Bush's Medicare dream turning into a nightmare

[radfringe]

Bush's Medicare dream turning into a nightmare
http://www.freep.com/news/nw/medi22_20040322.htm
March 22, 2004
BY WILLIAM DOUGLAS
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- Enactment of a sweeping Medicare overhaul law last year was supposed to be the crowning achievement of President George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" as he readied himself for re-election.

But less than four months after he signed it into law on Dec. 8, Bush's Medicare reform dream has turned into a nightmare and a potential drag on his bid for re-election. The biggest expansion of the government social service net in a generation now is drawing fire on several fronts:

--> The Health and Human Services general inspector's office is investigating a claim by the government's top expert on Medicare costs that the administration concealed from Congress the true cost of the program.

--> The House Ethics Committee plans to investigate whether threats and bribes were used to pass the bill in the House.

--> The General Accounting Office (GAO) is investigating whether the Bush administration spent millions of taxpayer dollars on TV ads touting the Medicare reform law that look suspiciously like Bush campaign commercials.

==================

AARP faces huge credibility gap
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/8245392.htm
BY DAVID S. BRODER

---snip---

While overall membership has continued to grow, Novelli says that 60,000 members canceled or refused to renew in protest of the organization's backing. Is most of the controversy behind him? ''No way,'' Novelli said.

''It's a mess,'' he said. ''You've got people investigating a congressman's complaint that his arm was broken'' during the unprece- dented three-hour, predawn roll call, when a Cabinet official and GOP House leaders were pressuring members for the votes to reverse an apparent defeat of the measure. He was referring to the complaint from retiring Rep. Nick Smith of Michigan that he was told his vote would influence whether his son, now running for Smith's seat, would get financial help in his race.

''Then the cost estimate turns out to be wrong'' -- a little matter of the bill's 10-year toll jumping from $400 billion to $535 billion. And just recently, the civil servant who is Medicare's chief actuary charged that the political appointee who ran the program threatened to fire him if he made the true cost known to members of the House before the vote. That, too, is now under investigation.

''This is more than a spectacle,'' Novelli said. ''It's an embarrassment.'' And it makes it very hard for AARP to do the job of selling its members on the notion that this bill will be good for them and is not the disaster that Democratic nominee John Kerry and others claim.

[sandnsea]

1. AARP ads

Now they're coming out with ads about buying Canadian and negotiating prices. Well if they think it should be in there, why the hell did they support the bill without it. AARP sucks and they deserve to be stuck with this nightmare. I hope they're buried by it. I hope they're ALL buried by it.

[Florida_Geek]

6. The Sad part is AARP could have made millions and helped

their members at the same time by opening a branch in Canada, and selling drugs at Canadian prices to their members. If the AARP was behind the importing of drugs from Canada, the FDA would have a hard time saying the drugs were bad.

[The Zanti Regent]

10. AARP is an insurance company. ARA isn't. Join ARA.

THE Alliance for Retired Americans is everthing the lying Always Advancing Republican Principles isn't! Look for yourself at:

http://www.retiredamericans.org/

[Born Free]

2. easier to get forgiveness

As a former AARP member, I can say it appears the AARP is using the old cliche, it's easier to get forgiveness than permission - they ignored the needs of their members to help the bush team and now they are trying to get the members to forgive them by claiming ignorance. It's ironic, they get the big bucks to know yet they say they didn't know. I had grown very cynical toward the AARP when their bulletins refused to address the issues facing seniors in an honest manor, they would always pretend the republican side of the bills introduced had as many merits as those by Democrats and it was just a matter of taste. I miss their motoring plan but other than that do not miss being an AARP member.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. AARP sells insurance, and there's the

problem. In a larger sense, greed is the problem. Greed is behind most other evils.

[jbfam4]

3. Last line from BRODER

"To say that its credibility -- and that of the Bush administration -- is at stake is an understatement."

There's that same theme again.......Credibility. No credibility from this administration....so just move on.

[cleofus1]

4. arm broken?

Is this literal or just figurative? Who was doing the breaking and who was the breakee?

[BootinUp]

5. explained in this part

...He was referring to the complaint from retiring Rep. Nick Smith of Michigan that he was told his vote would influence whether his son, now running for Smith's seat, would get financial help in his race.

[0007]

8. Tom Delay was the biggest whore and hit man for junior's

wonderful Medicare plan.

He busted chops on the Senate floor. And is now under investigation in Texas for campaign violations.

[truthisfreedom]

9. i hope Kerry is able to hold off on this one until closer to the election,

and that the timing of the investigations works well with the fall attention period.