[Southack]

"There is no up side to spending $400 billion in unfunded mandates. Especially when that $400 billion, will soon turn into $800 billion to $1.2 trillion, or more!"

You are still doing it. You are still resorting to hyperbole rather than sticking to facts.

This particular Medicare Reform law authorizes $39.5 Billion per year for ten years. That's it. Any additional funds would have to come from *additional* legislation.

So don't tell me about Trillion Dollar cost estimates because such guesses (to be kind) aren't law, but rather *are* hyperbole.

Moreover, the clear, obvious upside to the $39.5 Billion Dollar cost is that we get an additional tax cut in the form of Medical Savings Accounts in addition to no fewer than 6 Privatization options for Medicare.

That's enormous "up side," and yet more evidence that contrasts with your hyperbole.

[WVNan]

From what I read, this will not be helpful to my husband and me. We have Ex-press Scripts drugs where we pay $35 per perscription for 3-month supply. Plus my insurance co-pays on all my drug expenses that I buy out of pocket. The way I read it, I will have to give up these programs. I'm not liking that at all.

[Reagan Man]

You are misapplying the term hyperbole and you are engaging in pure sophistry. If you read the entire analysis by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, you'd get a better grasp of the reality behind creating this $400 billion unfunded mandate. The facts concerning this new Medicare spending program are obvious to anyone willing to see through the fog of politics.

Aside from abolishing the CETA program, I can't think of one government program that has been done away with in the last 40-years. Can you?

>>>Moreover, the clear, obvious upside to the $39.5 Billion Dollar cost is that we get an additional tax cut in the form of Medical Savings Accounts in addition to no fewer than 6 Privatization options for Medicare.

The devil is in the details. I'm not opposed to reform of Medicare, but there is little reform in this new package. First you have to get seniors to accept the options offered in Medicare. They will not be easily or readily accepted. When seniors see that they'd be better off staying under the government run healthcare coverage, they might choose not to buy into some private option that costs them more and gives them less in the long run.

In addition, Democrats know this is only the beginning and they look forward to expanding Medicare and prescription drug coverage under the bureaucratic umbrella of the federal government, paid for by the Americxan taxpayers. Since the GOP created this new bloated entitlement program, I doubt they'll be willing to stop the charge to increase the size and scope of Medicare in the future.