10 Facts for Fiscal Conservatives to Consider When Voting on the Medicare Prescription Drug Legislation
1. By CBO's estimates, this bill will bring the total projected deficit for the coming decade to nearly $2 trillion.
2. In the year 2026 alone (the year Medicare Part A is projected to go bankrupt), this legislation will increase the overall cost of Medicare by $300 billion.
3. This legislation will force millions of Americans to lose their private prescription drug coverage and be herded into an inferior government-run program. Benefits would cost most seniors more and deliver less.
4. The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) strongly opposes this bill. NTU has announced that the vote on final passage of this bill will be the most heavily weighted vote in its Annual Rating of Congress.
5. Club for Growth Advocacy is opposed to this bill, and will use the vote on the conference report in its evaluation of Congressional performance. On November 20th, it released a poll of likely voters age 65 and over that found that, when presented with no more information about the prescription drug bill than the $400 billion price tag, America's seniors offer lukewarm support for the proposal (43% support, 31% oppose). However, over 70% of seniors disapprove of the risks that this bill could increase the cost of prescription drugs for some seniors, decrease employer-based coverage and add substantially to the national debt. Once those factors are presented, support for the bill drops by a net of 47 percentage points, and a 54% majority oppose the bill, compared to only 19% who remain in favor of the bill.
6. The American Conservative Union (ACU) strongly opposes this bill. ACU has taken the almost unprecedented step of announcing that the vote on this bill will be double-counted in its Annual Rating of Congress.
7. Dick Armey is strongly opposed to this bill -- read his op-ed in Friday's Wall Street Journal.
8. 44 conservative and taxpayer groups from across America (including the National Taxpayers Union, American Conservative Union, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Family Research Council, Taxpayers For Common Sense Action, and National Tax Limitation Committee) have condemned this bill in the strongest possible terms -- read their letter at www.ntu.org. Their condemnation is strongly backed up by the research of think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the National Center for Public Policy Research, and the National Center for Policy Analysis.
9. By 2057, this bill will double the estimated burden of Medicare on the nation's annual economic output: instead of consuming 7.1 percent of GDP, Medicare will instead consume a staggering 14.4 percent! In other words, voting for this bill will grant Hillary Clinton's wish for government to control over one-seventh of the American economy.
10. The demonstration projects to test competition to Medicare may well never take place or be distorted by officials hostile to the concept. The Wall Street Journal has reported that AARP chief William Novelli said he "doesn't expect [the demonstration projects] ever to take place in any event. 'It's a fig leaf' to assuage conservatives, he said."
