Free Republic

If Congress fails to comprehensively reform Medicare, seniors will miss out on significant savings, and taxpayers will miss out on the opportunity to slow the program’s cost growth.In an interview with “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) cast doubt on the prospect for comprehensive Medicare reform on the congressional agenda in 2018: “There are some provider issues that we may be addressing as you know. Some providers in the Medicare field in some cases are getting overpaid. We want to make sure that’s being dealt with. But as far as you’re talking about beneficiaries, we’re not...

In 1950, a candidate for Congress in Florida named George Smathers reportedly gave speeches to rural, uneducated voters and accused his incumbent opponent, Claude Pepper, of being “a known extrovert” who practiced “celibacy” before marriage, practiced “nepotism” with his sister-in-law, “matriculated” with women in college and had a sister who was “a thespian” and brother who was “a practicing homo sapien.” In the world of political campaigns, the story is legendary. In truth, what we know today is that Smathers crushed Pepper in that election. What we don't know for sure is what role those speeches played, if any, in...

Many politicians (and many voters) duck the hard choices when it comes to Medicare reform. But what’s remarkable about the past year is that, in some ways, momentum appears to be building for real improvements to the program’s quality and sustainability. Based on a new proposal from Sens. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), the impossible seems within reach: the triumph of sound policy over interest-group politics.Today, Sens. Burr and Coburn have put forth a new Medicare reform proposal, the Seniors’ Choice Act, which combines the ideas behind the best two bipartisan plans that came out last...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that Democratic opposition to a Republican-backed Medicare prescription drug bill is "a party position," signaling an aggressive effort to unite the rank-and-file, scuttle the bill and claim credit with voters.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- As Congress limps toward adjournment, the rancor between Republicans and Democrats is palpable on Capitol Hill, and much of the people's business is languishing. A Medicare prescription-drug plan is stalled. An energy bill has been bottled up for weeks in a conference committee. And filibusters are everywhere.</p>

The Democratic Party is urging Americans to choose Medicare as we've always known it rather than a new plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) that would enroll seniors in private health insurance beginning in 2022. This choice is a hoax: Medicare as we've always known it is already gone. It was eviscerated by President Obama's health law. Yet if the president and the Democratic Party successfully bamboozle voters, they may win back independents and registered Democrats who voted for Republicans in 2010. The 2012 election could turn on this falsehood. The truth is that the Obama health law reduces...

From the producers of Wordplay and the studio that brought you Supersize Me, the must-see documentary I.O.U.S.A. uncovers the source of critical economic concerns that touch the lives of every American. A tapestry of archival footage, hard data and candid interviews woven together, it paints an authentic profile of today’s economic condition. Solutions for how we can impact this nationwide crisis and evolve into a more fiscally sound nation for future generations are offered by the documentary’s powerful conclusion. “May be to the U.S. Economy what An Inconvenient Truth was to the environment.” - Reuters

BROOKLINE, Pa. - It's showtime at Elizabeth Seton Center in this well-groomed Pittsburgh suburb, and a feisty crowd of retirees is tuned in to an old favorite, Uncle Walter. On display is a video presentation narrated by Walter Cronkite on the details of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, passed in December. For the seniors, the 13-minute video confirms what a growing number of them suspected: that the new law, muscled through the Republican-controlled Congress and embraced by the White House as an election-year vote-getter, is in reality a multibillion dollar giveaway to drug makers and...

The Conservative Principles Inherent in the Medicare Reform Legislation (This article was written from information gleaned from a variety of sources, including the White House, the Senate GOP Policy Committee, the Sen. Majority Leader's website, the Amer. Assoc. of Health Plans., and from the author's experience in the health care industry.) There has been much murmuring among conservatives over President Bush’s domestic policies, stemming mainly from spending initiatives. “Spending like a drunken sailor” is pretty much the way it’s been characterized. Central to the discontent has been the passage by Congress, at the urging of the President, of the Medicare...

