Philip Klein
Cost of Bush’s Medicare prescription plan to hit $117 billion by 2021
Looking further, trustees expect expenditures to exceed 1 percent of GDP by 2040.
Though President Obama no doubt should be blamed for making our nation’s debt problem worse and for not offering a solution to put us on a sustainable fiscal course, it’s worth remembering that Republicans also deserve a large share of the blame for the shape we’re in. That’s important to keep in mind as we head into another presidential election, because if Mitt Romney becomes president and has a Republican Senate and House, conservatives are going to have to keep the heat on them to avoid a repeat of the Bush disaster.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
$127 billion is a rounding error in the Obama Administration.
Good Lt on April 24, 2012 at 3:13 PM
Conservatives have to work twice as hard to keep the so-called “center-right” party in check…
joey24007 on April 24, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Compassionate conservatism may just be a tad more expensive. Especially when allied with Ted Kennedy. Say,…wasn’t Orrin Hatch a good friend of Teddy?
a capella on April 24, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Just say no to the Bushes. What do they contribute really? I hear people talking Reagan. I don’t hear people talking Bushes.
Oil Can on April 24, 2012 at 3:22 PM
The “Part D” addition to Medicare was a HUGE MISTAKE!!
Any drug coverage should have been limited to catastrophic expense ONLY!!! This should have been an add-on coverage with a choice of HIGH DEDUCTIBLES (like $50-250 per prescription or $500-$5000 per year).
It makes NO SENSE AT ALL to run a $4, $6, or $10 prescription (or any other cost below $50) through an insurance billing process: this just guarantees excess handling and enormous unproductive waste in the system!!!
You can actually SEE the waste by noticing that some common low-cost prescription drugs are actually CHEAPER if you just pay for them and don’t tell the pharmacist that you have insurance!!!
landlines on April 24, 2012 at 3:23 PM
What in the world do you think the US will still be alive and well in 2021? We can’t make it a month at a time with what has been going on with all the spending from bho/team/dc bunch!
That worthless bunch, most of them, in dc don’t give a flying flit from one day to the next what happens as long as they can spend spend raise taxes on everything that they can think of to keep what that less than 700 people in dc in the life they think they ‘deserve’!
One of these days, IMO, the actual taxpayers are going to stop sending taxes to dc so they can continue what they are doing. That is the only way to get those low slugs attention?
L
letget on April 24, 2012 at 3:25 PM
This stupid attempt to buy votes, along with amnesty, and you wonder why conservatives stayed home?
John the Libertarian on April 24, 2012 at 3:39 PM
This is why Economic Populist Socons need to be reigned in.
What was Santorum’s rational to vote for this again? Taking one for the team?
The 3 Republican Senators who voted NO:
Chafee (R-RI)
Hagel (R-NE)
McCain (R-AZ)
25 Republican Congressmen who voted NO:
Akin
Barrett (SC)
Burton (IN)
Chabot
DeMint
Emerson
Flake
Garrett (NJ)
Gutknecht
Hostettler
Jones (NC)
Miller (FL)
Moran (KS)
Musgrave
Norwood
Paul
Pence
Ryun (KS)
Shadegg
Smith (MI)
Tancredo
Wamp
joana on April 24, 2012 at 3:50 PM
Bush (and Gingrich) were absolutely correct: If Medicare is not done away with, then Part D was a no-brainer.
I worked in the health care industry back in the 90′s, and I was appalled to find out that patients received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of surgery and treatment, but then couldn’t afford the lousy hundred dollars a month it took to buy the prescribed anti-biotics and other medication for the followup. Medicare would pay any price for amputating body parts for diabetics, but wouldn’t pay for the damned INSULIN to prevent the complications in the first place!
Don’t get me wrong, I’d be more than happy to get rid of every entitlement program the federal government has. But until and unless we elect another few hundred genuine conservatives to Congress, that’s not likely to happen.
logis on April 24, 2012 at 3:52 PM
Yes, plus it’s a little unfair to tag GWB with program expansions that occurred after he left office. D’s wanted a bigger Part D program than he did, and after he left office, they expanded it.
Part of that “rising cost” is due to subsequent legislative expansion that the D’s couldn’t enact when GWB was in office.
Chuckles3 on April 24, 2012 at 3:58 PM
If I remember correctly, the dems were about to ram a program through that was much larger than Part D. Bush settled for Part D because it was much smaller then what was purposed by the left.
