Drugs for the Money

By Eric Lotke

The deadline for signing up for prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D is looming, and senior citizens are unhappy. The very people who clamored for the benefit are among Part D’s most vocal critics. To understand why, it is necessary to look behind the curtain—to examine who wrote the law and who benefits from it.
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Part D is proving to be costly and confusing. Senior citizens derive some advantage, sure, but they are paying top dollar for a middling benefit. The real winners are the drug companies, insurance companies and HMOs. They got the best drug benefit money could buy.
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Right now, the most urgent problem is the May 15 deadline. Seniors who don’t sign up by that date will pay penalties of no less than 7 percent of their premiums every month for the rest of their lives. Unlike traditional Medicare, people are not automatically enrolled on their 65th birthday. They must sign up—though half of them don’t know even about the deadline. The Bush administration often minimizes this problem by citing figures that show overall enrollment figures, which are dominated by people automatically enrolled as part of previous coverage under Medicaid, TriCare or other programs. Among voluntary enrollments, only half of eligible seniors have signed up.

See complete article at http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/11/drugs_for_money.php

War on the Web

This week, the House is expected to vote on something termed, in perfect Orwellian prose, the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006." It will be the first real battle in the coming War of Internet Democracy.

On one side are the companies that pipe the Internet into our homes and businesses. These include telecom giants like AT&T and Verizon and cable companies like Comcast. Call them the pipe companies.

On the other side are the people and businesses that send Internet content through the pipes. Some are big outfits like Yahoo, Google and Amazon, big financial institutions like Bank of America and Citigroup and giant media companies soon to pump lots of movies and TV shows on to the Internet.

But most content providers are little guys. They’re mom-and-pop operations specializing in, say, antique egg-beaters or Brooklyn Dodgers memorabilia. They’re anarchists, kooks and zealots peddling all sorts of crank ideas They’re personal publishers and small-time investigators. They include my son’s comedy troupe—streaming new videos on the Internet every week. They also include gazillions of bloggers—including my humble little blog and maybe even yours.

See complete article at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/11/war_on_the_web.php 

Tidbits

If all goes well I will be on WPR radio on Tuesday morning at 8:00 am. They will have a 15-minute program on Scott Jensen and I will follow. Tune in if you like to cry.

www.ThrowTheRascals.com is making progress. Let me know if there are challengers in your district not included. They must provide me with their web site if they want it listed. And please let me know of any lapses in ethics of your favorite politician. Contributions must be fair, accurate and verifiable.   

If you've ever wondered why health care costs are increasing at 15% per year, don't miss this at http://tinyurl.com/zl7df. It describes the $1.6 billion stock package of UnitedHealth Group’s CEO, Dr. William McGuire. This is patient money not going to patient care, and one of the best reasons why managed care (HMOs) is not the model of the future.  

A new description of Universal Health Care can be found at www.WiCleanElections.org/SinglePayerMyths.pdf   

At this point my book is scheduled off the printer around June 15th. It's called Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America . You can see the cover at www.MoneyedPoliticians.com/cover.pdf. It will be a hard cover.

The US House passed the HR4975 Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act despite the heavy opposition of reform groups who felt it was weak and cosmetic rather than substantial. Surprisingly, Mark Green and Jim Sensenbrenner voted with the reform groups on this one. See the roll call vote at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll119.xml and find out how your representative voted (a No is the best vote).

Voting by mail? Oregonians love it, and participation has increased by 10% or more. See: http://tinyurl.com/qxr9c and http://tinyurl.com/mstxr

From Public Campaign: With just minutes left in the legislative session last night, the Connecticut Senate and House approved crucial reforms needed to strengthen and preserve the state’s landmark Clean Elections law, which provides full public funding for legislative and statewide candidates starting in 2008, as well as banning contributions from lobbyists and state contractors. The Senate voted unanimously on the measure about 11:50 pm; minutes later, House members voted 122-23 .

The Rich and Everybody Else - The New York Review of books: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18995 

From the Center for Public Integrity: Newly released email messages to and from then-FEMA head Michael Brown show that, among other things, a former U.S. senator who had become a registered lobbyist was trying, just hours after Katrina hit, to get Brown to schedule a meeting to complain about a no-bid contract that was heading to his client's competitor.The note from former Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) to Brown is among the more than 900 pages of Brown's e-mails released last Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Center for Public Integrity. Read the Center's investigative report and read the emails here.

Be careful of what you ask for

But the reasons for high gas prices today are diverse. Yes, environmentalists share the blame. The prevention of drilling our own production forces us to rely on foreign sources. Gas guzzlers don't help, and though I own a Lexus hybrid they aren't as efficient as they claim. The increased demand byChina and India exasperates the problem. Other automobile fuels must be developed.

Two reversible culprits stand out to me, one is political. The petroleum industry is flush with money and they share their wealth with the politicians who write the laws. They give gobs of campaign cash to sustain the hands-off policy by Congress, and senate hearings with oil executives not sworn to tell the truth is proof. Not demanding that the Federal Trade Commission prevent the numerous mergings of oil companies is unconscionable. Oil executives said it would reduce their overhead costs, but instead it reduced competition and they now have fewer in the industry to conspire with. There should be an immediate breakup of the industry, just as Congress did to AT&T, and roll back to 1980 levels of ownership. Only then will competition return.

I don’t like the idea of another Three-Mile Island incident, yet I don’t like the idea of windmills in my back yard. We have to look at developing safe nuclear power , as did France . The environmentalists (and I consider myself a mild one) have to get real on this issue. If they truly win their way, we will leave the world just as we found it: without a population.

For an industry that reported a combined quarterly earnings of $21 billion, 6% over last year, I'm not in favor of giving them a free walk when they do stupid things to enhance the bottom line. Protecting them from lawsuits or clean-up costs from the use of the the environmentally dangerous MTBE fuel additive would not be high on my list. What is it the Republicans say? They "must take responsibility for their choices?"

For the record I still consider myself a Republican, though I am growing weary of the label. 

Give me a break

Before you buy that next spyware program, check here: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Look here to see what peer-to-peer file swapping programs have spyware in them: http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/p2p/

Have an interview with an honest boss at http://www.hallmark.com/wcsstore/HallmarkStore/images/products/ecards/nfg1969.swf

Or enjoy the new flight safety procedures here: http://www.barry.fireflyinternet.co.uk/fun/files/pilot.htm