Plans Improve Federal Workers' Drug Benefits

NYTimes -- The House is expected this week to pass legislation ensuring that federal employees, including members of Congress, will have prescription drug benefits better than those available through Medicare when they retire.

The new House bill says drug benefits for civilian federal retirees, who already have drug coverage, cannot be reduced to the level proposed for Medicare. An identical bill has been introduced in the Senate.
Democrats say the new bill is evidence of hypocrisy. President Bush and other Republicans, they say, have endorsed drug coverage so inadequate that it is necessary to protect members of Congress and other federal employees against the possibility of receiving those benefits.

Mr. Bush has suggested that Medicare beneficiaries should not accept less than what lawmakers receive.

"If it's good enough for the Congress," Mr. Bush said earlier this year, "it's good enough for the senior citizens of America."

Another lie. The bills to protect government workers is normal but wrong. There have long been proposals to make congressional representatives get the same health and pension benefits as retirees as a means of improving the system.