In the culmination of a long courtship, Republicans won the AARP's support for Medicare prescription drug legislation on Monday, and the nation's most prominent seniors organization said it would spend $7 million or more in a huge barrage of television advertising to back the plan.
**cliff notes at bottom**
<snips>
The bill is not perfect, AARP chief executive William D. Novelli told the Associated Press in an interview, ading, "But the country can't afford to wait for perfect."
...
Rother said the AARP was prepared to spend more if Congress has not voted before Friday.
Democrats voiced their displeasure.
...
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said, "When seniors see the details of the Republican plan, the AARP leadership will undoubtedly regret this ill-advised decision." House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said, "AARP's national leadership has been co-opted by Republicans pushing a partisan bill that fails to provide a real prescription drug benefit under Medicare."
...
These Republican officials said Novelli made three demands: more money to entice employers to maintain health benefits for their retirees; a temporary, limited program of competition between traditional Medicare and private insurance plans, and the removal of a Senate provision that AARP said would allow employers to eliminate all health benefits for retirees eligible for Medicare or state health plans.
The compromise negotiators and congressional leaders reached Saturday satisfied AARP on all three.
While Republicans have been solicitous, Democrats fumed about a group that has been on their side of many battles.
...
Still, the former public relations executive is keenly aware of his group's clout and aims to use it. "We have to agree to disagree" with the Democrats," Novelli said.
...
Ron Pollack, the president of the health care advocacy group Families USA, said Novelli has made it plain that he "wanted to make sure that AARP functioned on a truly bipartisan basis."
In response to Daschle's tart prediction that he would face a revolt within his organization over this bill, Novelli said, "There's not going to be a revolt within AARP. There's going to be a problem if Congress fails to pass this legislation."
<snips>
Ouch...that last one's going to leave a mark How many times is Daschle going to open the door into his continuously bloody nose.
OK, now all Daschle bashing aside - I think this stinks. I don't think there shoule be a bill - PERIOD. I'm not siding with the Democrats who don't like this bill, because they just don't like it because they couldn't/wouldn't pass it for the people they supposedly champion and they are just pissed because the Republicans are actually doing something that has earned them praise from the AARP.
Now like I said though - THIS and ANY Prescription drug ENTITLEMENT stinks. This entitlement will force alot of Seniors off of their current plans(from retirements and such) because companies will now be able to drop them since the gov't will cover them all anyway...but at an increased cost to the Senior. Now I don't want to hear about this "helping" Corporations, because ANY plan(even the Dem plan) will end up causing alot of Seniors to pay more for coverage. IMO the gov't should stay the heck out of these things - and concentrate on the truely poor, instead of giving Old people a bunch of "free" stuff to pander and buy votes. If this passes and when Bush is re-elected I expect to see tremendous changes to SS, Medicare, and etc to lessen the hit we are all going to take from this sort of ENTITLEMENTS.
/mini unorganized rant
Now back to the fun stuff Boy won't it be interesting to see how this affects Daschle, 'Ol Swimmer, and the rest of the ones who are speaking out against this. Isn't Daschle up for re-election in '04? Should be interesting to see how he votes on this
list of Senators up for re-election in '04
Should be interesting to see which of them vote for this plan that plays "roulette with the lives of senior citizens,"(-'Ol Swimmer) and which ones cave to stay in the AARP's good graces.
In short - I'm enjoying the political setup, but I very much dislike what it means either way. I almost hope the Democrats muster enough support to vote this down but I'm sure it'll end up happening someday and so I'd rather see this plan enacted, which has "some" privatization, instead of a full fledged entitlement like the Dems want.
**Cliffnotes**
-Dems don't want this drug plan
-AARP does
-Repubs got AARP support for plan
-Daschle slams door in face
CkG
**cliff notes at bottom**
<snips>
The bill is not perfect, AARP chief executive William D. Novelli told the Associated Press in an interview, ading, "But the country can't afford to wait for perfect."
...
Rother said the AARP was prepared to spend more if Congress has not voted before Friday.
Democrats voiced their displeasure.
...
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said, "When seniors see the details of the Republican plan, the AARP leadership will undoubtedly regret this ill-advised decision." House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said, "AARP's national leadership has been co-opted by Republicans pushing a partisan bill that fails to provide a real prescription drug benefit under Medicare."
...
These Republican officials said Novelli made three demands: more money to entice employers to maintain health benefits for their retirees; a temporary, limited program of competition between traditional Medicare and private insurance plans, and the removal of a Senate provision that AARP said would allow employers to eliminate all health benefits for retirees eligible for Medicare or state health plans.
The compromise negotiators and congressional leaders reached Saturday satisfied AARP on all three.
While Republicans have been solicitous, Democrats fumed about a group that has been on their side of many battles.
...
Still, the former public relations executive is keenly aware of his group's clout and aims to use it. "We have to agree to disagree" with the Democrats," Novelli said.
...
Ron Pollack, the president of the health care advocacy group Families USA, said Novelli has made it plain that he "wanted to make sure that AARP functioned on a truly bipartisan basis."
In response to Daschle's tart prediction that he would face a revolt within his organization over this bill, Novelli said, "There's not going to be a revolt within AARP. There's going to be a problem if Congress fails to pass this legislation."
<snips>
Ouch...that last one's going to leave a mark How many times is Daschle going to open the door into his continuously bloody nose.
OK, now all Daschle bashing aside - I think this stinks. I don't think there shoule be a bill - PERIOD. I'm not siding with the Democrats who don't like this bill, because they just don't like it because they couldn't/wouldn't pass it for the people they supposedly champion and they are just pissed because the Republicans are actually doing something that has earned them praise from the AARP.
Now like I said though - THIS and ANY Prescription drug ENTITLEMENT stinks. This entitlement will force alot of Seniors off of their current plans(from retirements and such) because companies will now be able to drop them since the gov't will cover them all anyway...but at an increased cost to the Senior. Now I don't want to hear about this "helping" Corporations, because ANY plan(even the Dem plan) will end up causing alot of Seniors to pay more for coverage. IMO the gov't should stay the heck out of these things - and concentrate on the truely poor, instead of giving Old people a bunch of "free" stuff to pander and buy votes. If this passes and when Bush is re-elected I expect to see tremendous changes to SS, Medicare, and etc to lessen the hit we are all going to take from this sort of ENTITLEMENTS.
/mini unorganized rant
Now back to the fun stuff Boy won't it be interesting to see how this affects Daschle, 'Ol Swimmer, and the rest of the ones who are speaking out against this. Isn't Daschle up for re-election in '04? Should be interesting to see how he votes on this
list of Senators up for re-election in '04
Should be interesting to see which of them vote for this plan that plays "roulette with the lives of senior citizens,"(-'Ol Swimmer) and which ones cave to stay in the AARP's good graces.
In short - I'm enjoying the political setup, but I very much dislike what it means either way. I almost hope the Democrats muster enough support to vote this down but I'm sure it'll end up happening someday and so I'd rather see this plan enacted, which has "some" privatization, instead of a full fledged entitlement like the Dems want.
**Cliffnotes**
-Dems don't want this drug plan
-AARP does
-Repubs got AARP support for plan
-Daschle slams door in face
CkG