Moral of the story…you can not negotiate with the left.
trs on April 24, 2012 at 3:59 PM
Game: Evey time the article or comments here mention Bush, take a shot of vodka.
BigGator5 on April 24, 2012 at 4:01 PM
Should be tattoo-ed on every Party Firster’s forehead.
james23 on April 24, 2012 at 4:08 PM
“Compassionate Conservatism” is like telling the enemy:
“You may kill ONE of my children”
landlines on April 24, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Romney, McConnell and Boehn-head are not conservatives’ problems. They are Republicans and are the GOP’s problems.
james23 on April 24, 2012 at 4:10 PM
How about changing drug patent law? That would slash costs of drugs enormously.
ButterflyDragon on April 24, 2012 at 4:24 PM
How? They already have to file for the patent at the nascent stages of research, so the available patent life on the market varies from a little to not very much at all. Do you have any idea of the amount of money drug companies sink into research for every winner they get?
If drug prices were really out of whack with research and other costs, then drug stock dividends would be in wet-dream territory. But they’re not. You might also like to know that not all generics function like the drug they’re supposed to replace, despite having the same “active” ingredient. Yet they don’t have to go through the same testing.
TexasDan on April 24, 2012 at 4:32 PM
The republican party, selling our children into slavery, just slightly slower than the Democrat party. Which actually makes the Republican party the insidious party, as it slowly moves people into perpetual servitude while telling them they are trying to prevent it.
astonerii on April 24, 2012 at 4:40 PM
I do get you wrong. Expanding welfare, or even creating it, is indefensible. We have the economy we have presently, as a consequence of such inflation-financed increases.
It’s not unfair to blame Bush. Bush and Republicans were beholden to the pharmaceutical lobby as much as these Democrats. Don’t think Romney is a change in course.
rickv404 on April 24, 2012 at 5:03 PM
THAT’S EXACTLY RIGHT DAMMIT!
And it’s something that Conservative SLAVES never seem to understand. Folks, there would BE NO Obama had there not been an economic meltdown and there would not have been an economic meltdown if Bush and the Republican Congress had made a “hell bent for leather” effort to FIX Freddie and Fannie. They had SIX YEARS of majority rule to do it – and I voted for those establishment co**suc*ers so they’d keep this nation economically sound and cut government.
But they didn’t make an honest effort to reform Freddie and Fannie – they allowed themselves to be “bullied” by the minority because they were afraid of losing votes and losing their jobs.
FOR FIFTY DAMN YEARS I’ve listened to Republicans – even Reagan – talk about cutting government – and every damn one of them grew it! Folks – I am NO LONGER a Conservative slave. The GOP establishment can’t feed me LIES and then expect my vote in November. They ain’t gettin’ it – NOT UNTIL THEY FIX THEIR PARTY.
I got a choice between Communist and Communist Light – welcome to the Soviet Union comrades!
BUSH – MEDICARE PART D – UNFUNDED! No Virginia, that’s not a (D) after his name!
THANK YOU GOP ESTABLISHMENT – WAY TO SUCK!
And for all you Conservative SLAVES who are about to put these dumasses back in charge – don’t expect a different result – you won’t get one.
HondaV65 on April 24, 2012 at 5:41 PM
Spot on! In fact – the Democrats are actually PRODUCERS. They have a socialist base and they’ve been pushing this government in the direction of socialism for the last century – they are even successful in doing this when their is REpublican in the White House – and both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans!
Medicare Part D – is proof enough of that!
And it was given to us UNFUNDED by the Republicans.
HondaV65 on April 24, 2012 at 5:45 PM
Ludicrous. The 20 year patent life (and numerous exceptions that allow one to extend it beyond that) is more than enough to pay for their research and development.
And yes, returns on pharmaceuticals is in wet-dream territory. We’re talking averaging around a 20% profit margin. Tell me how many other industries can claim that type of margin. The only industries I know that compete with pharmaceuticals on profitability is the technology driven industries (internet/communications/etc), medical devices and sometimes the mining industry.
Right now the patent process stifles innovation. It needs to be streamlined and exceptions (and loopholes) that allow the company to extend their monopoly need to be eliminated altogether.
Just think, Lipitor, Via.gra and a few other big name drugs will be coming off the patent list soon and we’ll have generic version within a year. How much you think that is going to save people? The savings will be in the billions.
ButterflyDragon on April 24, 2012 at 5:58 PM