{"id":7256,"date":"2006-04-27T12:30:31","date_gmt":"2006-04-27T16:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7256"},"modified":"2006-04-27T12:30:31","modified_gmt":"2006-04-27T16:30:31","slug":"worstdomestic-policyever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/worstdomestic-policyever\/","title":{"rendered":"Worst…domestic policy…ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

The amazing thing about [tag]Bush[\/tag]’s [tag]Medicare[\/tag] scheme is how is manages to capture almost everything wrong with the entire administration. In January, Jonathan Chait argued that the program is the “Hurricane Katrina of entitlement programs,” adding, “The sheer number of devious acts packed into one legislative act boggles the mind.”<\/p>\n

The program costs too much and delivers too little. The administration lied about the price tag, then lied again to cover up the first lie. The darn thing wouldn’t have even become law if Republican lawmakers didn’t resort to underhanded tactics and literal bribery on the House floor. Yale political scientists Theodore Marmor and Jacob Hacker estimated that a better bill could have offered the same benefit for half the cost.<\/p>\n

But, the Bush gang says, at the end of the day, for all the incompetence and mismanagement, some seniors are saving money.<\/p>\n

Except many are not<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They are poor or near-[tag]poor[\/tag], old, disabled or both. Some have cancer or AIDS, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, spinal cord injuries or multiple sclerosis. Others have lists of [tag]medications[\/tag] as long as the alphabet.<\/p>\n

They’re paying more for their drugs, perhaps as little as $1 per prescription, but often thousands of dollars a year. Some buy on credit without knowing how they’ll pay it off. Others scrimp on food and utilities or rely on the charity of family and friends.<\/p>\n

When things get really bad, they space out their pills or injections, risking medical setbacks. They lose weight or swell up or get nauseated. Some wind up in emergency rooms.<\/p>\n

They are the people that Medicare’s new prescription-drug program has hurt, rather than helped. Most of the program’s beneficiaries have saved money since it began Jan. 1. But for others, perhaps about 20%, the much-heralded program has meant higher [tag]cost[\/tag]s, and in some cases greater pain and more worry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Worst…domestic policy…ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The amazing thing about [tag]Bush[\/tag]’s [tag]Medicare[\/tag] scheme is how is manages to capture almost everything wrong with the entire administration. In January, Jonathan Chait argued that the program is the “Hurricane Katrina of entitlement programs,” adding, “The sheer number of devious acts packed into one legislative act boggles the mind.” The program costs too much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}