What About Bayh?

by Josh Orton, Mon Apr 06, 2009 at 01:24:17 PM EDT

Ezra takes a deep dive into Bayh's inconsistency between his budget-hawk rhetoric and his debt-producing votes:

Bayh's expressed preferences ranked reducing the debt first and investing in areas like health care second. They also suggested an aversion to tax cuts for the affluent. But the revealed preferences showed something else entirely. Bayh cut $300 billion of revenue-neutral money for health reform from the budget. He then promised to find $440 billion in the budget and, rather than directing it toward debt repayment, cut taxes on the top two-hundredths of the income distribution.

This stuff is pretty cynical. Bayh's trying to build his relevance - he wants the media to wait with bated breath for his reaction to major policy. He wants to be in the room. Happily, I don't think Bayh's savvy enough to achieve the importance he wants. But don't get fooled - just because Bayh could only whip two votes against Obama's budget doesn't automatically mean his motivations for doing so weren't self-serving. It just means Bayh's hunt for relevance is failing.

Tags: Evan Bayh (all tags)

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11 Comments

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Posted this before....

But worth repeating...

It's clear, Bayh and his spouse are corporatists, rich and bloated from their alligance to big corporate America:

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs. dll/article?AID=/20071216/LOCAL1004/7121 60424

`Smell Test'

While it isn't inherently unethical for Senate spouses to join corporate boards, concerns may arise if companies and lawmakers are in positions to benefit from the connections, said Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity. ``It doesn't pass the ethical smell test,'' Buzenberg said.

WellPoint, which paid Susan Bayh almost $335,000 last year, is the biggest U.S. health-insurance company by membership as Obama's campaign promises to push for universal health-care coverage. WellPoint spent $890,000 lobbying Congress and the Bush administration in the three months ended June 30, according to disclosure forms.

A former lawyer for Eli Lilly & Co., Susan Bayh is a director at four publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies: Curis Inc., Dendreon Corp., Dyax Corp., and MDRNA Inc. Earlier this year, she left the board of closely held Golden State Foods, one of McDonald's Corp.'s biggest suppliers, and became a company adviser.

Oh sure, Evan will be COMPLETELY impartial when deciding about Health Care in this years Senate battles...

by WashStateBlue 2009-04-06 02:06PM | 0 recs
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Re: What About Bayh?

That would be "bated breath", as in held breath.  The alternative might have to do with halitosis from eating sushi.  ;;;--->>>>>

by Leading Edge Boomer 2009-04-06 02:54PM | 0 recs
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Re: To Hell with Bayh

He's dead to me.

Try this for some good reading...

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/t ol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6 043331.ece?token=null&offset=0&p age=1

by QTG 2009-04-06 03:26PM | 0 recs
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I am so relieved

that Bayh didn't end up as Obama's running mate.

by desmoinesdem 2009-04-06 03:51PM | 0 recs
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Re: I am so relieved

I joined the No Evan Bayh for VP group on Facebook.  Biden wasn't my first choice at the time, but I was mostly relieved it wasn't Bayh.  He sucks ass.

by Sandwich Repairman 2009-04-06 10:44PM | 0 recs
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Evan Bayh != Birch Bayh

Not at all

by antiHyde 2009-04-06 04:23PM | 0 recs
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Re: What About Bayh?

I would respect these supposed "moderate" "deficit hawks" if they actually cared about fiscal responsibility.  I don't think now is the time to address the deficit, but that's a legitimate issue that progressives ought to care about in the medium and long term.  But all of these folks ever take a stand against is non-defense domestic spending.  And they ALWAYS oppose any attempts to increase revenue.  

That combination shows rather clearly that Bayh and his ilk don't care about deficits - they just enjoy stifling democratic initiatives.  Pitiful.  

by HSTruman 2009-04-06 04:25PM | 0 recs
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Re: What About Bayh?

Paul Krugman had possibly the best answer; centrism or moderation is not an ideology, it's a pose.  They had no philosophical reason why the stimulus was $100B too big.  Nor did they find spending they objected to which just happened to total $100B.  They merely wanted to throw their weight around, extract their pound of flesh just because they can.  Psychologists might call it "power assertion".  Obama could've (probably should've) just asked for a $1.4T stimulus at first and settled for $1.3T.  Closer to $2T if you compare to Bush's 2001 tax cut and index to inflation.

by Sandwich Repairman 2009-04-06 10:47PM | 0 recs
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Re: What About Bayh?

Bayh voted for the 2001 Bush tax cut.  In 2003, he voted for it after he voted against it (or maybe the other way around--he made it 50-50 so Cheney broke the tie).

Bayh is a shameless, spineless opportunist who disgraces his father's great legacy.  The only principle he believes in is his own political advancement.  I've been trying to make that point for years.

by Sandwich Repairman 2009-04-06 10:42PM | 0 recs
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Re: What About Bayh?

I agree. What really annoyed me about him was the perception of this guy as a level headed smart man. I see nothing smart about the guy. He seemed as clueless as his lookalike, Ferris Bueller's dad.

He never gives a good rationale for what he does. Maddow is the only talk show host who has nailed him on some logical fallacies. I wish Maddow takes another crack at him and gets him on her show again.

by Pravin 2009-04-07 06:24AM | 0 recs
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Re: What About Bayh?

If he was half the man his father is, his state and the Senate would be better off.  

by HSTruman 2009-04-07 06:43PM | 0 recs

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