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Guest Commentary April 23, 2002
Republicans Have Never Liked Medicare
The Honorable Charles Rangel
There is no question that there is a great need to integrate prescription drug coverage into Medicare. The only question is whether Congress is serious about doing it.
Sadly, the evidence before us indicates that the [House Ways and Means Committee] Chairman [Bill Thomas, R-CA] and his Republican colleagues are not serious. In order to be serious, you would have to budget sufficient resources so that premiums would be low enough and benefits would be high enough so that all seniors could benefit.
Unfortunately, the Republicans' so-called budget proposal did not set aside any money specifically for a prescription drug benefit. The money to fund any proposal sponsored by Chairman Thomas would be paid for out of a $350 billion over ten year so-called "reserve fund" that is supposed to cover not just prescription drug benefits but so-called Medicare modernization, provider give-backs, and many other potential expenses that the Republicans have not made room for elsewhere in their budget.
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At the same time, the House Republican leadership is doing its best to make sure that any resources that might be there over the next ten years, will not be there beyond that by passing a bill to extend last year's tax cuts in such a way that revenues will decrease by $4 trillion in the same decade that the baby boom generation is retiring and eligible for any Medicare prescription drug benefit that Congress may enact.
The Republicans not only do not want to assist seniors with their prescription drug needs, they want to prevent us from being able to provide such assistance for the foreseeable future. At a time when, as the GAO [General Accounting Office] will tell us today, the Medicare program needs to prepare for the Baby Boom generation, the Republicans' fiscal plan has made such preparation impossible. ...
We should not be surprised that this is not a serious effort to address the vitally important issue of extending prescription drug coverage to America's seniors. Adding a prescription benefit would only strengthen a program that Republicans have been fighting against for decades.
Republican leaders have never liked Medicare. In 1995, Dick Armey said he "deeply resents the fact that when I'm 65 I must enroll in Medicare." Newt Gingrich said he wanted it "to wither on the vine." And Tom Delay said in 1999 that a prescription drug benefit and strengthening Medicare "don't matter to the American people." ...
I am sorry that nothing serious will happen in this Committee this year to improve Medicare or provide a real prescription drug benefit that will become law. And if Democrats were in charge, this would not just be something that we talk about, but something that we would actually do for all American seniors.
Charles Rangel, a Democrat, represents the 15th Congressional District of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives. The above commentary has been adapted from a statement Rep. Rangel delivered at a hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means, April 17, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
