(We now know that anyone critical of this government’s policies and programs does so at risk of being spied upon and/or attacked by government agencies – but, here goes anyway.)

"D-Day" for initial signup into the government’s follow-up to the Medicare Discount Card, i.e., the "funded version", has come and gone. Despite millions of taxpayer dollars being spent for infomercials disguised as news; televised presidential huckstering; misleading, pie-in-the-sky promises; and law-violating, provider-paid headhunters, government officials are lamenting the fact that voluntary participation is minimal. (Maybe we old geezers aren’t so dumb after all.)

Now, even legislators are hopping on board to promote this newest taxpayer-funded medicine show’s snake oil. I just received a broadside, "prepared, published, and mailed at taxpayer expense", from my newly-redistricted Congressman – assigned to me compliments of the now infamous Tom Delay. This guy boasts that he "helped pass the law that gives seniors a new prescription drug benefit (that) will cut prescription drug costs in half for the average senior." He also "wants to hear from me". In asking for this, I guess he hasn’t learned that in his newly-acquired part of Central Texas, (when in "polite" company) we describe such deceptive claims as "semi-solidified organic fertilizer that exits the posterior portion of a male bovine’s digestive tract." It appears that the President is not the only Washington politician that doesn’t read newspapers or watch the news. Hey guys, wake up and "smell" this boondoggle’s fallacies:

First, like the Medicare Discount Card, this "funded" benefit wasn’t designed to help seniors – or taxpayers. It was designed by and for the benefit of the multi-national drug cartel and the government’s favored insurer/providers. Several of them, like many other government cronies, are, have been, or were indicted for and/or being investigated for; or were trying to settle claims for; or are already paying off negotiated claims for various alleged or admitted illicit activities. But heck, many are big political contributors, so at least all involved were "on a first name basis."

(Don’t just take my word for it: On the heels of Government Accountability Office revelations of "serious, widespread problems in the Medicare Discount Card program" administered by some of these same cronies, an investigation by the House Government Reform Committee concluded that: "The prices offered by the {new funded} Medicare drug plans are higher than all four benchmarks {one benchmark was based on drugstores’ regular prices}. This increases costs to seniors and federal taxpayers and makes it doubtful that the complicated design of Medicare Part D provides any tangible benefit to anyone but drug manufacturers and insurers.")

Second, again as with the Medicare Discount Card, this "funded" plan won’t save most seniors money, but it can cost some of them a lot more. Many retirees are being bumped off of better plans earned by years of employment, and trusting seniors are being conned, coerced or cajoled into leaving better plans. (An ominous indicator? - I was recently asked to intervene on behalf of an "eighty-something" lady who was enticed into a so-called "pre-Medicare" plan linked to the Medicare Discount Card. The plan was implemented by a large insurer and at least one drugstore chain. Neither seemed to want to talk about the "program", but I did find that she had been conned into abandoning her paid-up $500 retiree benefit, and she had been charged much more for her generic prescriptions than she would have paid using her "old" card. She paid more than double for most generics, but one really stood out - it cost her almost $80 - her old card would have allowed less than $20. (Happily, her retiree plan has now credited her for her $500 benefit.)

Such sleazy examples linked with the Medicare Discount Card have given seniors a "bad taste" for government programs. They are suspicious of this Medicare funded plan, and they should be: When utilization projections have been applied against the prototype Medicare benefit and compared with the potential costs in commercially-available discount programs, many, if not most seniors would be better served by existing resources – including some non-funded ones. No wonder Medicare had to threaten late enrollees with premium penalties – it treats benefit eligibles like sheep - "When it’s time to shear the flock, if you can’t lead ‘em in, drive ‘em in".

Third, the benefit is too complicated. Given about two weeks any competent benefits manager could have designed a universal, fairer, simpler, more cost-effective (safer, medically sound and less expensive) benefit. Or, in the alternative, Medicare could have copied any one of dozens of proven, off-the-shelf programs in the public arena. But that would not have satisfied the cronies’ demands. This Medicare program followed governmental SOP prototyped in Iraq and Katrina: (1) Get blank checks from a compliant or coerced Congress. (2) Line up cronies to endorse the checks over to (helping them balance their books against their "contributions"). (3) Spec-out competitors, and (4) promote the plan to "high Heaven" using taxpayer dollars. Never mind that eligibles are solicited at their homes; headhunters are representing as "federal agents"; and personal information is captured for reasons God only knows. (The federal government says it "might" slap the hands of providers that use these "illegal, totally inappropriate and unacceptable" tactics - it could "impose a corrective action plan on them". (Yikes - cruel and inhumane punishment at its worst. Won’t work – we all know the U.S. doesn’t endorse torture.)

While these designers’ greed may help bankrupt Medicare, excessive crony-avarice backfired on the designers as well. They just built in too much potential profit for themselves, and their specs were not tight enough to keep others out. Suddenly everyone with a fast computer – and who didn’t mind bumfuzzling a few old folks - created spread sheets that could manipulate premiums, covered drugs, drug prices, copays, deductibles, etc. and come up with a profitable scheme to get a slice of the Medicare pie. (It has been reported that there are now between 2000 and 3000 Medicare-approved plans – none of which will meet the needs of all Medicare eligibles.)

But, all of this could backfire on the administration. Lauren Etter in Dow Jones Reprints asks "What’s at stake for President Bush? The administration once hoped the drug benefit would (bring) Republicans the kind of support from seniors won by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Social Security and President Lyndon Johnson’s Medicare. But confusion about the program as well as unhappiness about the extent of coverage has undercut that hope. Also, many conservatives worry about a price tag now estimated at more than $700 billion over 10 years."

Invariably, the enduring legacy of a presidency seems to be highlighted by or condensed into a single phrase. For FDR it is "We have nothing to fear…"; Harry Truman - "The buck stops here"; JFK – "Ask not, young man…"; Nixon – "I am not a crook"; Reagan – "…tear down this wall"; Bush the Elder – "read my lips…"; and Clinton – "I did not have sex…".