Michael Peroutka: Medicare Way Over Budget -- OOP$ (February 6, 2004)

"In July of 2003, head of General Accounting Office testified before Congress that the Medicare program was a “highly vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse and mis-management” and has been on GAO’s list of high-risk programs for more than a decade.

It remains on that list today.

Still, President Bush signs into law so-called Medicare “reform” which, he says will cost $400 billion over 10 years to help older citizens get their drugs.

Several weeks later, White House says, "Oooops!" - this program will cost $540 billion for next decade. The director of the Congressional Budget Office says that if you start with the year 2013, cost of Bush program ranges from $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion.

Bush’s Medicare drug for seniors program is the greatest expansion of a Federal entitlement program since Medicare became law in 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson.

But, even these costs of Bush’s program that I’ve mentioned are probably grossly underestimated. When Medicare first passed in 1965, the estimated annual cost was $10 billion a year; now it’s $244 billion a year.

In any event, regardless of the true cost of this new Bush entitlement program, it’s unConstitutional."

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ATTRIBUTION:
* Peroutka, Michael. "Medicare Way Over Budget -- OOP$". Peroutka2004.com, 6 Feb. 2004.