 |
GOP Renews Era of Big Government
By Scott Holleran
November 25, 2003
With zero time remaining, the bill to expand
Medicare had been short by two votes—yet, long after the clock
had stopped, the Republican leadership maneuvered to change key
conservative votes. Later, Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, pleaded to the
Associated Press: "I did not want to vote for this bill." But, in
the end, that is exactly what the conservative did.
Some might claim the Republicans' heavy-handed
tactics subvert the legislative process and taint the billšs
credibility and they have a point. But they would be missing the
essential point: 10 years after the sweeping Clinton health care
plan was opposed by conservative Republicans, conservative
Republicans are forcing Americans into government-run health care.
Force is the premise of the GOP's Medicare plan.
Through regulations, the bill will force America's seniors into
HMOs. In an enormous bait-and-switch for Americans who have earned a
higher standard of living, the Medicare bill will force seniors who
make a certain amount of money to pay much more than they have
already paid into Medicare. While few, if any, seniors must choose
between their medications and their meals, Medicare drug subsidies
will force every American to pay more for one of the richest
generations in history.
Before the vote, retired Indiana resident Jack
Banister, who supports Bush, told the New York Times: "I'd sure like
them to leave the prescription drug thing alone. A lot of us have
worked all our lives to prepare ourselves for retirement. And the
federal government coming in is likely to screw that all up."
Enacting new limits, deductibles and something
called a donut hole that will make getting a prescription
immeasurably more difficult, GOP leaders, like their nemesis,
Hillary Clinton, refused to divulge details. This much is known:
those with more than $10,000 in assets, not counting a home and car,
are prohibited from receiving the subsidy—and a visit to the
doctor for a prescription may mean proving one's assets. Many, if
not most, retired persons are likely to lose their current drug
benefits, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and the new
entitlement to prescription drugs will cost at least $ 400 billion.
Medicare expansion's leading advocate is
President Bush, who has been eager to increase government control of
medicine, either on the grounds that it will get him reelected or,
worse, because he believes that each person over age 65 is born with
a right to have someone else pay for prescription drugs. In either
case, Bush, like his fellow conservatives, has completely accepted
the moral premise of socialism.
America's health care system is neither socialism
nor capitalism, though it is much closer to socialism. The tax code
punishes the individual who chooses not to depend on a corporation
or the government to pay for health care, which, due to huge
Medicare and Medicaid expenditures, is becoming more expensive.
Spending more on Medicare will make matters worse.
The GOP Congress's historic approval of Medicare
expansion captures the essence of the new, Bush-era Republican
Party: they do not favor the right to make money; they support
punishing the rich with higher premiums. They do not favor the idea
of something for something; they sanction robbing retired persons of
their former employer's benefits when they need benefits most. They
do not even practice compassion; they seek to herd older Americans
into HMOs and deprive younger Americans of any shred of financial
independence.
In short, by adding drug subsidies to Medicare—the full meaning of which will become clear to Americans sooner than
later—Republicans, led by President Bush, believe in one basic
idea: Big Government.
Whether Americans punish the GOP in the 2004
elections will become known in time. Meanwhile, it is fitting that
Republicans forced the largest expansion of government in 40 years
by voting in the darkest hours with the clock reading zero—it
best represents the exact value of expanding Medicare.
This Thanksgiving, as President Bush signs
Medicare expansion into law, Americans' proper response is: Thanks
for nothing.
Scott Holleran is a freelance writer in California.
Copyright © 2003 Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, contact AFCM.
|
|
Print Page
E-mail Page