Albuquerque questions Obama over Baucus conflict-of-interest

In a town hall meeting today at Rio Rancho High School, President Obama was asked why a single-payer health care solution was "taken off the plate" and whether Senator Baucus, as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has a conflict of interest when holding hearings on health care reform while taking so much money from the health care industry.

It is indeed a blatant conflict of interest and polls show that the majority of Americans would support a single-payer initiative. Obama shifts to ambiguous mode and basically labels the thought of a single-payer solution as not practical and perhaps too "ideologically pure." That's a tough answer to swallow if you're sick and "realistically broke."

Baucus is one of the biggest receivers of health industry contributions in Congress, or as one blogger recently put it, "It's the most open secret on the Hill that Max Baucus is in more pockets than lint."

Obama never answers the conflict of interest question.

Baucus recently called Senate Finance Committee hearings on health care reform and excluded advocates of a single-payer system. For-profit medical and pharmaceutical groups, including those that have donated money to Baucus, were called to present testimony at the hearings.

The majority of doctors in the U.S. support a single-payer system. As of Tuesday, over a dozen single-payer advocates, many of them doctors, have been arrested for protesting at the hearings.

In the video below, Ed Schultz asks some logical questions about why a single-payer solution, which has widespread consumer and provider support, is being barred from discussion. Democracy at its finest.