In 2003 Congress passed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which later became known as Medicare Part D. Remember that? A lot of wonks point to it as a critical piece of legislation that helped Bush win his re-election in 2004. Of course the law didn’t go into effect until 2006 and for the next year we heard horror stories on the news of seniors not able to get their medicine and the phrase “doughnut hole” entered our vocabulary. Suddenly a lot of seniors, who supported Bush in 2004, started wishing they could turn back time and take away that vote.

You know who was one of the most instrumental players in getting this past? None other than Newt Gingrich:

Newt Gingrich played the role of political godfather in pushing the Medicare prescription drug benefit into law, returning to Capitol Hill in November 2003 to deliver a pivotal speech that turned some conservative skeptics into believers.

Three days before the clock started on what would be an excruciating and historic three-hour floor vote, Republicans huddled in a House office building committee room to hear their former speaker’s vision of a modernized Medicare plan that would offer prescription drugs for seniors while subsidizing Medicare Advantage and introducing health savings accounts aimed at giving conservatives a reason — any reason — to expand the bastion of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.

And Newt succeeded. It was one of those late hour, “hold the vote open past the rules” tricks that become synonmous with Speaker Dennis Hassert and Majority Leader Tom Delay. The vote only passed by 1 with all but 9 Democrats voting against it.

The bill also exemplified the ignorance the Republicans have when it comes to understanding business.

One of the key provisions in the bill forbids the government from negotiating for lower drug prices. This was something Democrats pushed for during the healthcare debate in 2009, yet Republicans like Eric Cantor tried to say negotiations would actually increase the cost (Eric Cantor, who is one of the top recipients in the House of campaign contributions from big pharma).

Of course facts dictate something different on this. The V.A. is allowed to negotiate lower prices, unlike the Republican Medicare D. plan. So how do prices compare between the two plans? Well here’s one example:

For a year’s supply of 200 milligram caplets of the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex, the lowest Medicare Part D plan price was $946.44, compared to $632.09 under the VA.

Not a huge savings, but a savings none the less. But let’s look at another example:

For the cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor, the cost of a year’s supply of 20 milligram tablets would be $1,485.96 under the cheapest Medicare Part D plan, compared to $127.44 under the VA.

WHOA NELLY! A savings of almost 1200%!!!! It looks like the negotiating of prices has really helped the VA out there!

As matter of fact it came out right after the program went into effect that a lot of these drugs could actually be purchased without Medicare D cheaper than with.

These facts are a reason the Ryan plan was met with much resistance. The CBO and experts all agree that under the Ryan plan, seniors would end up paying much more, not just for their needed drugs, but also their actual medical coverage.

This is all important stuff that people need reminded of next year. The Republicans, with a big help from Newt Gingrich, polished a turd and tried to sell it to the American people in 2003. In 2006, when that turd arrived and the polish lost its luster, people were outraged. But the Republicans are banking on the short term memory of Americans and that they won’t remember how thousand of our seniors had to go without life sustaining medicine because of a cluster fuck of a program they had put together. Well let’s remind them of that!

The Medicare D package was nothing but a giveaway to big pharma. It has actually increased the costs of prescriptions not only to the seniors, but also the federal government to the tune of 20%. It is one of the most poorly designed plans in the history of America and the Republicans want us to think otherwise. Well we won’t. We all saw the news of grandma and grandpa hitting the doughnut hole and having to fork over all of their monthly social security check to get drugs or go without.

The story of Newt’s instrumental role in passing Medicare D should be repeated over and over again because with Newt as President we would see many more disastrous plans like this implemented.