NOT ONE CENT HAS BEEN PROVIDED TO DATE!
The news is full of the initial problems to implement the new Medicare Prescription drug plan. Some of the confusion is because of the large number of plans and some is because many of the participants are older and are having trouble understanding the details. In time these initial problems will be solved and 55 plus million seniors will be receiving this new benefit.
Now lets ask the question, who is to pay for this new benefit that has an estimated initial cost of $60 Plus billion per year? As the baby boomers retire, the annual cost of this new benefit grows even more. President Bush told Americans how much of a future financial problem the Social Security System was and most economists now tell us that Medicare is a MUCH bigger and more imminent problem then Social Security. Then WHY did Bush and his GOP supporters in Congress ADD another $60 Billion per year to a system that is already in financial trouble? To date NOT ONE CENT has been provided to pay for one of the biggest new entitlement programs EVER approved by Congress. Bush is still talking about making his tax cuts permanent while ignoring the funding for his new entitlement program that was designed to get VOTES. Make no mistake about it, many Democrats also voted for this plan. However it was Bush that pushed it and it would never have become law without Bush and the GOP. It is also Bush and the GOP that refuses to pony up the new funding. The way this plan was enacted with NO MONEY to pay for it will make the problems of paying for Medicare a far more difficult problem to solve and bring the date when the problem begins much sooner! This is another example of how we are passing OUR financial problems to our children to solve!