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mattsteinglass
Filed under: Afghanistan, Health, Politics | Tags: Freddie, Healthcare reform, Medicare, Medicare Part D, Prescription drug, Republican, Sarah Palin, United States
does no one remember the prescription drug benefit? | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen.
“Look, I think we all know why the prescription drug bill wasn’t fought against where health care reform is:,” writes Freddie, and then finishes: “the elderly are a protected political class, and those without health care are not.”
Um…sort of. But mainly, it’s because Medicare Part D was proposed by a Republican president commanding unprecedented party loyalty. Democrats didn’t object to including prescription drugs in Medicare because, erm, prescription drugs should be covered under Medicare. Democrats did object to paying for the drugs through private insurers, thus adding a pointless markup to the price of coverage, and to preventing Medicare, by law, from negotiating a good deal for the taxpayer. But those were objections to the shape of the bill, not to its existence. So if Republicans aren’t objecting for partisan reasons, and Democrats aren’t objecting because they believe in the goal, then you get…no objections.
Similarly, if you had a Democratic president proposing some kind of unwise foreign military adventure, then you might see even Sarah Palin coming out in support of it, while Democrats…would still be protesting, because Democrats have lousy party discipline. So there ya go.
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