If Democrats wanted to give Bush a political victory, they could have insisted on a much better deal. Instead, their negotiators sold out for a bill full of subsidies to the HMOs that will make it harder to control drug costs. The moral, yet again, is that Republicans are much tougher than Democrats and fight much harder to win.
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Golly:
BROKAW: We're going to begin with the issue that's before the nation right now, and that is the expansion of Medicare to include prescription drugs.
I'm going to go to Senator Kerry, if I can, in Washington, D.C.
Senator, Hillary Clinton has already issued a press release saying that this is a Trojan horse that is designed to bring about the demise of Medicare. Do you honestly think that the AARP, that Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, for example, or Senator Dorgan of North Dakota, are determined to bring about the demise of Medicare? Because they've indicated that they support this.
KERRY: I think that will be the impact. I agree with Hillary Clinton.
I'm opposed to this, Tom, because it's representing a way of pushing seniors off of Medicare into HMOs. There's $137 billion, $139 billion worth of slush fund money that's going to go directly to the drug companies. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10799-2003Nov24.html