Free Republic

Biden mistakenly invited listeners of his speech to Moscow to buy cheap medicine Washington, March 8-RIA Novosti. US President Joe Biden mistakenly invited those listening to his State of the Union address to Moscow to buy cheap medicine. The president is taking steps to lower the price of basic drugs such as insulin and convincing supporters that Republican opponents want to eliminate social programs that make drugs cheaper. Biden's argument is that the cost of the same drugs in Canada and other countries is lower than in the United States. "I have problems because of these words, but if any...

In lieu of additional revenue obtained from auditing taxpayers, how do lawmakers now propose to fund increased federal spending on roads and bridges? Through a budget gimmick.After a conservative backlash, Republican senators negotiating an infrastructure bill have objected to an increase in funding and authority for the IRS. In lieu of additional revenue obtained from auditing taxpayers, how do lawmakers now propose to fund increased federal spending allegedly on roads and bridges? Through a budget gimmick.In short, Congress now wants to repeal a rule that 1) hasn’t gone into effect and 2) likely won’t ever go into effect, so it...

Today, President Donald J. Trump sent his principles for drug pricing reform to Capitol Hill. The President’s principles and vision are policies that already have bipartisan support and would bring lasting relief from incredibly high drug prices for America’s seniors. President Trump’s bold leadership lowered drug prices last year for the first time in almost 50 years and has increased access to more affordable drugs for millions of Americans. As the President called for in his State of the Union address, the time is now for Congress to build on that progress, set aside partisan pandering, and work with this White...

The Senate Finance Committee is reportedly considering a change to Medicare’s Part D prescription drug benefit that would undermine one of the few entitlement-program success stories.In an effort to reduce what seniors pay at the pharmacy, the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, has proposed fining drug companies if the price of their drugs rises faster than the rate of inflation.  The committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), hasn’t yet rejected the plan.Wyden’s proposal is a thinly veiled effort to impose government price controls through the back door. If it takes off, it would impede the competition that...

Lawmakers are venting outrage over high prescription drug costs, but if Congress is looking for culprits, it might want to look in the mirror. Republican- and Democratic-controlled Congresses, and presidents of both parties, may have set the stage for the startling prices that have consumers on edge. In the last 13 years, Congress passed major legislation that expanded taxpayer-financed coverage for prescription drugs but lacked explicit mechanisms for dealing with costs, instead relying mainly on market forces. […] “The history we see over and over again is that when the government steps in as a guaranteed payer without regard to...

To say that President Obama is not an enthusiastic backer of the two Medicare programs that offer seniors private insurance options would be something of an understatement. Over the years, Obama has repeatedly derided Medicare Advantage — the program that lets seniors enroll in subsidized, private insurance. He once called it "wasteful," and said it amounted to "giveaways that boost insurance company profits but don't make (seniors) any healthier." Obama has been equally harsh when it comes to Medicare Part D — the drug benefit President Bush signed into law that relies on privately run plans. In his 2006 book,...

Recently, Peter King, the court jester of the House of Representatives, had this to say to PMSNBC's Andrea Mitchell about Tea Party heroes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz: *** "I'm really more concerned about why more Republicans around the country didn't join me in denouncing Ted Cruz. We now have people on the sidelines coming forward who we have to take a stand here. We cannot allow our party to be taken over by the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. I mean, these are people, isolationists, I consider them RINOs, because they don't represent traditional Republican principles. Ted...

Washington faces two pressing tasks — getting a handle on escalating federal debt and addressing the country's unemployment crisis. Unfortunately, the White House, thanks to its usual ideological blinders, has come up with a plan that will actually cost jobs — even as it achieves only trifling savings. The proposal, which Team Obama has now forwarded to the supercommittee charged with coming up with $1.6 trillion in savings over the next decade, is to extend Medicaid-style manufacturers' rebates to part of the Medicare Part D program. The proposal affects the so-called "dual eligibles," those eligible for Medicaid but who obtain...

Possible presidential candidate Rick Santorum conceded Sunday that he made a "mistake" in voting for the Medicare prescription drug benefit back in 2003, as he tried to bolster his fiscal credentials. Santorum, a former Republican Pennsylvania senator, told "Fox News Sunday" that there were two things wrong with the bill creating the program, which is now estimated to cost about $60 billion a year, contributing to the country's out-of-control deficit. Santorum said Congress should not have made the program universal and should have found a mechanism with which to pay for it.

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...

