Max Baucus

Max Baucus

Max Sieben Baucus (born December 11, 1941 in Helena , Montana ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . From 1978 to 2014 he represented the state of Montana in the US Senate , where he was Chairman of the Finance Committee (from 2007) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (from 2009). Baucus was the United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of China from February 6, 2014 to January 20, 2017 .

Family, education and work

Baucus grew up on the Seven family farm near Helena. He graduated from the Stanford University with a degree in jurisprudence from. After brief work as a lawyer in Washington and Missoula , he realized, as he described in retrospect, during a trip around the world in the Congo that the world was getting smaller and resources scarcer - and decided to serve the public.

Baucus now lives with his wife Melodee Hanes at Bozeman's .

Political career

After his return to his home state, Baucus served from 1971 as executive director of the Montana Constituent Assembly , which in 1972 adopted a new constitutional document. In 1973, Baucus became a member of the Montana House of Representatives . A year later, in 1974, he ran for the US House of Representatives , where he after the victory over the Republican incumbent Richard G. Shoup belonged from 3 January 1975th

In November 1978, Max Baucus won the US Senator election with 55.6 percent of the vote against Republican Larry Williams . In the primary election of his party, he had prevailed against Paul G. Hatfield , who had been appointed as his successor after the death of Senator Lee Metcalf on January 12, 1978. Baucus would have started his regular mandate on January 3, 1979, but took it up earlier following the early resignation of Paul Hatfield on December 12, 1978. Since then, Baucus has consistently represented his state in the Senate; most recently he was re-elected in 2008 , with 73 percent of the vote against Republican Bob Kelleher. Baucus was most recently the senior colleague of Jon Tester, who is also a member of the Senate for Montana . Bacus had a major influence on American politics as a temporary chairman of the finance committee.

On February 6, 2014, Baucus was appointed ambassador to Beijing. As his successor in the Senate, Montana's Democratic Governor Steve Bullock appointed the previous lieutenant governor of the state, John Walsh , who had previously stated that he would run for the mandate of the no longer running Baucus in the regular election in November 2014 . Like all incumbent ambassadors, Baucus was dismissed with immediate effect on January 20, 2017 by the newly elected US President Donald Trump . Baucus returned to Montana and lives there in retirement.

Positions

During his time in the Senate, Baucus was regarded as a centrist with great influence who repeatedly slowed down the left wing of his party. In 2009/10 he was one of the main architects of the Obamacare health care reform and ensured that it brought about incremental reforms rather than structural changes. At an event in September 2017, Baucus surprised everyone by speaking out in favor of general state health insurance ( single-payer ) - the time was not yet ripe for it then. Observers see this statement as evidence of the shift in the American discussion about health policy, especially within the Democratic Party.

Looking back in 2017, Baucus defended the longstanding practice of distributing subsidies ("earmarks") by Congress in all parts of the country - 90 percent of these were useful and held politics together; their extensive abolition in recent years can be attributed to pressure from the media. He lamented the disappearance of social interaction in the Senate across party lines and the skyrocketing cost of election campaigns.

Web links

Commons : Max Baucus  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Max Baucus in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ed O'Keefe: Max Baucus Confirmed as US Ambassador to China. In: The Washington Post , February 6, 2014.
2. ↑ Gail Schontzler: Baucus backs single-payer health system. In: Boozeman Daily Chronicle , September 8, 2017 (English).
3. ↑ Sean Sullivan, Aaron Blake: Montana Governor Appoints Lt. Gov. John Walsh to Senate. In: The Washington Post , February 7, 2014.
4. ↑ Sam Baker: ACA architect Max Baucus backs single-payer. In: Axios.com , September 8, 2017 (English).
5. ↑ Gail Schontzler: Baucus backs single-payer health system. In: Boozeman Daily Chronicle , September 8, 2017 (English).