Jun 24, 2000 - 02:45 PM
President Revises Earlier Drug Plan, Tapping
Project Surpluses
By Anne Gearan
Associated Press Writer
By Anne Gearan
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - President Clinton wants to
use $58 billion from the growing budget surplus to help senior citizens pay for
prescription drugs in 2002, revising an earlier proposal and offering more
generous Medicare benefits than current Republican plans.
"We have the money to do this now and do it right," Clinton said Saturday in his weekly radio address, broadcast during a fund-raising trip in the West.
"We have the money to do this now and do it right," Clinton said Saturday in his weekly radio address, broadcast during a fund-raising trip in the West.
"We should use a part of our hard-earned budget
surplus to meet America's most pressing priorities, like paying down the
national debt, strengthening Medicare and providing a prescription drug
benefit."
Clinton outlined the package he intends to send
to Congress this week: a drug subsidy in 2002, a year earlier than he first
proposed and House Republicans are offering, and a $4,000 cap on an individual's
annual out-of-pocket medicine costs, compared with $6,000 under the GOP plan.
The updated White House plan caps a week of
intense political maneuvering on an election-year issue affecting 39 million
elderly.
Senate Republicans voted largely along party
lines Thursday to reject a Democratic plan for the drug coverage. House
Republicans pushed their version through the Ways and Means Committee. A floor
vote is expected this week.
"It's clear that you can't have modern health
care without access to lifesaving pharmaceuticals," Rep. Nancy Johnson, who
heads the Ways and Means human resources subcommittee, said Saturday in the
GOP's weekly radio address.
Johnson, R-Conn., said that while more then
two-thirds of older Americans have some prescription drug coverage under health
plans, an estimated 12 million have none at all.
"This is simply morally wrong in the world's
most prosperous country," she said. "No senior should have to choose between
filling their prescription and putting food on the table."
Medicare, the federal insurance program for the
elderly and disabled, does not cover prescription drugs. Most senior citizens
have some kind of coverage through private health plans.
Clinton is proposing to spend $58 billion more
over 10 years than the $195 billion total estimated in his initial plan in
February.
Within days, the president is expected to
announce a $1 trillion increase in projected federal surpluses. Sources have
told The Associated Press the figure would more than double, to $1.9 trillion,
the $746 billion the Clinton administration projected in February. The figures
do not include Social Security.
The White House long has planned to spend part
of that surplus on a drug benefit and part on a tax cut. In political speeches,
Clinton says Republicans want to squander the money on a much bigger tax cut
that would be unaffordable if the surplus dries up.
Under the GOP plan, "If we don't have this
projected surplus we'll be back in the soup" of deficits, Clinton said during a
political speech Saturday in Los Angeles, where he wound up a three-day
fund-raising tour.
Clinton's health care adviser, Chris Jennings,
said the new White House proposal to spend some more of the surplus on drug
coverage is not at odds with that criticism.
"He's not saying spend it all on a drug benefit,
by any means," Jennings said. "There's lot's of resources left."
A House Republican leader, Rep. J.C. Watts of
Oklahoma, countered in a statement Saturday that senior citizens "do not deserve
partisan wrangling" from an administration "looking only for recognition as
their days in the executive branch quickly fade away."
The House GOP proposal calls for private
insurance companies, backed by hefty federal subsidies, to offer drug coverage
to Medicare recipients nationwide. The bill includes subsidies for low-income
senior citizens, as well as those experiencing extremely high costs.
Clinton and congressional Democrats, who have
proposed slightly different plans, would require the government offer a uniform
drug benefit under Medicare. Democrats claim only they offer the choice of
affordable coverage to all elderly, instead of only those deemed most needy.
The rejected Senate plan is less generous than
Clinton's, and slightly less expensive, at roughly $240 billion over 10 years.
By contrast, the House GOP bill costs an
estimated $40 billion over five years.
There is no constitutional provision to use your
Children's
fiat tax 'monies' to mainline our
Seniors!!
The Duopoly will stop at nothing to suck your
Vote,
then you, in your naivet�, will have rewarded
the
aspirations of the drug-pushers; the
rapist/slumlord.
Bard
BUCHANAN-Reform
http://gopatgo2000.com/default.htm
http://gopatgo2000.com/default.htm
So here's the Clinton trifecta(1):
money laundering,
addiction,
and envy
combine to enforce and expand federal government control
over more and more aspects of our lives.
http://www.newsmax.com/commentmax/articles/Thomas_L._Jipping.shtml
(1)trifecta defined by Websters:
noun; a type of bet, esp. on horse races,
in which the bettor must select
the first three finishers in exact order.
Also called 'triple'. [1970-1975;
[TRI- + (PER)FECTA]
money laundering,
addiction,
and envy
combine to enforce and expand federal government control
over more and more aspects of our lives.
http://www.newsmax.com/commentmax/articles/Thomas_L._Jipping.shtml
(1)trifecta defined by Websters:
noun; a type of bet, esp. on horse races,
in which the bettor must select
the first three finishers in exact order.
Also called 'triple'. [1970-1975;
[TRI- + (PER)FECTA]
