Tom Delay appeared this morning on Stephanopoulos and he has not lost his touch when it comes to lying. Besides accusing Democrats of being more corrupt than Republicans, he made one assertion that is a flat out lie. Rough Transcript:

Delay: The Democrats are going back to their constituents and urging them not to sign up for the new Medicare-D. This means these people are not eligible for free medication.

Wrong Tom. Let’s see how this really works. Prior to the January 1 start up of the new Medicare-D program the drug manufacturers offered a program to low income families that did supply them free programs. Of course Health and Human Services decided that this program would be illegal under the new Medicare program so the drug companies were forced to drop the programs.

A couple weeks ago the decision that the free drug programs were illegal was reversed. I first reported on it here.

In a legal opinion that could help many thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, drug manufacturers were told Tuesday that they can continue giving free medicine to poor people even if they’re enrolled for the new drug benefit.

Each year, large drug companies routinely give millions of free prescriptions to the poor. However, most of the drug companies had said they would discontinue this practice for senior citizens now that they could get coverage through Medicare.

In particular, the drug companies had concerns that continuing to operate their patient assistance programs for Medicare beneficiaries would violate federal anti-kickback laws. Conceivably, they could use the programs to steer patients to a particular drug and reduce the patients’ incentive to locate and use less expensive drugs. Such steering could also raise the costs of the program for taxpayers and participants.

Health and Human Services Inspector General Dan Levinson clarified his position on Tuesday that “lawful avenues exist for pharmaceutical manufacturers to give assistance to financially needy patients, including Medicare beneficiaries.”

Let’s get something straight here. Under the new Medicare-D program there are no free drugs. Even the people who qualify for the extra help, which are the lowest income citizens, still have a monthly premium to pay and a co-pay on their drugs. That co-pay starts off at $5.00 a prescription. That may not seem like a lot but when you take a senior who is on ten different prescriptions and on a fixed income they are now paying out at least $50.00 a month for just their co-pay. That of course is if they are given thirty day supplies of their medications.

This new program is in fact costing seniors more money. When you consider a senior who lives off of Social Security, that is a major problem. Even when Seniors get raises in their Social Security, if they live in public housing they never see it. When they get the raises, the rent goes up also.

Another thing George Bush has proposed cutting funding to in his new budget is another valuable program for seniors. The commodities program supplies seniors with valuable food. They receive a box of necessities every couple of weeks to help them survive a little better. Bush doesn’t feel this is necessary and wants to get rid of it.

Make no mistake that Social Security is in financial trouble. The politicians, and the Republicans in particular, want us to believe this is the effect of a boom in people reaching the retirement age. What they fail to tell you is that the problem has been greatly enhanced by their financial mismanagement. The government has had no problem using Social Security as their own private loan service and the file cabinets in the Social Security office are now filled with I.O.Us. This is the main reason why Social Security is in peril.

We need a change in Washington to protect the lives of our seniors and our own lives. We all plan to live to an old age and that means we will have to worry about our own futures. If we let the Republicans stay in control then we will have a future that is dark, bleak, ill and hungry. This is what people like Tom Delay don’t want the American people to know.