http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/25/medicare.lottery.ap/index.html
Huh?
On the one hand 50,000 random people getting this is a good thing, but on the other, well, this is sort of fucked up.
It also strikes me as the best of both worlds politically for you know who. People are currently using the programs (so it works), but the unrealistic goals haven’t been proved wrong either. What are the chances the rest of this will be up and running smoothly in 2006?
What’s your take Dopers?
I think it’s high time they stopped pretending to know what they’re doing with wealth redistribution. Let the crap shoot be a crap shoot.
Jesus Fucking Christ. Congress is as stupid, collectively, as the Bush Administration.
I gotta confess, I didn’t really pay much attention to this issue when it was being debated by Congress. Do those idiots expect these figures to be extended linearly across the entire 500,000 to 600,000 people who can take advantage of this benefit? Because that - 10K per grey head is a shitload of money; 5 to 6 billion fucking dollars.
And who else is cynical enough to think that the “lucky” lottery winners list will be manipulated in a fashion similar to the Vietnam draft?
Couldn’t agree more.
Give it a few months and some special interest group will be screaming that the lottery was rigged to exclude one or more of the following:
women/men/blacks/whites/asians/native americans/pacific islanders/christians/jews/muslims/buddhists/pagans/gays/straights/bisexuals/SUV owners/tree huggers/liberals/conservatives/left handed people/people who wear funny hats/fat people/skinny people/smokers/nonsmokers/drinkers/nondrinkers/southerners/northerners/Californians/immigrants/married people/singles/Atkins followers/AOL customers/veterans/rich people/poor people/12steppers/Republicans/Democrats/Greenies/Libertarians/Art Bell fans/etc.
There’s no way outta this one. This lottery has guaranteed that somebody out there is gonna get pissed off.
I’ll put my money on Jesse Jackson, as we haven’t heard from him in a while and he’s probably getting antsy for some cameras.
This was the plan that after being passed they said “oops it’s going to cost a bit more”, right?
Amazing how this stuff slips through the cracks.
Slips through the cracks?
This was all planned from the outset from both sides of the aisle.
Criminy, UB! Don’t be so hard on them. You act like they actually READ THE BILL before they voted on it. I’m pretty sure the drugco lobbyists just gave them a short synopsis and some talking points. It’s all CYA territory now.
I wonder if Social Security will be a lottery by the time I’m old enough to collect it…
Art Bell fans???
I’ve personally revised my Retirement Plan to dying before I hit 62. Preferably in a car crash or something, cause I won’t be able to afford a long illness either.
Did you seriously think that any Congressman after Davey Crocket has ever read a bill? You need 30 lawyers reading around the clock just to get through the thing by voting deadline.
Who is responsible for the provision that 40% of the money must be spent on oral cancer drugs? It sounds like something aimed at benefiting a particular drug company. Which one makes the expensive oral cancer medicine?
And if the membership in the program will be random, how will they ensure that enough people who need oral cancer drugs are enrolled to spend $200 million? It seems inefficient, but that would be typical of many government programs.
Wait a minute. Is the requirement that the $200 million be spent on drugs to treat oral cancers (i.e., cancers of the mouth and esophagus) or on drugs administered orally (via pills or liquids)? The first sounds like corporate welfare for a particular pharmaceutical company more than the second.
Voldemort?
Shhh!
After Davey Crocket? Wasn’t he only semi-literate? Maybe I’m thinking of some other figure from the Wild West.
At any rate, as much as it may seem, on the surface, that our legislatures should be reading each bill they vote on, they vote on a lot of bill, and those bills are often really, really long. It’s completely unrealistic to say that they should read what they’re voting on before they do, to be honest. I know I couldn’t read as much as they would have to.
I assume, however, that their staves (well, that is the plural of “staff”, right?) at least skim the things before they advise the legislators.
Here is a juicy tidbit about the coverage:
But Mr. Thompson, if your are living on $900 a month Social Security and Gleevec is the only drug that you are taking, that would leave you only $5,500 (before taxes) to live on for an entire year. (Hey, but it’s the GI Generation. They’re used to doing without – right?)
My mother pays that much every two months just to live in assisted care and that doesn’t include medical care and daily essentials.
If the hole in the doughnut is big enough to fall through, I think there is still a slight problem with the plan.
I’ll bet there aren’t any holes in Mr. Thompson’s doughnut.
Just a bit of history trivia on one Davy Crockett. His property in Gibson County, Tennessee was located across the road from a Mr. Halliburton – whose kinsmen later became known for other political contacts.
Ummmm… That was my point.
I implied that they do NOT read them. No, I didn’t seriously think that they did.
Well then. Keep your wits about you in the future.