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)