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The pharmaceutical industry is on the verge of defeating a major Democratic proposal that would allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) can afford only three defections when the House votes on a sweeping $3.5 trillion spending package, but Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) last week voted to block the drug pricing bill from advancing out of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) voted against advancing the tax portion of the legislation in the House Ways and Means Committee. All told, the number of House Democrats...

For Rep. Mike Pence, the man who will lead the conservative House Republicans' official caucus in the next Congress, losing his fight last year against the Medicare bill was the legislative equivalent of the Alamo — a gallant stand for the two dozen conservative opponents and one he hopes will become a rallying cry the next time. "We were wiped out. There was nothing victorious about the Medicare bill. They won, we lost, that's how it works," Mr. Pence said of the Nov. 22, 2003, vote for which House Republican leaders needed three hours to corral enough Republican votes to...

Copy of an email I received about the Medicare drug legislation President Bush signed into law: Mom and Dad; I have summarized some of the most important parts of the Medicare Act for you, and have provided the ACTUAL CONGRESSIONAL BILL THAT WAS SIGNED INTO LAW, complete with highlights and references to the pertinent text for you to peruse. The TV keeps telling you that this bill does nothing for you. That is a lie. It does a lot. It might not go far enough in a lot of peoples eyes, but, as presented by the AARP, the President and...

"This is the story of how a small band of committed conservatives stood up to enormous political pressure and almost defeated a massive new entitlement program proposed by their own party. Around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 22, Republican Representatives John Shadegg (Ariz.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Mike Pence (Ind.), Trent Franks (Ariz.), and Butch Otter (Idaho), all opponents of the bill, were huddled outside the House chamber. The GOP leadership told them that if the bill were defeated, Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) would bring up either the same bill again or, amazingly, a Democratic package twice as costly. That...

<p>WASHINGTON -- President Bush sees the Medicare drug bill as a way to score points on the Democrats' traditional social-welfare turf. But Democrats see new political opportunities in the legislation as well: a target for ramping up attacks on Republicans as beholden to big business.</p>

<p>The House of Representatives passed the Medicare bill Saturday after nearly three hours of voting.</p> <p>VIDEO CNN's Kathleen Koch has the latest on the Medicare bill passed by the House.</p> <p>President Bush pushes Congress to pass a Medicare overhaul that would add prescription drug coverage.</p>

<p>A compromise between House and Senate Republican leaders to push through the Medicare prescription-drug bill is still on table after being submitted yesterday to members on both sides of the aisle.</p> <p>Leaders shopped the bill around Capitol Hill trying to persuade enough lawmakers to have the federal health program compete against private plans, but on a limited basis.</p>

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts said Tuesday that negotiations on a bill to help elderly people buy prescription drugs were "on life support," in danger of dying within weeks. Mr. Kennedy, the Democrats' senior strategist on health care issues, said the negotiations were "in free fall" because House Republicans were insisting on provisions demanded by some conservatives but detested by many Democrats. One such provision would require standard Medicare to compete directly with private plans. Another would force Congress to vote on possible Medicare cuts if the costs of the program, including new drug benefits, grew faster than expected....

The Politics of the Drug Bill By John Bender The Bush/Kennedy socialized drug bill speeding through Congress should outrage every Republican. I'm not talking about this being a way for sleazy politicians to buy votes from selfish people who want to shift their personal responsibility to others. That fact is obvious. I'm talking about the future politics of this. This has the potential to ruin the Republican Party for decades. Nobody is talking about the fact that in both the House version of this abomination, and in the Senate version, the coverage doesn't take effect until 2006. This is an...

For entire article, please link to http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm297.cfm "Consequences The Senate bill’s drug provisions will have several consequences. It will displace existing private-sector drug coverage for millions of seniors. The Congressional Budget Office estimate that 37 percent of retired employees with employer-sponsored coverage would lose it under the bill may yet be a conservative projection. Congress has long been a fruitful source of unintended consequences in federal health policy. Currently, 78 percent of all seniors have drug coverage, mostly through private plans or retiree insurance coverage.[6] As the editorialists of The Washington Post have warned, “Private employers, for their part, might...