Posted on 12/08/2003 8:47:55 AM PST by Reagan Man
President Bush has made it official. By signing into law the new Medicare Prescription Drug Program, the President has given his approval to the largest increase in spending by the federal government since Medicare itself was created and signed into law by the liberal Democrat, President Johnson in 1965. The President has given his okay to raise government expenditures by $400 billion over the next ten years. We all know spending on this Medicare PDP, will not stop at $400 billion. As with all government entitlement programs, the costs to run this new addition to the federal bureaucracy will double or triple over the next ten years.
Bush does win on the politics, but its not a political victory for conservatives or for the GOP in the long term. Medicare is not on the road to privatization.
Throwing money at problems is the way liberal Democrats solved things throughout the 1960`s and 1970`s. That's how the governments entitlement programs grew to over 60% of the current budgetary expenditures. Most traditional conservatives don't oppose assisting the elderly poor, the seriously handicapped or America's military veterans. However, this addition to Medicare, is a boondoggle for government, the drug companies and financially secure seniors.
In the 2000 election campaign, candidate Bush ran on reforming Medicare. His plan called for $158 billion program that assisted the elderly poor, while injecting a much needed modernization phase into the system. What the President signed into law today, was not what he ran on in 2000. President Bush has proven, he is a BIG GOVERNMENT Republican.
The Hertitage Foundation did a solid analysis on the new Mediacre-PDP. You can find it here, Why Medicare Expansion Threatens the Bush Tax Cuts and Undermines Fundamental Tax Reform . Robert Samualson wrote a good piece on the subject. Medicare as Pork Barrel. Here's another good article, Analysts: Medicare Drug Costs Will Rise.
A snippet from the Heritage Foundation analysis.
The Medicare prescription drug proposal is bad health policy, exacerbating the flaws in a system that has almost no market-based incentives to improve service and control costs. But the House and Senate bills also will undermine sound tax and economic policy in several ways. Specifically:
The size of government will expand
A new entitlement will take America even faster down the road that has caused so much economic damage in Europe's welfare states. Indeed, the unfunded Medicare expansion is essentially a huge future tax increase since the population of Medicare recipients will nearly double once the baby-boom generation retires. Ironically, just when some European countries are waking up to the problem and restraining unfunded entitlements, America will be creating an enormous new entitlement.
President Bush's recently enacted tax cut and tax reform package will likely be the first casualty
Because of arcane budget rules, the bulk of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire at the end of 2008 and the end of 2010. Extending these tax cuts or making them permanent will be enormously difficult in an environment of skyrocketing spending for government-provided health care. Indeed, the creation of a prescription drug entitlement may be akin to repealing the Bush tax cuts.
By adding to the deficit, the huge new unfunded liability will likely be the death knell of further tax relief and fundamental tax reform
A prescription drug benefit means bigger deficits--a problem that will intensify as the baby boomers start to retire in the next decade. Once these demographic and fiscal variables become part of the budget forecast, lawmakers seeking to cut taxes and create a simple and fair tax code, such as the flat tax, in all probability will face insurmountable political obstacles.
Very poor people already have access to drugs. Pharma companies all have indigent patient programs. They all donate product to be distributed to poor people.
That oft-repeated line is pure nonsense, spoken by politicians out of ignorance or downright duplicity.
Sorry but I have to disagree. It's legislation like this that made me want to keep democRATS out of office. This is nothing more than socialized medicine. I am very disapointed in the Republican congress and President.
Misleading remark. For very poor seniors, drug companies already give out drugs at negligible prices.
Well, that settles it then. To whom do I send my wallet? I have no further use for it. The length's some will go to to shill for these people is amazing. Blackbird.
This bill, or a much more conservative variant? Reagan Man does a nice job of addressing that topic in his initial post.
The insurance industry will rush in to offer MediGap policies that make it cheaper for seasoned citizens to buy those policies rather than accept the Mediscare plan. After all, you can't have BOTH MediGap AND the Mediscare drug plan. The insurance folks would rather come up with a more attractive but less profitable MediGap drug plan than sell no policies at all. The Medicare drug plan will end up covering only those who are completely uninsurable. All the rest will find private insurance more affordable. The bottom line will likely be LESS money spent on prescription drug benefits by Mediscare.
It's actually a good approach. Which is why Teddy Kennedy is so rabidly against it.
Michael
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