<p>WASHINGTON - President Bush defended the recently enacted Medicare overhaul Friday despite a dramatic increase in its projected costs, as his budget director received an earful from angry Republican lawmakers.</p> <p>"The Medicare reform we did is a good reform. It fulfills a long-standing promise to our seniors," Bush told reporters after a meeting with economists who support his agenda. The president sidestepped questions, however, about whether the suddenly ballooning cost estimates for the bill had upset lawmakers.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON — At least 45,000 people have quit the AARP (search) over its support for Medicare legislation last year, association president William Novelli said Friday.</p> <p>The nation's largest seniors' organization provided a key boost to Republicans who led the effort to revamp the Medicare program for older and disabled Americans and provide insurance coverage for prescription drugs.</p>

Alexandria, VA – Conservatives will honor the 25 Republican members of the U.S. House who voted against the recent Medicare entitlement expansion as part of the Conservative Political Action Conference's (CPAC) historic Ronald Reagan Banquet on Friday, January 23, 2004. CPAC, the nation’s oldest and largest annual gathering of conservatives, will be held January 22--24, 2004 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia."These 25 courageous Representatives stood for principle in the face of intense pressure and arm-twisting," said ACU chairman David A. Keene. "Their collective willingness to adhere to limited-government conservatism--our Founders’ conservatism--is a message that will stir and...

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. — In no state do seniors make up a more generous slice of the population than Florida, that balmy retirement destination under the palms. So nowhere should the recent reform of Medicare have deeper, more durable consequences on how people vote. Once, that is, that Florida's nearly 2.8 million residents age 65 and older figure out exactly what has changed, and how it affects them. "People are bewildered by it; they don't know what's happening to their health plan," said Nana Klein, 85, a retired New York state civil servant who keeps track of senior-related legislation for...

Is ''Mediscare'' dead? The term was coined by Republicans who angrily believe Democrats have tried to frighten seniors into thinking that GOP lawmakers have only slightly more use for Medicare than they would for something they might scrape off their shoes. But Republicans are now confident that enacting a new and long-sought prescription drug benefit under the government-run Medicare health insurance program for seniors will make them close to bulletproof during the 2004 presidential and congressional elections. ''It is an advantage,'' said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), ''because we were able to accomplish what Democrats have talked about for...

The history of American conservatism is an exodus tale. It begins in the wilderness, in the early 1950's, with Russell Kirk, Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley Jr. writing tracts for small bands of true believers. Conservatives crashed into the walls of power during the Goldwater debacle of 1964, and then breached those walls with Reagan's triumph 16 years later. But even with Reagan in the Oval Office, Republicans were not the majority party. Democrats controlled the House, and few Reaganites actually knew how to run a government. In 1994, with the Gingrich revolution, the conservatives strode closer to the...

<p>In politics, there's nothing like having the other side steamroll your party -- using your own steamroller -- to jangle the emotions.</p> <p>Democrats have owned the Medicare issue for nearly 40 years. But this week, the Republicans climbed into the driver's seat and mashed the gas pedal. In closed-door sessions that excluded nearly all Democrats, through rule-bending roll calls, dishing out goodies to friends and twisting arms of the recalcitrant, the Republicans passed $400 billion worth of changes. Democrats spent the day picking carpet fibers out of their hairdos and sorting out their reactions.</p>

<p>President Bush hit the stump yesterday to promote congressional passage of the prescription-drug bill. In meetings with seniors out West, he assured those with high drug costs that his administration was delivering the relief they need. Medicare "was becoming old and it needed help," said the president. When he signs the legislation into law, "the Medicare system will be modern and it will be strong." Because of the promise of the program, the traditionally pro-Democratic AARP took the unusual move of backing the Republican bill in the strongest manner. The new entitlement will help many Americans, and it may pull new voters into the Republican Party.</p>

<p>The Senate yesterday approved historic Medicare prescription-drug legislation, clearing the way for President Bush's signature on the largest expansion of the government health program since its creation in 1965.</p> <p>"Today is an extraordinary [day], it's a fateful and a red-letter day for seniors and, indeed, for all Americans," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, after the measure passed 54-44.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - Landmark Medicare prescription drug legislation advanced toward final congressional passage Monday as Senate supporters turned back a pair of attacks launched by die-hard Democratic opponents. The bill's supporters prevailed in the second showdown of the day on a dramatic roll call that ended at 61-39, one more than they needed. No time was immediately set for passage of the bill, which would make the most sweeping changes in Medicare since its creation in 1965 by providing a prescription drug benefit for the program's beneficiaries and giving insurance companies broad leeway to offer private coverage to 40...

Daschle Said To Oppose Option. CAPITOL HILL -- Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy is promising to filibuster the Medicare bill following an extraordinary three-hour House vote. Republican leaders used the time to pursue GOP holdouts and finally win passage. In response, Kennedy says he wants a fair vote in the House in exchange for dropping his filibuster. Before the House vote, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said he would oppose a filibuster. His spokesman says Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist would seek a vote Monday to end a filibuster. The legislation's backers would need 60 votes to close off debate and...