Prescription Drug Crisis

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Or in Bush’s case, careful what you push and steamroll and threaten and twist arms for. Last year the Bush administration pulled out all the stops to get the Medicare prescription drug plan through Congress in order to look good in an election year.

Buy now, pay later. And now here’s the bill. The prescription drug plan is going to cost taxpayers $17 trillion, and the payments begin next year. That’s OK, our grandchildren will be happy to pay for it. And the war in Iraq (although maybe there’ll be some light at the end of the tunnel by the time our grandchildren have retired).

For an idea of what $17 trillion means, compare the prescription drug costs to the Social Security crisis. Conservatives are frantic to “rescue” Social Security by privatizing it now before the sky falls. The Social Security system is short by $10.4 trillion. That’s a gargantuan amount, but it’s not quite two thirds of the $17 trillion we’ll be paying for the prescription drug plan. Thank God for our children’s children’s children.

Well, some tough decisions are needed, and the solution to these looming crises will be: Another round of tax cuts to stimulate the economy.