I can understand why Chuck Grassley wouldn’t want liberal groups running TV ads about Bush’s Medicare debacle — the plan is, after all, a pretty embarrassing fiasco — but his attacks against the ads don’t make a lot of sense.
Sen Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said some advertisements on television and posted on the Internet are aimed at discrediting the program and scaring senior citizens. He said the claims include statements that the new program — which takes full effect in 2006 — is a giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry.
And this is wrong because…why?
The administration’s Medicare scam, which Grassley helped write, is a giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry and will reward companies who’ve contributed generously to the Bush campaign.
Papers distributed by Grassley, who is attending his party’s national convention, said the “demagoguery” is “one of the reasons why seniors have been slow to sign up” for the Medicare drug discount card program that has already started.
Oh, is that why they’ve been rejecting the plan in droves? Here I thought it might have something to do with the fact that Bush and Grassley created a ridiculously complicated system that curtails or eliminates seniors’ existing benefits. Indeed, maybe the sign-ups have been slow because the “savings” seniors were hoping for don’t exist — the pharmaceutical industry is when they’re available at all.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that if Grassley were truly concerned about “misleading” TV ads about the administration’s Medicare plan, I know of some false, fake, and illegal ads bout the policy — which were taxpayer-funded propaganda — that Grassley may want to take a look at.
The Bush administration violated two federal laws through part of its publicity campaign to promote changes in Medicare intended to help older Americans afford prescription drugs, the investigative arm of Congress said yesterday.
The General Accounting Office concluded that the Department of Health and Human Services illegally spent federal money on what amounted to covert propaganda by producing videos about the Medicare changes that were made to look like news reports. Portions of the videos, which have been aired by 40 television stations around the country, do not make it clear that the announcers were paid by HHS and were not real reporters.
Grassley’s worried about MoveOn’s ads? Please.