While Bush is out to try and control the damage he has done lately, he is still making mistakes. One that really has gotten to me (and something I have followed very closely) is the debacle called Medicare. His defense has me really ticked off:
“Any time Washington passes a new law, sometimes the transition period can be interesting,” the president said.
First off, the government had over a year to get everything in order for the switch off on this program. Instead nothing was done. The government bolstered about the high enrollment numbers, but they also failed too mention that those high enrollment numbers weren’t made by volunteers. A majority of the new enrollees in the program were automatically placed into it.
Now how the hell can he call this “interesting”? Does he really think that millions of seniors who can not get their vital medications because of a government fubar is “interesting”? I think a better way to describe it is as upsetting or scary. That is how these seniors feel when they go to the pharmacist to get that important drug and find out they can not get it because our own government is a screw up.
Like I have previously reported, the drug program is anything but a cost saver for seniors. For low income seniors, they find themselves with a higher monthly tab because of this program. Prior to the start of this nightmare, low income seniors were eligible for free prescriptions sponsored by the manufacturers. With the new laws in place, these programs are becoming non-existent. Take a low income senior who is on 12 prescriptions (not an unreasonable number at all). In the past they got these drugs for free. Now they have a $5 co-pay so it is costing them $60 a month. That may not seem like a lot to you or me but you take someone on a fixed income through Social Security and they might as well be making a car payment.
Another interesting factor in this whole mess is the political outcomes. My representative is our new Majority Leader, John Boehner (boner). Last month numerous seniors in this area called his office needing help on this program. They were greeted with a lack of interest and a somewhat rude response. Now his office is interested in talking about it. What has changed? Mort Meier has changed. He is the Democrats candidate to run against Boehner this fall. Now that Boehner is facing competition he suddenly “cares” about the seniors.
Must be nice for the man living in his gated community mansion (a mansion for this area) to be able to ignore vital needs of his constituency when his job was secure. He didn’t even pay attention to the issue until a local newspaper ran an article about the problems still out there. After that was when he suddenly gained his interest. Totally unacceptable to me and to the seniors in this area.
Like I have said before, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. Seniors typically account for 30-35% of voters in a midterm election year. This issue has destroyed Republican support by seniors. This is good for the Democrats as long as they show care and true interest about what is going on .It is definitely something I will be bringing up to Mort Meier tomorrow night as a key campaign issue during our monthly meeting. If you live in a Republican district, I suggest you do the same for your candidate running on the Democrats ticket. This could be the bump we need to get some real change in Washington as long as they will listen.