Lott casts key vote to save Medicare bill he opposes

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cast aside as leader by his colleagues, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., was the man Republicans needed Monday to clear the path to approving the Medicare prescription drug bill that he opposes.

At stake was not just the $395 billion bill, which Democrats were attempting to halt with procedural roadblocks, but also the political prestige of Lott's successor as Republican leader, Tennessee surgeon Bill Frist.

-Adding to Medicare's Unfunded Liabilities. Medicare is already projected to go bankrupt. Nonetheless, this bill will unconscionably add hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities to the program.

- Deficits. This bill will add at least $400 billion to the already record budget deficits projected in the near term. If past history is any guide, we can expect the actual cost to be much higher.

-Millions of Retirees Will Lose Good Coverage. Despite provisions that attempt to prevent companies from dropping coverage for their retirees, we believe this bill will lead to millions of retirees losing benefits currently being provided by their former employers.

- A Retreat on the Promise of Reform. Real reforms have largely given way to "fig leaves" such as demonstration projects (which Congress has a remarkable tendency of ignoring or undermining anyway).

Southack wrote an accurate, succinct description of this bill on this thread. I asked if I could borrow it, and he didn't say no, so here it is:

To: Sci Fi Guy
"I realize that Bush is keeping a campaign promise he made in the last election. But #$%@, does he have to propose a bill that is going to costs us trillions of dollars??"
Wild-eyed exagerations like "trillions of dollars" prevent honest debate.
What the bill does, is fund preventative care such as checkups and prescription drugs. Right now, seniors only get things such as reactive care paid for (i.e. surgery). So their incentive is to wait until a problem requires surgery (a very costly option for us taxpayers) rather than go get a checkup and take preventative medicine.
For this change, we taxpayers are on the hook for $39.5 Billion per year (not trillions, not even close). That's about $10 per month, per American. Some experts even claim that such preventative care will *save* taxpayers money overall in the long by reducing the quantity of expensive surgery being performed today at taxpayer expense.
And here's the kicker: this bill begins to *privatize* all of Medicare in ten years. There is private competition built all into this bill. Why do you think that the Dems are going so freaking nuts over this thing passing?! It's because they know that they aren't going to ever have the votes to stop this privatization process.
So either the Dems fight this bill and get portrayed as mean, ruthless politicians who would deny preventative care to Seniors in order to deny Republicans "credit" for this bill, or else they see this monster get passed and watch helplessly as their precious Medicare gets Privatized.
Social Security is next.
No doubt the same 3rd party whiners will come around criticizing our efforts to privatize it, too.
Lenin didn't call 'em useful idiots for nothing, after all!
27 posted on 11/22/2003 7:47 AM CST by Southack (Media bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)

"Jackasses all."

Yup.

"What a joke on those of us who pay taxes. "

Yup.

"Bend over, America, once more. (And No, there's no vaseline for ya.)"

Yup.

"Grin, and bear it."

Yes!!

A Grand Slam.

...very rare.

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