Bush Threatens to Veto Medicare Changes

[bluedog]

Bush Threatens to Veto Medicare Changes



WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Friday threatened to veto any changes Congress tries to make to Medicare's new prescription drug benefit, which takes effect in January 2006.


"I signed Medicare reform proudly and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors and to take away their prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto,"

first full decade of the program will cost taxpayers $724 billion. That renewed debate in Congress over the benefit's viability. The new figure is must higher than the $534 billion cost calculated by the administration earlier. That's because the previous decade-long projection covered fewer years.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=703&e=6&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

[mindem]

1. He's so full of crap it's squirting out of his ears. N/T

[Southern Dem 2005]

2. Be great if a Republican Congress

made changes, he vetoed the changes, then the Republican Congress overrode his veto.

[prolesunited]

3. He lied about the cost

and it benefits the pharmaceutical companies more than seniors.

They should pass a measure that simply takes some of the money out of the pockets of drug companies but would clearly benefit the seniors.

Force him to veto a measure that benefits the people over the pharma industry. Then, maybe people will see his true intentions on this.

[bluedog]

4. Remember Richard Foster

he was threatened with bring fired if he told the real costs?...Where is he now?

[applegrove]

5. OBSTRUCTIONIST!

[rodeodance]

6. from 400 billion to 534 bil, to now 724 Billion-- now bush says he wi "de

......Now, with the new upward revision, lawmakers across the political spectrum say the drug benefit should be re-examined before it takes effect next January. Some Republicans long skeptical of the administration's estimates expressed alarm at the escalating costs and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., called for an investigation.

In seeking to defend the law against any changes in Congress, Bush called the legislation "a landmark achievement in American health care."

[rodeodance]

7. recall that the controversal item that the gov had to accept Price of

drugs and could not negotiate!!

[applegrove]

8. Exactly!

Exactly! I guess it is illegal for economies of scale to benefit people. Corporations are the only ones aloud to take advantage of size in the marketplace.

Geography - another thing that doesn't belong to people anymore, at least people in the US of A.

[fob]

18. It's WORSE than that even. I read somewhere the TRUE costs are

$1.2 Trillion (YES with a T) but the repukes claim they will realize $500 Billion in savings leaving a NET of $720 Billion. Which is exactly why bush* doesn't want the plan fucked with, it's his INTENTION to kill the program. If you kill his boondoggle the program may be SAVED!!

[Tempest]

9. Who does he think he's fooling?

He has yet to veto a single piece of legislation.

He threw out the veto stamp a long time ago.

[fob]

20. bush*: Veto? Didn't we just do that last November? And I got more

vetos than the other guy, at least that's what Diebold says anyway. Heh heh heh.

/smirk

[w4rma]

10. Idle threat. He hasn't vetoed a single bill, yet. (nt)

[sarcasmo]

11. He wants to destroy Medicare as well as Social Security.

[MissMarple]

12. Yup. They're going after the "welfare state".

These people have been trying to destroy social security for years, The creation of Medicare must have made them froth at the mouth. You know they must have thought this out and understand the consequences. This is evil. I don't totally agree with the extent medicare reaches, but these guys are insane.

This is from the Krugman article in an earlier thread.

"Why expose workers to that much risk? Ideology. "Social Security is the soft underbelly of the welfare state," declares Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth and the Cato Institute. "If you can jab your spear through that, you can undermine the whole welfare state."

By the welfare state, Mr. Moore means Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - social insurance programs whose purpose, above all, is to protect Americans against the extreme economic insecurity that prevailed before the New Deal. The hard right has never forgiven F.D.R. (and later L.B.J.) for his efforts to reduce that insecurity, and now that the right is running Washington, it's trying to turn the clock back to 1932.

Medicaid is also in the cross hairs. And if Mr. Bush can take down Social Security, Medicare will be next.

