does Mad Max have going we haven't caught wind of yet?

Based on the Mortgage Cramdown vote, these Democrats are our best hope for beating ObamaCare.

1) Max Baucus (MT) - (406) 761-1574 - Senate Finance Committee Chair

2) Michael Bennet (CO) - (719) 328-1100

3) Robert Byrd (W. Va) - (304) 264-4626

4) Thomas Carper (DE) - (302) 856-7690

5) Byron Dorgan (ND) - (701) 852-0703

6) Tim Johnson (SD) - (605) 332-8896

7) Mary Landrieu (LA) - (337) 436-6650

8) Blanche Lincoln (AR) - (870)382-1023

9) Ben Nelson (NE) - (308) 631-7614

10) Mark Pryor (AR) - (501) 324-6336

11) Arlen Specter (PA) - 570-346-2006 - I Know; just think about how much fun it'll be when he stabs the Dems in the Back!!!

12) John Tester (MT) - (406) 365-2391

Honorable Mention - Evan Bayh (IN), Mark Begich (AK), Kent Conrad (ND), Bill Nelson (FL)

We can Beat this Thing!!!

I hope this helps.

Cahnman out.