Friday, January 20, 2012

Pelosi Sides with George Soros over Low-Income Seniors

The Hill reported that, at her press conference earlier this week, House Democrat Leader Pelosi rejected many of the pay-fors in the House-passed payroll tax measure: “We’re not going to give to the middle class with one hand and take from them with another by saying, ‘You’re going to get the tax cut, but seniors are going to have to pay more for Medicare, or whatever.’”

Where to begin with this statement?  For one, the House-passed Medicare proposals have NOTHING to do with making the middle class “pay more for Medicare.”  The ONLY increase in beneficiary cost-sharing in the House-passed bill makes wealthy seniors like George Soros and Warren Buffett pay more for their Medicare benefits.  And it’s such a “radical” proposal that it comes straight from the mind of…Barack Obama, who included it in his September deficit submission to Congress.

Meanwhile, the Hill continued that the former Speaker “Pelosi offered several alternatives for offsetting the tax package, including a provision to… allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices on behalf of millions of seniors in the program…”  However, the Congressional Budget Office has consistently indicated that the only way to achieve savings through drug “negotiation” is by restricting access to therapies for seniors.  To use but one example, in April 2007 CBO concluded that drug “negotiation is likely to be effective only if it is accompanied by some source of pressure on drug manufacturers to secure price concessions.  The authority to establish a formulary, set prices administratively, or take other regulatory actions against firms failing to offer price reductions could give the Secretary the ability to obtain significant discounts in negotiations with drug manufacturers.”

To sum up:  Nancy Pelosi would rather cut access to seniors’ prescription drugs through new government-imposed restrictions than to force George Soros to pay more for his taxpayer-subsidized health care.  And Democrats say they stand with the middle-class how…?