And it paid off perfectly, Kevin! Republicans are reaping millions and millions in campaign contributions, leaving you LIEberals to whine!

Viva Democracy!

HERE is another great example of the Power of Democracy! Just shows how just one person can make a HUGE difference!!

The amazing thing to me is that fully 30% of the population stand ready to keep these guys in office forever.

You really do get the government you deserve.

It's beginning to sound like just about everything the Republican congress ever passed or tried to pass since they've been in power they've done illegally and/or unethically.

The White House brags about this new entitlement and tax cuts at the same time - even though the cost to taxpayers in the future from this subsidy, which was heavily tilted toward the supplier (Big Pharma), will be enormous. I guess Bush brought conservatives (who hate higher taxes) and liberals (who note the donut hole) together as both condemned this horrific piece of legislation. But I guess we can take heart that Bush's base (the lobbyists who line up at the pig's trough for taxpayer funded goodies) made out like bandits.

USA. The best democracy money can buy.

And for the Republicans, they can then claim what a failure government supported health care is. Just no end to their evil.

This Medicaid scandal might make some nice democratic campaign ads.

Way to play six degrees of separation while republicans try to get seniors the medecine they need...

HERE is another great example of the Power of Democracy! Just shows how just one person can make a HUGE difference!!

You're absolutely correct. It IS an example of the power of democracy. The whole fiasco got its start as an effort to grab the votes of old people -- inarguably the country's most powerful political constituency. The problem, as always, is not too little democracy. The problem is the excessively democratic (as in "mob rule") nature of American democracy.

Off-topic:

I am beginning to doubt if anyone at Political Animal actually reads the comment threads. If so, they'd have done something about the Chinese spam. Seriously, there is a thread down the page that has been almost completely taken over with the same gibberish repeated over and over.

If they can't stop the spam coming in, they could delete it from the thread at some point, right? But they don't. So, I wonder if they are even reading this stuff.

It makes an otherwise great comments section often unreadable.

Do something about it please, Kevin. Seriously. I haven't seen this kind of stupid crap on any other political blog. (There is, of course, plenty of stupid crap. But not Chinese sex spam.)

If you can't stop it, at least go through and delete it as you read the comments. IF you ARE reading the comments, that is...

AMERICAN HAWK: Way to play six degrees of separation while republicans try to get seniors the medecine they need...

Yes, the Republicans are well known as the party devoted to helping people in need. Bleeding heart conservatives!

RobW: If they can't stop the spam coming in, they could delete it from the thread at some point, right? But they don't. So, I wonder if they are even reading this stuff.

It makes an otherwise great comments section often unreadable.

That's a great point. Kevin: If you need volunteers to delete spam comments, my email is in the profile. I'd be happy to help.

Kevin: If you need volunteers to delete spam comments, my email is in the profile. I'd be happy to help.

Start helping by hitting the "Cancel" button instead of the "Post" button, when you feel the urge to contribute something.

asdfg, please keep things on topic.

Thanks,
American Hawk

Wow ! Now, that's journalism. Very impressive piece of reporting.

Now, when do we start hanging Big Pharma executives :>

Hey, Hawk, I count one degree of separation. Old Jack A. practically lived in the White House, and planted his assistant, Ralston, there as Rove's assistant. How, umm, six? How is this some "distant, indirect" influence?

Ah, but then, you know better.

You know the administration lied about the true cost of the program, costing the taxpayers an extra $200-or-so billion. You know they threatened to fire the government auditor if he told Congress the truth. You haven't questioned one of Kevin's laundry list of facts about how the bill was passed.

You think that's how government ought to work? You say you're a conservative? Yeah, right. Looks to me you could care less about how the country works, as long as your side's running it.

Bill-- That first post was a Hawk imposter. I'm spoofed very often on these forums by intolerant liberals.

The second is really me. You can verify by emailing the patriothawk@gmail.com address; that's a working email address.

Anyway, I think that the medicare bill is a perefct portent of universal healthcare; inherently wasteful and corrupt. It was a terrible idea. Republicans should stand for ideals, not try to be like Democrats. The drug bill is a mistake. Let's repeal it and return to the free market. I thank Kevin for pointing out all the things wrong ith the government funding prescription drugs.

Was I mistaken or isn't the prescription drug coverage by the Federal government an entirely new entitlement? Who paid the entire coverage before this law?

Is the complaint here that the thing is means tested or that the means test level was set too low? If the latter, what should it be?

Is this another example of a good deed not going unpunished?

It's a mistake, trashhauler, because efficient privatized money is being shifted into inefficient 'public' money. Get the government out of healthcare and let doctors and patients make decisions.

Thanks, Hawk. For the last two years I've done my level best to tell the real conservative postings from the fakes, and for me, it's gotten tougher and tougher. I'll only respond to those from patriothawk@gmail.com going forward.

You're welcome Bill. I really do wish that Kevin (or whoever makes those decisions) would move to a registration model. I don't mind parodys, but it helps to know who they are. Note, though, that all the email does is let you use it to see if a post is really from me; nothing stops a spoofer from copying my email too. It's an imperfect system, to say the least.

