From The Washington Post, 2/29/04:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14991-2004Feb28.html
GOP Still Seeking Afterglow of Vote on Drug Benefits
Credit for Huge Expansion of Medicare Eludes Republican Party as
Discontent Appears to Spread
By Amy Goldstein and Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 29, 2004; Page A07
Three months after the GOP-controlled Congress expanded Medicare to
include prescription drug benefits that Americans have long wanted,
the political bounce that Republicans had hoped for is eluding them,
as critics rail against the new law and voters say they still trust
Democrats more on the issue.
The criticisms and setbacks for the party have come rapidly, just as
Republicans enter an election season in which they had hoped Medicare
would shine as one of their brightest domestic achievements.
The House ethics committee is investigating a GOP lawmaker's vote on
the bill, and a federal agency is questioning the legality of the Bush
administration's $9.5 million advertising campaign to promote the law.
Several Republicans are angry that the White House's most recent cost
estimate for the changes in the program is one-third more than
Congress had been led to believe.
In such a volatile climate, liberal and conservative lawmakers, for
different reasons, are racing to introduce bills to change key aspects
of the law.
Discontent is strong enough on Capitol Hill that some Republicans say
the Medicare legislation, which passed the House and Senate by
sliver-thin margins in November, probably would fail if the votes were
taken today.
"There is buyers' remorse among many who voted for it," said Sen.
Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who opposed the bill and said he has
encountered no criticism from constituents.
The new law "is the start of a battle, not the end of one," said Rep.
Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), who reluctantly supported the bill but now
wants to limit spending on the program.
The feuding over Medicare this winter is particularly striking because
the law was a breakthrough, culminating years of struggle by Congress
to satisfy public demands for the government to help older Americans
pay for medicine.
Instead of pleasing voters, the law has spawned discontent.
Asked about the Medicare changes, one-quarter of the respondents in a
Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll last month said they are "about right,"
while 32 percent of the older Americans who said they knew about the
law had a favorable impression of it, according to a new Kaiser Family
Foundation survey.
The GOP is reaping little credit for pushing the drug benefits into
law; 53 percent of the people who answered a Washington Post/ABC News
poll in January said they trusted congressional Democrats to do a
better job handling Medicare, while 35 percent selected President
Bush.
Medicare is one of several initiatives that the White House had hoped
would enhance the president's appeal with swing voters -- but have
quickly proved unpopular.
Two-fifths of the public favor a plan Bush announced in January that
would allow illegal immigrants to work temporarily in the United
States, while almost two-thirds oppose a Bush proposal to create a
manned base on the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars, recent
polls suggest.
The 678-page law contains the most profound and expensive revisions in
the history of Medicare, which provides health insurance to about 40
million elderly and disabled Americans.
In addition to the drug coverage, which starts in two years, the
legislation tries to tilt the program toward the private sector,
offering the drug benefits through insurance companies and encouraging
patients to join private health plans.
The morning of the bill's passage two days before Thanksgiving, Bush
called the vote "an historic moment."
He described the accomplishment as bipartisan, though other
Republicans saw a GOP win on an issue long associated with Democrats.
The White House is playing down the new wave of controversy.
"The Medicare issue is a prime example of how some in Washington are
so wrapped up in how to use the issue for partisan gain, and so
concerned about who gets the credit, that doing what is best for our
seniors gets lost," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
"The president believes strongly [the law] was the right thing for our
seniors."
Other politicians and policy analysts, however, say the GOP is paying
a price.
"It was an extraordinary political miscalculation," said Robert
Laszewski, a nonpartisan health policy consultant.
"This thing has blown up in their faces."
Robert J. Blendon, a Harvard University researcher who specializes in
public attitudes about health care, said the warring is particularly
painful for a cadre of House and Senate Republicans who supported the
bill despite concerns over expanding a big entitlement program.
"They did it because they were told they would get a lot of credit for
it, this would put them on the right side of history for seniors,"
Blendon said.
"And here they are being attacked all over again. Republicans are just
furious they have to re-fight something they didn't want to do in the
first place."
The tepid public reaction to the Medicare changes has delighted
Democrats.
"We are going to continue to talk about it," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel
(D-Ill.).
"Republicans thought they were going to get a big political bang.
They've got a dud. Unless they turn perceptions around, they've got an
anchor around their neck."
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Ain't that a crying shame. Not a good year for Republicans to be
screwing up like that.
Harry
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