Baucus Slips, Suggests Daschle Will Still be HHS Sec.

Two days after Tom Daschle made front-page news by withdrawing as President Obama’s Health and Human Services secretary nominee, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) suggested the former majority leader was still ready to carry out healthcare reform.

In a head-scratching speech delivered on the Senate floor Thursday, the Finance Committee chairman referenced Daschle when speaking out against a Medicare amendment sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Baucus said, “I suggest it is not wise, the provision in the McCain amendment, to set up a Medicare commission but, rather to tackle head-on health care reform. I do believe the president is going to announce a health care summit in the not too distant future as a way to get this going. Senator Daschle is all lined up and keyed up to get health care reform going. He wrote a book on it. I know the administration is dedicated to making sure that health care reform does not slip, that it is very much front and center.”

It appears Baucus did not update a speech written at least a few days ago.

Baucus started out his speech correcting another senator, who had mistakenly claimed that the markup of the stimulus package in the Finance Committee had been 1 1/2 hours instead of 11 1/2 hours.

–Bob Cusack