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We're selling out by passing The Prescription Drug Panderation Act. I hold Gingrich and DeLay both in the utmost contempt. It's time for Gingrich to go away and collect his entitlements like the good socialist sellout that he is.

On the bright side, however, Toomey is running as a conservative against Arlen SPECTRE, the evil anti-Bork.

"miniaturized premium support into a six-region pilot project, an effective death sentence for privatization"

Sigh. The more I read Novak, the more I'm convinced he hates Bush, and deliberately slants things so as to infuriate the "right" knowing that the Left will take care of its side. What he wrote above is pure BS.

I work in academia---in a bureaucracy. Do any of you know what it means when you have a "pilot project?" It doesn't mean what common sense says it means. It means, "THIS WILL BECOME A REALITY, ONLY SLOWER THAN WE'D LIKE." I have never, ever, seen one "pilot" that didn't become implemented fully. Even "vouchers" are spreading rapidly, and probably in five years will be pretty common almost everywhere.

Despite what all the "big-government gloomsters" think, this provision is the key to the whole bill, and is in fact the item that is going to end Medicare.

The amazing thing is that the greedy-geezer ARPies have signed on to it, taking the short-term benefits over the long-term privatization that is coming. In this, the 9 dwarves have this exactly right!

Getting the career government bureaucrats out of as much as practically possible shows compassion for all Americans. Get the government out of the way and let the Free Market work! The Democrats don't have genuine compassion for seniors, they do not want to lose the prescription drug issue by allowing a solution to be implemented, same as social security. They had eight years, was anything proposed? They only want the issues.

I have been convinced that Novak is loosing it for some time. His pro-Arab, Anti-Bush, Anti-Jew bias is effecting his thinking.

If the Dems are able to stop the passage of this bill it will cost them dearly in the next election. Polls show very strong support for prescription drug coverage for seniors - especially among the seniors (who all vote.) That would probably end up giving the Pubs a 60+ majority in the Senate. This is a loose - loose for the Dems.

"We should not be the party of entitlements."

Sadly, the trend for the GOP is in the wrong direction. Republican's keep slipping towards support for more and more entitlement programs. Helping out the elderly poor is one thing, but supplying prescription drug payouts for financially secure seniors is dead wrong. What's next? This is a $400 billion waste, that will eventually turn into a trillion dollar waste. This has got to stop, or in 25 years, 95% of federal taxes will be spent on social security, medicare and defense, with overwhelming emphasis on the New Deal and Great Society programs. A nightmare scenario for America's future.