http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1123-11.htmThen as now, Congress was on the verge of expanding Medicare coverage. Critics were warning seniors they were getting a raw deal. And lawmakers back in 1989 were equally eager to convince Americans that their new Medicare benefits were a wonderful idea.
For Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., then powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, it all boiled over on a hot day in August when he failed to sell the new coverage to elderly activists at a seniors' center on Chicago's North Side. Brandishing canes, some waving signs saying "Rottenkowski," they chased the sweating, panicked lawmaker to his car. When they surrounded his car, he got out and ran down the street.
Within months, Congress had repealed the law.
"The backlash will be bigger," this time, Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer health advocacy group, predicted last week. For one thing, the current Medicare changes are bigger than 1989's. They're also hard to explain, passed by a partisan vote, and will adversely affect some seniors.
Democrats last week taunted Republican backers of the new Medicare prescription drug bill with videotapes of Rostenkowski's misadventure.