The latest liberal bete noir is the pharmaceutical industry. Terrible people! In past years it was the railroads. That threat has passed but liberals loved to shiver as they said r-a-i-l-r-o-a-d-s. It was delicious. The munitions makers made good enemies for a time. The airlines and the auto makers and the vicious
owners of coal mines. Remember how Ralph Nader trembled with rage as he said Chevrolet Corvair?
Progressives remind us today that the greatest threat to democracy is the broadcasting industry. They actually believe in capitalism. The food industry insists on making us all eat too much and will be dealt with with law suits by liberal trial lawyers who don't mind performing their civic duties and getting rich at the same time. Wall Street is a perennial left wing target. Exxon and Halliburton join Standard Oil as favorite corporate spooks of all time. The agriculture industry is trying to poison us all by growing crops in the open and in dirt, too. Very suspicious! Why don't liberals simply get elected and abolish all these corporations? Then they can get down to brass tacks and abolish private property all together. Such highly moral people, liberals.

ah: Republicans should stand for ideals, not try to be like Democrats.

"What the Republicans need is 50 Jack Abramoffs. Then this becomes a different town."

-- Grover Norquist 7/29/95 - National Journal

Anyway, I think that the medicare bill is a perefct portent of universal healthcare; inherently wasteful and corrupt.
Posted by: American Hawk on October 26, 2006 at 3:24 PM | PERMALINK

um - get the Republicans out of the process, and then your corruption and wastefulness won't happen nearly as much.

It's like a 5 year old telling mom that she needs to put a lock on the cookie jar to keep other kids from stealing cookies - and there are no other kids.

The agriculture industry is trying to poison us all by growing crops in the open and in dirt, too. Very suspicious! Why don't liberals simply get elected and abolish all these corporations? Then they can get down to brass tacks and abolish private property all together. Such highly moral people, liberals.
Posted by: m on October 26, 2006 at 3:49 PM | PERMALINK

Thank god the conservative diplomat from Planet X chimed in. . .

OT: the home prices they be a' fallin

I guess this is blogwhoring, but I have a couple tables showing the increase in both private and total healthcare costs per capita, adjusted for inflation, over the term of each President since Kennedy is available here.

De Fence, De Fence...
Mexican Pole Valuter training cell discovered by homeland insecurity.
King George with 816 days to go. I pitty the person that takes that job...

Perhaps you're correct, American Hawk, but no one has answered my questions:

Was I mistaken or isn't the prescription drug coverage by the Federal government an entirely new entitlement? Who paid the entire coverage before this law?

Is the complaint here that the thing is means tested or that the means test level was set too low? If the latter, what should it be?

One wonders how much Susan Ralston siphoned away from that honey pot.

Pharmacy is not my area of medicine, but I do knopw a little about Part-D (maybe just enough to make me dangerous?).

First, there is no means testing. evryone who is eligible for medicare is eligible for part-D, primarily the elderly and the disabled.

Second. before part D, seniors either paid out-of-pocket, were "sampled" by their physicians, received Rx assistance from the big drug companies, or - and this was a great deal of the patients - they had other coverage. Many had Rx coverage as part of their pension plans, and I have heard that many discontinued this after Part-D was passed. A large number of those receiving the Pard D benefit were what is know as "Dual Eligible" meaning they qualified for Medicare due to age or disability and Medicaid because they were poor. Medicaid covered the Rx's for these patients for a low co-pay, usually one or two dollars.

The travesty is the donut hole. Seniors who paid out of pocket are the only ones who really caught a break. Those who had other coverage saw the greatest shift,a nd it lands on them.

Someone who was low-income and Medicaid eligible had coverage year round. Now they have a $4600 donut hole to cover somehow.

Thanks, GB. So it's not means tested, it sounds like it's need tested. Offhand, that sounds pretty stupid to me.

But, I suppose some help is better than none, eh? Unless you dumped all your insurance, that is.

Sometimes I think more than half the trouble with the medicine system is the ungodly cost of insurance and the collusion they are legally able to do.

Railroads!? How old are you, asshole?

Yeah, old enough to remember railroads, but not old enough to remember Upton Sinclair.

But, those lobbyists were always soooo nice to Sen Max Baucas.

And thank you to tbrosz whereever you are - Got my flu shot and INR over at the VA today - Thanks, Tom and American Hawk.

The way I understand it, a lot of folks who had Rx coverage have had that option shut off because now they can access part-D. They paid less than the donut hole for this coverage, and it was closed off to them after part-d passed. So they have an entitlement that costs them more than the private insurance that they were buying.

Scratch the surface and it is painfully obvious that it was a welfare bill for big pharma, disguised as a bill to help seniors.

patriot hawk? hahaha. more like chicken hawk

Kevin,

Thanks for raising this.

I think seniors and the disabled are going to be pretty shocked next year. Those who enrolled just to enroll and avoid the penalty (nice that our govt. would penalize the elderly and disabled if they didn't want to be part of the program) will find their premiums TRIPLED next year.

Yup.... they will want you to pay more for a program that may well be of no use to you now.

I wonder how many folks will drop out then.

This program definitely was NOT for consumers. As a former poster said, it was for insurance companies and Big Pharma.

Let's hope if the Dems get power they totally scrap the program which is bad for consumers AND taxpayers!