GOP Threatens to Shun Medicare Compromise

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- Thirteen conservative Republican lawmakers threatened Wednesday to oppose a Medicare prescription drug program if it costs more than $400 billion over the next decade.

The letter, written by Rep. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., urged fellow House members to hold the line on spending and resist any efforts to water down the bill to obtain a compromise with the Senate.

"Our deep reservations about the fiscal soundness of the prescription drug bill have been heightened by the recently released Congressional Budget Office report on this bill," the 13 lawmakers wrote. "Just days after we voted for a bill advertised as costing less than $400 billion, CBO revised its estimates and now believes that the cost of the bill will significantly exceed $400 billion.

"This is very troubling, especially considering the history of federal entitlement programs costing far more than their early projections," the lawmakers wrote.

more...............

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-medicare-congress,0,4606427.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[displacedvermoter]

1. How damn much was the war in Iraq SUPPOSED to cost,

and how much has Toomey's president now said he would need? Asshole!!!

[patdem]

2. We need a headline..."the old and the young are dying in the Iraq war"

[Carmerian]

3. ALRIGHT! YEAH!

PLEASE let them do this! The thought of millions of old folks rising up and banding together to fight them over this is almost too good to bear.

[tom_paine]

4. Yeah, compromise is for wimpy democracies and republics!

Why should those with unchecked Imperial Power yield to such liberal weakness as compromise?
</sarcasm off>

[asjr]

5. gop

What can we expect? They are Repubs after all. What puzzles me is that they don't seem to be aware of their reelection campaigns. Are they so sure they will be reelected? Does Diebold hold their states hostage?

[denverbill]

6. Yeah, $150 billion for one year in Iraq.

$40 billion for one year of prescription drugs for Americans.

And wait a minute, how about them tax cuts? What was it, $1.5 trillion over 10 years or was that just the first cut?

God who the hell (at DU) didn't know that there was PLENTY of money in the Treasury to allow hundreds and hundreds of billions for war and tax cuts for the wealthy, but damn, we just can't afford $40 billion to take care of seniors.

[indepat]

7. Since when did those of Representative Toomey's ilk give a whit

about fiscal soundness? Surely he did not vote for all those measures which created massive annual budget deficits for as far as the eye can see and the conquering of Iraq which well might cost more than $400 billion over the next ten years.