With news that Sen. Max Baucus will not seek re-election in 2014, the tea party has quickly emerged to claim it as a happy victory.
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the Montana Democrat was a key author of President Obama’s health care reform, yet Mr. Baucus called the implementation of the law a “huge train wreck coming down.”
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The nation’s largest tea party umbrella group finds that amusing.
“Yes, Obamacare is a ‘train wreck’ and unfortunately Sen. Baucus realized it after authoring and promoting this terrible law,” says Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, which represents some 3,000 local groups.
“The message of our very first rally on February 27, 2009 was ‘Repeal the Pork or We Will Retire You.’ We have made good on that promise as former Senators like Saxby Chambliss, Tom Harkin, Arlen Specter and others have succumbed to the will of the American people,” Mrs. Martin continues, citing the power of “grassroots Americans.”
The Tea Party Patriots have opposed Obamacare on principle, characterizing it a “one-size-doesn’t-fit-all big-government disaster cooked up by Washington politicians, lobbyists and bureaucrats.”
Mrs. Martin points out that according to a Boston Globe report, “K Street is literally littered with former Baucus staffers,” with more than 28 taking up lobbying.
“We will watch carefully to see what crony deals Sen. Baucus has for himself as he nears retirement,” she says. “We do not elect our representatives to go to Washington, D.C. to create more bureaucracy and build power for themselves at the expense of our freedom and rights.”
