Medicare Prescription-drug Bill

The Liberty Committee ^ | Kent Snyder

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Note: This message is the first in a series about the pending Medicare prescription-drug bill.

Congress will soon vote on the most far-reaching and the most costly expansion of the federal government in our nation's history when it takes up the Medicare prescription-drug bill (H.R. 1). If H.R. 1 is approved by Congress and signed by President Bush, our country will never be the same. By comparison, the proposed Medicare prescription-drug "entitlement benefit" makes FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society look like small and cheap federal programs.

Tragically, many of the biggest and most costly federal programs in our nation's history were negotiated in secret and then given to congressional members with little or no time for them to read, let alone study, the legislation itself. This is the age of instantaneous electronic communication...there is no excuse to repeat this except as an underhanded tactic to prevent ugly details from being discovered. Unfortunately, the Medicare prescription-drug bill will be no exception.

This is such a concern in the House of Representatives that on October 29, 2003, 41 House members signed a letter asking the House leadership for "at least three calendar days" to study the bill before having to vote on it. The second paragraph of the letter reads: "The general public will evaluate not only what Congress does regarding Medicare and prescription drugs, but the way in which it does it. A bill proposing such substantive changes to the Medicare system and costing an estimated $400 billion over the next decade deserves the careful and thoughtful consideration of all Members." To see a copy of the letter with the names of the 41 signatories, go to http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/kline1.htm .

Again, this message is the first in a series about the Medicare prescription-drug bill. To learn more and be better prepared to contact your congressional delegation, go to http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/medicare.htm . That page has a collection of articles, commentaries, cartoons and graphs.

Kent Snyder The Liberty Committee http://www.thelibertycommittee.org