but has never exercised it...
Bush vows to veto drug plan cuts
LAWMAKERS RILED AS MEDICARE COST ESTIMATE BALLOONS
By William Douglas
KNIGHT RIDDER WASHINGTON BUREAU -- Sat, Feb. 12, 2005
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/nation/10882760.htmWASHINGTON - President Bush vowed yesterday to veto any changes Congress attempts to make in the Medicare prescription drug benefit to become available next year.
His threat sets up a showdown between the president and lawmakers who've watched the benefit's projected 10-year cost explode from $400 billion -- the cost Bush told them when many agreed to it in late 2003 -- to $724 billion, the new estimate the administration made public this week.
"I signed Medicare reform proudly, and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors to take away their prescription-drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto," Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for new Health and Human Services Secretary Mike O. Leavitt.
Since becoming president, Bush has never exercised his veto. Ironically, House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, suggested to Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten this week that the president may have to use his veto power to make Congress hold the line on spending.-----------
Bush threatens to veto limits on Medicare drug plan
By JAMES ROSEN -- McClatchy Newspapers
February 11, 2005
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=BUSH-VETO-02-11-05&cat=ANemphasis added by meWASHINGTON - President Bush issued a
rare veto threat Friday as he vowed to any block legislative attempt to shrink the prescription-drug benefit in Medicare changes set to take effect next year.
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Bush said Friday the changes to Medicare would decrease health-care costs by covering preventive medicine such as heart and diabetes screenings, and by paying for medicines that will prevent the need for surgery in many cases.
"Under the old system, Medicare would pay $28,000 for ulcer surgery, but not the $500 a year for the prescription drugs that eliminated the cause of most ulcers," he said. "That system didn't make sense . . . for our seniors. It made no sense for American taxpayers."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush's veto threat was aimed primarily at Democratic lawmakers he accused of trying "to undermine the reforms that we put in place."
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