Posted on 11/18/2003 5:17:22 AM PST by FlyLow
The Medicare prescription-drug bill is 1,071 pages. Members of Congress will not get a copy of the bill until Wednesday or Thursday leaving them only one or two days to read, study and understand it before casting their vote on Friday or Saturday. Most House members were barred from the closed-door negotiations, even though special interests were consulted along the way.
Summaries of parts of the bill are being slowly and selectively released to members of Congress, the media and the public by the staff of the committee that wrote it. We will have only a few days to learn, in fact, what is in those 1,071 pages.
But we don't need to know every detail because supporters of the bill have already admitted that this new, never-ending "entitlement" will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and, more likely, over $1 trillion. Of course, the politicians making this decision will be dead when the children of today who are stuck paying for it, realize what has been done to them and are able to vote.
To politicians, the only future that matters is the next election. But as parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and responsible American citizens today, the future for us is not measured in such a callous and self-serving way.
The National Taxpayers Union published a chart that tells us what kind of future our children and grandchildren will have if we allow this Medicare drug bill to become law. The chart compares the yearly Medicare expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) without the prescription drug plan and with it. The numbers were compiled from the Congressional Budget Office and the 2003 Medicare Trustees report.
Without a drug "benefit," the percentage of GDP necessary to pay for Medicare increases from 2.5% to just under 10% over 75 years. With a drug "benefit," it increases to just under 40%! That's right. Not 40% of tax revenue or 40% of all government costs (that would be bad enough), but 40% of the total the U.S. produces in a year!
THINK ABOUT IT.
The yearly Medicare expenditure will consume close to 40% of our nation's GDP. But, once again, politicians aren't concerned about that far into the future.
Urge your congressional delegation to strongly oppose this Republican socialism. Tell the politicians to be concerned about the future -- the future beyond the next election. Send your message now by going to http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=4165501&type=CO
Here's a link to the graph (pdf format): http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/deadlycombo.pdf
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org
What that means is that everybody without good insurance will sign up for the 25% discount and yearly cap. Then insurance companies will start raising their rates to force the holdouts onto the program.
FWIW, I called both my senators' offices yesterday and urged a no vote. At least when my children are living in poverty because of this, I can tell them that I did something.
I'm sure that our Congress critters will read, and understand, every one of those pages before voting on them.
Well said. I could not have said it better.
And unfortunately, I have deduced from the rantings contained in many "posts" here at FreeRepublic.com, many are proud of their "Rebpublican" vote.
These mercenaries generally knew each other, sometime grew up with each other, often fought on the same side with each other, and were basically friends with each other.
One famous battle (I forget which, or the exact details) involved two large mercenary armies going against each other in "mortal combat" from sunup till sundown. These profesional warriors, viscious killers if you will, all kenw each other. At the end of this day of fierce fighting there was not a single casualty. It seems that, rather than actually hurt each other, they had just engaged in a giant shoving match to impress their employers with the ferocity of their opposition to each other.
I know this is off topic, but, somehow, for reasons not understood, It just comes into my mind on threads like this.
Unfortunately, the congresspersons are not knights. They are simply bent on bringing even more socialism to the practice of medicine. And, I think you make a nice point in comparing them to the mercenaries of old.
I see this whole Medicare prescription drug bill as a replay of New Deal legislation. Seniors who support this have absolutely no idea how much their "free" drugs are going to cost them, and their grandchildren's children. It's sad.
Sorry, that part is not voluntary. This is just another "robin hood" scheme cynically designed to buy votes from the geriatric set.
They are stalling it. I called Sen. Edwards office yesterday and the woman there said he would vote against it as it stands, due to section 631.
I can't post the link since it changes every five minutes, but if you go to http://thomas.loc.gov and enter S.1 for the bill number, then select the "Public Print" version, you can read it yourself.
Yup. I get warm and fuzzies when I think about how much they are "helping" us every day.
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