The sad state of affairs

Democratic Congressman Earl Pomeroy of conservative North Dakota is running ads trumpeting his support of George Bush, specifically the Medicare prescription drug plan claiming he put seniors before party.

To refresh memories the Medicare plan symbolized everything rotten about the GOP. While it did help seniors the entire cost was passed on to the taxpayer to the tune of approximately $60 billion a year. The bill banned the import of foreign manufactured drugs even if the same brand was available at a higher price than in the U.S. It also forbade the government from negotiating better pricing with the Pharmaceutical industry.

It also turned out that the Bush administration lied about the real cost of the program. Many Republicans said they would only vote for the bill if the cost was $400 billion or less for the initial 10 years and.....voila, that turned out to ve the cost. Except that the real cost, about $600 was hidden by the Bush administration until after the bill passed.

The biggest beneficiary of the bill was the Pharma industry that was guaranteed huge sales and profits at inflated and protected costs. The bill was written by Pharma industry lobbyists and ushered in by then Congressman, Billy Tauzin, head of the Energy & Commerce committee which oversees the Pharmaceutical industry. A few months later Tauzin retired to head the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America at an annual salary of $2.5 million.

The sad part of the story is that less than 2 years after departing the White House, a Democrat sees his best chance of being re-elected is linking himself to George Bush,