A former White House speechwriter, Mark Thiessen, has jumped to the defense of his former boss, writing for the Washington Post that George W. Bush “established a conservative record without parallel.” Even by the loose standards of Washington, that is a jaw-dropping assertion. I’ve been explaining for years that Bush was a big-government advocate, even writing a column back in 2007 for the Washington Examiner pointing out that Clinton had a much better economic record from a free-market perspective. I also groused to the Wall Street Journal the following year about Bush’s dismal performance. “Bush doesn’t have a conservative legacy”...

Got your attention! Here’s an interesting memo I obtained over at the Atlantic. freedom-works-internal-memo This memo, which hasn’t been validated, but is being reported on by Fox News, purports to provide a “Target List” of candidates for the Tea Party to presumably unseat in 2010. Listing them under the heading of “Enemy of Liberty” or “Potential Enemy of Liberty,” one quickly, with even the most cursory attempt at fairness, concludes that this is not a Tea Party Target List, but instead a republican target list of democrats under the guise of the Tea Party. How do I conclude this? Well,...

This week the Senate grinches stole Christmas. The Obama Nation is getting Obamacare. It’s easy to blame the sixty Democrats, as the Wall Street Journal does, for "the worse bill ever." It solemnly declares: "These 60 Democrats are creating a future of epic increases in spending, taxes and command--and control regulation." True enough. But what's the root cause of this permanent disaster? Sorry, friends, but it’s not the Democrats, nor the American people who elected them. The real culprits are two Republicans who ran the show the previous eight years: George W. Bush and his "master political strategist" Karl Rove....

Passed in December 2003 and operational in January of 2006, Medicare Part D subsidizes prescription drugs for the elderly in the United States by contracting with private plans to provide drug coverage. Part D enrollment is voluntary. The government pays each plan a lump sum for each enrollee that chooses it, and the private plans, not the government, negotiate drug prices. In The Effect of Medicare Part D on Pharmaceutical Prices and Utilization (NBER Working Paper No. 13917), co-authors Mark Duggan and Fiona Scott Morton review Part D's performance in its first year and estimate that a branded drug sold...

When the issue of having the federal government negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies for the Medicare Part D program comes up later this week in Congress, it will be another example of an idea that seems to poll well and appears to enjoy a great deal of public support. However an in depth look at public opinion shows that once the American people understand the possible implications of negotiating the cost of prescription drug prices, public opinion changes significantly and voters become very skeptical of the idea and the implications for public health. Penn, Schoen, and Berland, a...

When Mike Leavitt first came to Rhode Island last summer to promote the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, the feeling across the country was that the new program was so complex, that millions of seniors would just avoid it. Flanked by local officials at a Warwick senior center, the Health and Human Services secretary tried to assuage everyone’s concerns in advance. “If you’re a senior, don’t worry,” he said. “There will be plenty of people to help you.” It turns out that despite all the confusion, and all the bad publicity at the beginning of the year when some...

Rep. Marion Berry: Good morning. I'm Congressman Marion Berry of Arkansas, a senior citizen, a pharmacist, and someone who has spent the past five years trying to give the American people an acceptable Medicare prescription drug benefit. I have fought alongside my Democratic colleagues to put seniors first and I have watched with complete amazement as the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress forced a disastrous prescription drug scheme on America's greatest generation.

It is official. On the 15th of next I become OLD.Were I a car instead I would become a 'classic'. Maybe a '41' Buick, DeSoto, Kaiser-Frazier or Studebaker.But I'm not so I'll just be an old man with clogged pipes, sludge in the oil, a stiff differential and worn out joints. A man with less income and no medical insurance approachingdecision time inundated by mountains of conflicting information.(Like trying to process a program that would stretch a super-computer with only an 8 bit processor, 32k of unreliable RAM and a cranky CPU.)Freeperstan being the repository of the greatest minds still...

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. - President Bush campaigned Tuesday to boost the troubled new Medicare drug program that is the subject of a fierce election-year debate between Democrats and Republicans. Bush pleaded with older Americans — a key voting block, particularly in midterm congressional elections — to look positively on the new benefit. Under the program, the government subsidizes medication costs for the elderly and disabled through plans created by private insurers. In effect since January, it has been under fire from Democrats as too confusing for seniors with its numerous plans and coverage gaps — and from some conservative Republicans as...

In Case You Missed It: Survey Refutes Criticism Of Medicare Drug Plan From The Washington Post By Bill Brubaker March 13, 2006 A majority of senior citizens in a recent poll say they had no trouble using -- or signing up for -- the controversial 10-week-old Medicare prescription drug plan, health insurance officials said today. The survey of more than 800 seniors differs from assertions by politicians and health and senior citizen advocacy groups that many Medicare enrollees have had difficulty choosing a drug plan from among the dozens that are being offered. "The data are very encouraging," Karen Ignagni,...