Misled Once Again

Looks like the Bush Administration misled the American public again when it said the prescription drug benefit would cost $534 billion over the next 10 years. Now they are "re-assessing" the costs and see that it will cost twice the original amount. I think Bush was moving in the right direction by ensuring older Americans can receive the medication that they need, but he should have vetoed the bill in the form it came across his desk. The law, as it was signed, makes it illegal for Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies. This alone would have cut costs up to half of the current budget. Instead of being fiscally responsible, the Republican Congress and Bush have needlessly given billions of our tax dollars to the pharmaceutical industry. The architect of the provision that forbids the government from negotiating with the drug companies, a former Republican Representative from Louisiana, is now being paid $2 million per year to lobby congress on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry.

It is time for congress to go back and change the law so we can both provide our seniors with their medication and be more fiscally responsible. Bush budget calls for reductions in social services to millions of americans. Instead, maybe we should be cutting welfare to the drug companies.

Medicare Drug Benefit May Cost $1.2 Trillion

Estimate Dwarfs Bush's Original Price Tag

By Ceci Connolly and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 9, 2005; Page A01

The White House released budget figures yesterday indicating that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost more than $1.2 trillion in the coming decade, a much higher price tag than President Bush suggested when he narrowly won passage of the law in late 2003.

The projections represent the most complete picture to date of how much the program will cost after it begins next year. The expense of the new drug benefit has been a source of much controversy since the day Congress approved it, with Democrats and some Republicans complaining that the White House has consistently low-balled the expected cost to the government.

As recently as September, Medicare chief Mark B. McClellan said the new drug package would cost $534 billion over 10 years. Last night, he acknowledged that the cumulative cost of the program between 2006 and 2015 will reach $1.2 trillion, but he cited several major savings and offsets that he said will reduce the federal government's bottom-line cost to $720 billion.

The disclosure prompted new criticism by Democrats about the administration's long-term budget estimates. It also showed that Medicare, the national medical insurance program for seniors, may pose a far more serious budgetary problem in the com- ing decade than concerns about the solvency of Social Security.
(Full Story)