Posted on 11/20/2003 3:57:54 AM PST by RJCogburn
ABOUT THREE quarters of Americans want Congress to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare. At the same time, more than half of Americans say they have not paid attention to the details of the prescription drug legislation pending in Congress. This is a prescription for disaster. President Bush desperately wants his signature on a bill to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. He knows darn well that the details of the legislation hardly matter. What matters is taking this issue away from the Democrats.
Congressional Republicans are more or less on board. Hence we have an outrageously expensive prescription drug bill that would actually encourage companies to drop prescription drug coverage, put loads of people on public assistance who can afford to pay for their own drugs, and create unnecessary hurdles for the introduction of competition to the federally subsidized prescription drug market.
It is a bad bill for taxpayers and for senior citizens. Fortunately, Democrats are opposing it. Unfortunately, they oppose it for all the wrong reasons.
They say the bill would privatize, or lead to the privatization of, Medicare, which is a lie. They are worried that a provision allowing experimentation with private drug coverage for Medicare patients would actually work, and therefore make seniors less dependent on the government. And they are worried that it would be a political victory for Bush.
This is a bad bill, Rep. Dick Gephardt said at an AARP forum in Bedford on Tuesday. Its a Republican bill. Therefore, its a bad bill.
Hows that for public spiritedness? No wonder nothing useful gets done in Washington
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