More On Medicare Bill

From the Center For American Progress -- Who Could Support This?

With so many harmful side effects, who wants this legislation? According to an op-ed by Robert Samuelson in today's WP, the bill has support in part because: a) "The White House wants more elderly voters in 2004"; b) Drug companies think sales and profits may improve, demand will rise and they'll be paid (by Medicare) for some drugs they now give away; and c) Corporate America sees a way to drop retiree drug insurance. And, although President Bush has repeatedly claimed he doesn't want to pass problems to future generations, it's the children of today who are going to be stuck with the tab. "By 2030, the number of Medicare beneficiaries rises almost 90% to 77 million. As a share of national income, spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid...is already projected to jump about 80%...To pay for this spending would require a tax increase of roughly 35% that, in today's dollars, is about $700 billion annually." But, he concludes, "the young aren't paying attention, so they're ignored." Former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-NH) said, "The only thing I can tell you is evidently the word 'tomorrow' no longer exists in the vocabulary of otherwise responsible members of Congress...They are acting as if there is no tomorrow."

AARP PULLS MATERIAL OFF WEBSITE: In recent years, AARP had been critical of efforts to kill President Clinton's health care reform and prescription drug proposals. Specifically, the group posted criticism of the now-infamous "Harry and Louise" and "Flo" ads that helped kill those reforms. But just this week, AARP pulled that material off its Web site as it launched its own advertising blitz for the drug/insurance-industry backed Medicare bill. To see a preserved version of what was pulled off their Web site, click HERE.

AND THE 2003 HYPOCRITE AWARD GOES TO: What's good enough for the goose, sadly, is not good enough for the gander: While the original Senate version of the prescription drug bill " limited Congress's government-provided prescription drug care benefit so that it would be no more generous than the benefit provided under the Medicare legislation," the House and Senate negotiators decided to look out for Number One and removed that restriction.

el - both this and previous are digested mainly from the Center For American Progress's Daily Progress Report. You can subscribe to that.