Lot of skepticism in Congress about Medicare drug benefits bill

Republican leaders in both houses of Congress continue to predict they will pass a Medicare drug benefits bill Thursday or Friday, but this New York Times report shows there are a lot of undecided and no votes in both parties.

 

Republican leaders in both houses of Congress continue to predict they will pass a Medicare drug benefits bill Thursday or Friday, but this New York Times report shows there are a lot of undecided and no votes in both parties.

That the President is twisting arms and Congressional leaders are working “feverishly” to round up votes suggests that this legislation is not as a sure thing as supporters want us to think. What’s not clear is how much horse trading of pork is going on to win the needed votes. What is being promised and at what cost?

 

Here are the impact graphs:

 

Republican leaders said they expected to have the votes needed to pass the legislation in both chambers this week. Burson Taylor, a spokeswoman for Mr. Blunt, said he was “confident that the votes will be there.”

 

Conservatives said they were torn between their loyalty to Mr. Bush and fear that the bill would establish an open-ended federal entitlement whose costs could explode after the benefits become available in 2006. Representative John Linder, Republican of Georgia, said he was “very reluctant” to vote for the bill and “might vote no.” On the one hand, Mr. Linder said, “it’s the best we can do.” On the other, “I worry that the new drug program will grow the same way Medicare and Medicaid have grown” since 1965.

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