Arizona Sen. John McCain moved to the fiscal right flank of all potential 2008 Republican presidential candidates this week when, following up on a report in the Washington Post, he told HUMAN EVENTS he would favor “delaying, reducing or eliminating” the Medicare prescription drug plan that President Bush signed into law in 2003.
McCain was one of only nine Senate Republicans who voted against enacting the plan in the first place. The Government Accountability Office has since determined that the plan adds $8-trillion in unfunded obligations to the federal government’s long-term balance sheet.
The drug plan was pushed through the U.S. House in a 220-to-215 vote that didn’t end until about 6 in the morning of Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003, after the House leadership extended the normal 15-minute voting period to three hours—allowing the GOP leaders, in concert with the White House, to pressure, cajole and threaten enough conservatives to change their votes.
Earlier this week, a day before McCain told HUMAN EVENTS he would support terminating the drug plan, the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a group of about 100 conservative House members, released a 23-page list of potential spending cuts its members are suggesting to offset the cost of Hurricane Katrina relief.
The top item on the RSC list: delaying for one year the scheduled Jan. 1, 2006, start of the drug plan. That would save an estimated $30.8 billion.
“I think we are going to have to go with entitlement spending [to find enough savings],” Rep. Jeff Flake (R.-Ariz.) said at an RSC press conference. “That’s why I proposed that we cut the prescription drug care bill.”
HUMAN EVENTS Assistant Editor Amanda Carpenter sought out other congressional Republicans to see if they also supported delaying the program.
The Washington Post reported you would be in favor of abolishing the prescription drug care bill. Are you still on board for that?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R.-ARIZ.): Either delaying it, reducing it or eliminating it.
OK, for Katrina?
MCCAIN: Oh yeah.
OK, great. That’s all I needed to hear.
MCCAIN: Let me tell you what. That bill was projected to cost $400 billion. It’s now up to a projected cost of $730 billion. There’s something seriously wrong with it.
As you know, the RSC proposed its big menu of offsets to cover Katrina.
SEN. JIM DEMINT (R.-S.C): Yeah, that was impressive!
And in there was cutting the prescription drug bill, or delaying it. Would you support that?
DEMINT: Well, I think we should look at everything. I think if we can delay the implementation of part of the prescription plan for upper-income [citizens] we can save a lot of money. But the most realistic thing we could do and the simplest thing for the American people to understand is if we just freeze the growth and discretionary spending over the next five years, we’ll save over $800 billion. And, that is something that we don’t have to go back and open the highway bill. We don’t have to change the Medicare program. We can move ahead with the realization we’re not going to increase spending to inflation or the 8.5% we’ve done. So, I really think that’s where I’m settling down. It’s something that is the most realistic, the easiest for us to do.
Do you support suspending the prescription drug care bill to help pay for Katrina?
REP. TOM DAVIS (R.-VA.): I haven’t thought about that, frankly. We are going to have to pay for this somewhere. I don’t think you can just write checks for this.
Are there any offsets you are thinking about or advocating?
DAVIS: We’re all thinking about it. There will be a thorough discussion on this.
Are you going to support suspending the prescription drug care bill?
REP. TRENT FRANKS (R.-TEX.): No.
No, you will not?
FRANKS: That’s right.
Are there any you are advocating?
FRANKS: There are a lot of them I will support.
Is there one in particular that you’re gunning for?
FRANKS: No. Just about everything else they talked about in there [at the Republican Study Committee press conference].
Do you support suspending the prescription drug care plan?
REP. KEVIN BRADY (R.-TEX): I think it needs to be re-evaluated. It certainly does. We need to try and cut giveaway spending to rogue nations and that’s what we need to do first.
Would you support suspending the prescription drug care bill?
REP. JEB HENSARLING (R.-TEX.): Yes. I think it’s important we keep the discount card, and I think it’s important that we focus resources on the indigent, but I think now that I would support that option. And again, if that’s not the preferred option of the conference, fine. Find some other option that adds up to $62 billion.
To help finance Katrina spending it was proposed earlier this afternoon that the House cut the prescription drug care bill. Would you support that?
REP. DEBORAH PRYCE (R.-OHIO): Absolutely not.
You won’t support it?
PRYCE: No.
Is there an offset you are pushing for? As a part of the menu they’re offering?
PRYCE: No.
The RSC proposed its plan to cut all these things earlier this afternoon and part of it was cutting the prescription drug care bill. Would you support that?
REP. CLAY SHAW (R.-FLA.): No. I don’t think that’s necessary. You know, a few people get together and say you are going to cut this program or that program, but the team effort is going to be what the Republicans do and what the leadership does, and that’s where it’s going to go. So, you know the drug benefit, for instance, that thing you know was always pumped up to $700 million or billion dollars a year and now they’re down, it’s cut way down. And we haven’t even included the monies we are going to save because people are getting the drugs that they need. I’m taking a drug right now that I couldn’t afford if I didn’t have insurance. So, it’s a must and it’s going to keep people out of the hospital, it’s going to cut down. There’s people who can’t get medicine to keep their cholesterol down and they end up with a heart attack and then they end up in the hospital and then the federal government has to end up paying big bucks. When you really look at it, the future of medicine is in chemistry, there’s no question about it. And chemistry is the drugs and we need to be sure that people with low means or high drug expenses are taken care of.
OK, so maybe in lieu of doing that, are there any programs you would be willing to cut or are thinking about?
SHAW: Well, I think maybe there are some expenditures we can delay, but we need to look at the whole picture and not just go running off ourselves, and we got to just be sure it’s doable. Because the members have said, for instance, what they want in their own district. Well, we feel we are the best authority of what type of public works projects are needed in our rural districts. Now, sure there are probably some wasteful ones, I’m sure there is, there’s no question about it. But I don’t see us rolling any of those bills back. Even though it would be good if we could make some cuts, we’ve reduced spending over the past few years and the projected deficit is a hundred, I think $100 billion less than what is was projected to be. So these are responsible moves that we think we have done and we are going in the right direction now.
Are you going to support suspending the prescription drug care bill?
REP. TOM TANCREDO (R.-COLO.): Yes.
Are you going to support suspending the prescription drug care plan?
REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R.-TEX.): I haven’t looked at that. That was passed last year when I wasn’t here, but the fact that colleagues I respect are bringing it up means we need to look at that. Everything is on the table. I appreciate the majority leader’s taking that position as well, as what they’ve told me they’ll do and that’s what I’ll do. We should take a look at that.
