Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announces this month's PORKER OF THE MONTH. And it is none other than......
SENATOR TED KENNEDY

There has been a lot of recent squealing over the costs of the Medicare drug benefit package President Bush signed into law late last year—now estimated to be $534 billion over ten years—an increase of 33 percent from the $400 billion projected last fall. One of the loudest critics has been Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). He is seeking to blame President Bush for the faulty cost estimates, implying the White House deliberately misled lawmakers. Sen. Kennedy asked, “What did the president know; when did he know it?”


Ironically, what Sen. Kennedy doesn’t want taxpayers to know is how much the Democratic plan for providing a drug benefit to seniors would cost—between $800 billion and $1 trillion. For his hypocrisy and duplicity on this issue, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) names Sen. Ted Kennedy as its “Porker of the Month” for March 2004.
When the Medicare bill was first passed in the Senate, Sen. Kennedy said that it “only provided about $400 billion” toward prescription drug coverage and was a “down payment” toward a more comprehensive government-run package. At the end of last year, Sen. Kennedy introduced legislation to eliminate the cost-saving measures in the new law, such as repealing the premium support demonstration project and phasing in a complete removal of the coverage gap, better known as the “doughnut hole.” These actions would drive costs up, not down.

Sen. Kennedy has long been opposed to any consumer-based system in Medicare that uses market forces to control costs. Instead, he has called for expanding Medicare, such as providing coverage to uninsured Americans between the ages of 55-64, that would further quicken its bankruptcy. But his expensive meddling doesn’t stop with Medicare. In January of this year, he called for the “Health Security and Affordability Act” to be passed that would require all employers to provide health insurance to their workers—a real job killer estimated to cost $100 billion a year to implement. In April, he called for Congress to pass universal health care legislation by October 2005. To see Sen. Kennedy wring his hands and cry crocodile tears over the higher cost estimates for the new Medicare plan is laughable.

Despite Sen. Kennedy’s efforts to blame the President for underestimating the cost, the form of the legislation for the new Medicare drug benefit was constantly changing throughout last year. The actual cost estimates changed as well, from $500 billion to $600 billion. Although the Congressional Budget Office continues to stick by its original estimates of $395 billion over 10 years, the Medicare Trustees have recently estimated that Medicare will be insolvent in 2019, seven years sooner then originally predicted, partially due to the new drug benefit.

While Congress needs to change the prescription drug plan to reduce its scope and cost, legislators also need to reject any budget-busting plans drawn up by Sen. Kennedy that attempt to transform the entire American health care to a completely government-run system, where health decisions and costs are controlled by politicians and bureaucrats. For his fiscal unfitness on the Medicare program, and health care in general, CAGW names Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) the March Porker of the Month."

Oink, oink. Teddy is wanting some attention here. WHERE HAVE ALL THE LIBERALS GONE?????

stand up for Ted Kennedy. I don't care one way or the other about him. Unlike right-wingers, liberals are quite diverse. We don't all follow the same indoctrinated "person A is good, person B is bad" train of thought.

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God Bless America, and No Place Else

Well good. That would be a nice change, then. To actually talk about the content and not the person.

So....what do you think of his ironically trying to blame Pres. Bush for a drug benefit where there was some dispute over the figures used....when Teddy's was going to cost between $800 billion to $1 trillion??? What do you think about the fact that Ted Kennedy wants a completely federal government-run health program....where health decisions and costs are controlled by politicians and bureaucrats?

Maybe if the pharmicudical corporations werent as corrupt as this administration the cost would be 1/5 that. But they pay this administration too well to rip of our seniors for over priced drugs and will be crucial for Bushs re-election.

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JJ

I have a solution for determining the fair market value of a prescription drug. Just like GM and other companies audit their suppliers, Medicare should audit the drug companies. Any cost related to product advertising and marketing should be subtracted proportionally from the price paid by Medicare.

The drug companies have always maintained that it's the research costs that make the high prices necessary, but their advertising expenditures have increased over 400% over the last 5yrs and threatens to eclipse research expenditures within the next 2yrs. While I take some minor pleasure in having Eli Lilly sponsor a favorite racing team, and amusement that Pfizer/Viagra sponsors one of the older drivers, in reality I don't want our public programs to pay for any of that. Under the Bush plan we pay for all of it.

I suspect the real goal of the recent prescription drug coverage was two pronged. The first goal it was designed to buy the support of the AARP and seniors in the 2004 election. The second and more cynical goal was to bankrupt Medicare and force the program to be cut or severely curtailed in the future. I didn't support either the Democratic or Republican plans, and both show reckless disregard for financial realities.

Furthermore, Teddy Kennedy is not running for President. I have never cast a vote for Teddy Kennedy, and never will. He could have drowned off Martha's Vineyard years ago and I wouldn't have given a (*)(*)(*)(*).

oc

Have you seen some of these commercials lately?
I seen one that didnt say anything throughout the entire commercial, some some dude swimming in a pool, then at the end states ask your doctor if such and such is right for you.

Or the ones that tell you to go to your doctor and tell them you have such and such symptoms(that nearly everyone has, just them preying on the paranoid) and to tell your doctor that you need their medication. And with most of todays drug pushing doctors they just prescribe it without a second thought.

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JJ

Ted Kennedy is an idiot.

But he's the backbone of your party.

I'm not a Democrat JP5, just because I don't like the beady eyed miscreant doesn't make me a democrat. I like small government and citizen rights and am a fiscal conservative(thats why I hate all of the hidden you rip you off budget loopholes and policy lies). If anything I'm more of a peace loving conservative. If you can grasp that.

More to my beliefs is right here.

con·ser·va·tism

a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change.

I'm pretty conservative. Nation building and making new laws that strip rights and destroy traditional national values(like the ones in the constitution and bill of rights)...not my cup of tea, sorry not in this lifetime. I have no idea how you could possibly consider Bush a compassionate conservative, he's not either.