As Medicare Drug Benefit Kicks In
Seniors Must Kick Back

I have been unhappy about the Bush Medicare Drug Benifit Plan since it made its way through Congress. The Bush administration used millions of our scarce tax dollars to misinform the public and pimp for support with an advertising campaign that would have been the envy of Coca Cola to gain support for a bill that was written by and for the drug manufacturers.
Passage of this bill involved a betrayal of Shakespearian proportions when the highly respected AARP sold out the interests of their membership in order to benefit their own budding insurance business. Things went rapidly downhill from there.

Though the bill was passed by a Congress narrowly dominated by the GOP, it did so with the full support of the Democrats. Republican or Democrat, seniors need to deluge their Senators with their disappointment and unhappy tales.

One of my Senators, Maria Cantwell (D WA) is up for re-election this year and seems to be paying more attention to her constituents than the other five years she spent in the other Washington.

I have written to Senator Cantwell, asking her to do for seniors what she did for ANWAR and am giving her the information she needs to carry out this task. Those that are considering signing up for this boondoggle should read the article carefully. Unless you will really benefit and have no viable alternatives, don't join. If the program fails to garner enough members, it will fail and have to be fixed. Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo has recently created a Medicare blog that should prove informative and helpful.

I will post the Senator's response if and when.

Carol DW

Senator Cantwell,

I and many other voters begged you not to vote for the GOP Medicare drug benefit. It was a bad bill that cost too much and did too little. At a public meeting here in Washington, representatives from the health care industry stated that no bill was better than a bad bill.
You ignored us and voted for it anyway. I have never understood why you did so.

Not only did this bill fail to provide the help senior's needed, it ended up costing double what the Bush administration reported to Congress. It has since been disclosed that the Bush administration were aware of the real costs and suppressed them by threatening the job of the person who did the cost estimate. It is my understanding that it is a crime to lie to Congress. Why has nothing been done to address this and why do we still have this bad bill?

With the Bush tax cuts, which you also voted for, the Medicare Drug Benefit, which has turned out to be a piece of corporate pork for big pharmaceutical manufacturers, has been put on the tab for our children and grandchildren. I hope you can understand that this is not a legacy that seniors wish to leave their loved ones.

After the bill passed, you sent out email messages to your constituents offering to help seniors thread their way through the this all but useless and phenomenally confusing bill.
I responded to your offer by asking you to fix the bill so that it is understandable to anyone with an average education and really provides help to seniors.

To date, this has not been done nor have heard of any attempts to do so.
The result of this neglect is described in the following article.
Please read it carefully and then fix the bill.

Providing a useful Prescription Drug Benefit makes sense.
It will drive down the total cost of Medicare and enhance the quality of life for all seniors.
Lining the pockets of one of the most profitable industries in the nation at the expense of the most vulnerable makes no sense and is morally indefensible.

Returning Democrats to the Senate who do not vote our interests does is not a solution to bad government. We need Senators who will stand up for their constituents no matter what their party affiliation.

You have shown that you can be leader when you stood up for the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
This issue is much closer to home and affects everyone who is old, will become old or has parents and grandparents. It is even more worthy of your attention and your leadership.


Thank you,
Carol DW

Are we witnessing yet another Bush trifecta (bad intentions, bad legislation, and bad execution) brought about by the usual greed, incompetence and arrogant criminality?
Did Bush actually succeed in hiring the only group of people in the nation lacking the necessary experience, integrity and love of grandparents to administer Medicare contracts?
Special thanks to Senator Grassley for taking on this issue and his own party.
Carol DW