The attempt to "jab a spear" through Social Security complements the strategy of "starve the beast," long advocated by right-wing intellectuals: cut taxes, then use the resulting deficits as an excuse for cuts in social spending. The spearing doesn't seem to be going too well at the moment, but the starving was on full display in the budget released yesterday."


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/opinion/08krugman.htm...

edited to add more stuff.

[icymist]

21. If they destroy Social Security and Medicare, then they are on the

way to destroying themselves. Eventually, they will begin punching their jabs into the air and topple themselves down as in the manner of Polyphemus. Such are how Despots end. In the meantime, we must endure and oppose their folly or risk losing the Nation's soul.

[Moderator]

13. kick

[TexasLawyer]

14. Bush Threatens to Veto Medicare Changes

Bush Threatens to Veto Medicare Changes

By JENNIFER LOVEN

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Friday threatened to veto any changes Congress tries to make to Medicare's new prescription drug benefit, which takes effect in January 2006. ``I signed Medicare reform proudly and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors and to take away their prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto,'' Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for Mike O. Leavitt, the new secretary of health and human services.

A new cost estimate for the benefit released by the administration this week showed the first full decade of the program will cost taxpayers $724 billion, renewing debate in Congress over the benefit's viability and raising questions about the White House's credibility.

The new figure is much higher than the $534 billion cost calculated by the administration earlier. That's because the previous decade-long projection included fewer years when the drug benefit was in effect. Bush pledged this week to ``deal with the unfunded liabilities of Medicare'' once Social Security is overhauled as he has proposed.


Congress narrowly approved the drug legislation in 2003. At the time, Republican leaders assured wavering lawmakers that the program would cost $400 billion. Just two months later, after the law was enacted, the administration revised the cost estimate to $534 billion. Now, with the latest upward revision, lawmakers across the political spectrum say the drug benefit should be re-examined. Some Republicans expressed alarm at the escalating costs and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called for an investigation.

<snip>


White House press secretary Scott McClellan said <snip> ``There are some that would like to undermine the reforms we've put in place,'' McClellan said. ``The president was making very clear to our seniors ... he's not going to let anybody take away what we have provided to you.''

<snip>



02/11/05 14:36

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-us-10-l1&flok=FF-APO-1151&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050211%2F1436689293.htm&sc=1151&photoid=20050211WHRE102

[xchrom]

15. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called for an investigation.

i should think so.
bush doesn't know how to run business or a country -- let alone two.
now we find his medicare sure -- is well -- sick.
investigate indeed.

[central scrutinizer]

16. what he meant to say was

instead of:

``I signed Medicare reform proudly and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors and to take away their prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto,''

he meant: any attempt to limit the windfall profits of the big pharmaceutical companies who contributed so handsomely to my re-selection campaign will meet my vero.

[bluedog]

17. awwwwwwwwwwwww poor bushy boy

2/3 majority can override
this veto.....the republicans are not all that fond of these bills coming out..as some are up for re-election in 2006 and will find that their backers have been complaining to them about these items..

Just because bush doesn't face the public doesn't mean the Govs and Sens won't have to pay the Price.......

[MasonJar]

19. I hope he vetoes the whole ill-formed bill, which is more welfare

for corporations.

[SoCalDem]

22. Keyword... "Threatens"

"wink-wink-nod-nod ya know wut I mean"

[Disturbed]

23. Someone on DU labeled shrub-The WealthCare Pres.

That's what this Silverspoon Sociopath is.

Here is the Neo Fascist Agenda

Abolish

Social Security
Medicare
Employer supplied health insurance
Unemployment Benefits
Welfare
Abortion Rights
Collective Bargaining
EPA
Public Education
Public Housing
IRS

[Toucano]

24. Veto?

He doesn't know the meaning of the word. What a paper tiger!

[GetTheRightVote]

25. The man would not know a veto if he saw one, Corp must be mad

about the changes, profits will go down for them, bo ho, cry babies

:kick: