Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a massive health care entitlement with unfunded future costs over $7 trillion. Many conservatives are still upset at the way it was rammed through Congress. But when the Republican presidential candidates were asked last week asked if they would repeal the Medicare drug benefit, they said no way. After all, Republicans created it. Republicans want to pull the plug on the health care overhaul they call "Obamacare," but that law is arguably less a deficit driver than the Medicare drug plan they are defending.

Four years into full operation, President George W. Bush's Medicare prescription drug program is coming in well below its projected cost, giving hope to backers of the new health insurance law that it, too, could beat budget expectations.The numbers are stark and conclusive: In 2009, the government spent $60.8 billion on the drug benefit, or far less than the annual $111.2 billion cost projected just five years ago, after the program was enacted.The lower cost - a result of slowing demand for prescription drugs, higher use of generic drugs and fewer people signing up - has surprised even some of...

In a just-completed interview with Fox News' Bill Hemmer, Bob Dole hailed the new Medicare prescription drug benefit as "a great program." It's "great" for low-income people, he explained, because they'll have a very low deductible, and "good" for others. Of course he didn't say how 'great' the program would be for the taxpayer or for future generations saddled with paying for it. Of course Dole isn't alone in this. The program was created with the support of the President and most GOP congressmen. Still, at this stage of his career, it's sad to see Dole flacking for big government....

(Talon News) -- The conservative Heritage Foundation released a memo on Thursday which highlights the "stunning" $720 billion cost of the Medicare prescription drug benefit over the period from 2006 through 2015. A consistent critic of the president's prescription drug plan, the Heritage Foundation, through the memo's author Robert Moffit, Ph.D., calls the drug entitlement "a costly mistake that needs to be repealed or drastically revamped." Moffit begins his analysis by first defending the Bush administration and blasting Members of Congress for expressing "shock" at the so-called "rise" in the estimate of the costs of the prescription drug benefit. "On...

We really need our government to stop giving away other people's money. It fails to live up to Robin Hood's noble ideas. If only Uncle Sam really took from the rich and gave to the poor. Instead, he sends the IRS to pillage the suburbs and then gives it to the trial lawyers. As an antidote to the redistributionist policies of left-leaning politicians, I've habitually, almost reflexively, voted GOP. Thus, when a Republican opens the coffers to feed the Leviathan, it leads to profound dissonance. Therefore, The Prescription Drug Panderation Act is the absolute least positive move that George W....

<p>Congressional Republicans, in an extraordinary break with the White House in an election year, say President Bush's 2005 budget proposal "doesn't go far enough" to restrain government spending and are considering pursuing further cuts in outlays.</p> <p>Rep. Jim Nussle of Iowa, chairman of the House Budget Committee, yesterday said Republicans and the White House should even be willing to trim wasteful spending in the Defense and Homeland Security departments.</p>

<p>In politics, there's nothing like having the other side steamroll your party -- using your own steamroller -- to jangle the emotions.</p> <p>Democrats have owned the Medicare issue for nearly 40 years. But this week, the Republicans climbed into the driver's seat and mashed the gas pedal. In closed-door sessions that excluded nearly all Democrats, through rule-bending roll calls, dishing out goodies to friends and twisting arms of the recalcitrant, the Republicans passed $400 billion worth of changes. Democrats spent the day picking carpet fibers out of their hairdos and sorting out their reactions.</p>