An Old Man Looks Back on George W. Bush and His Presidency

The Medicare Part D “Sweetheart Deal” For Drug Companies

One of George W’s campaign promises was to “fix” Medicare; “we will set it on firm financial ground and make prescription drugs available and affordable for every senior who needs them,” Bush said in 2000. So let’s take a look at how the “fix” took place relative to Medicare Part D. (In case you are under the age of 65 and/or not familiar with Part D, this is the part that provides prescription drugs for those on Medicare.)

There was no doubt the program needed serious attention, but the Bush version made the old one look extremely desirable for Medicare beneficiaries, and the taxpayer. Bush basically “invited” the drug companies to write the new bill via drug industry puppet, Republican Representative W.J. “Billy” Tauzin of Louisiana. Tauzin was the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He spearheaded writing the drug bill, with most of the content solicited from the drug and insurance companies. Then he pushed the bill through the Republican controlled Congress, got it passed, and George W. Bush signed it into law on December 8, 2003. Two months later, on February 4, 2004, Tauzin announced his retirement from Congress and shortly thereafter said he would take the job as President and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). His salary? $2 million a year.

The bill is formally know as the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA), which privatized the prescription drug program allowing only private companies to participate. There were many parts of the drug bill that stank of corruption, but none more than the clause known as the “non-interference provision”, which legally prohibits the secretary of Health and Human Services from participating in negotiations with drug manufacturers. This means Medicare had to give up their strong negotiating position and have no control over what drug manufacturers charge for prescription drugs. By comparison, the Veterans Administration pays 58% less for drugs on average because they are allowed to negotiate with the drug manufactures. In addition to no negotiations being allowed, the bill expressly prohibits Medicare from directly insuring seniors, and from providing a government-administered prescription drug plan.

To bolster the profits and minimize the cost for those private companies (and increase the cost to the beneficiary), there was another provision in the bill called the “Donut Hole“. It is formally known as the “Gap”, thus the need for beneficiaries to purchase Gap insurance, if they can find it and afford it (different from “Supplemental Insurance”). This “Gap” stipulates that once a predetermined amount is paid out for drugs each year (with their deductable & co-pay, and what their insurer pays) coverage is suspended until the beneficiary alone reaches a certain amount of out-of-pocket expenses. For example, for 2008 when the total cost for drugs reach $2,510 the coverage for the beneficiary ends (and by including what the insurer pays toward the $2,510, it is reached sooner than it would if only the beneficiary’s portion was counted). Coverage does not begin again until the beneficiary alone has spent an additional $4,050 out of pocket for drugs. However, during the gap period, the beneficiary continues to pay the premiums for the coverage, and, if you are under an “Advantage” plan (covered below) the insurance companies continue to get their premiums from Medicare. And to protect the US drug companies, Tauzin (and Bush) demanded having a provision in the bill that prohibits the importation of cheaper drugs from other countries. This report shows how the “Donut Hole” affected beneficiaries in 2007.

Taxpayers are now paying 30% more today for drugs prescribed to Medicare patients than they are for drugs prescribed to Medicaid patients (Medicaid wasn’t included in the new bill). The bill is widely recognized as a $200 billion windfall for the pharmaceutical industry. Reports are calling the bill a boon for drug companies in reference to those windfalls. Many say this was payback and more for the $96 million-plus that health care and drug companies contributed to candidates for public office between 2000 and 2004, in which 71% went to Republicans.

The insurance companies were also singled out for windfall profits. A provision was inserted in the new bill that allowed insurance companies to offer a beneficiary complete medical coverage in lieu of Medicare Part A (hospital care), Part B (doctor & out patient care), and drug coverage. (This was Bush’s first step in privatizing Medicare all together.) These plans are known as “Medicare Advantage” plans, and are currently optional for the beneficiary (this will eventually change if allowed). In a nut shell, the beneficiary signs up with an insurance company for Advantage coverage with premiums ranging from $0 to something less than they are currently paying Medicare in premiums. Medicare also pays the insurance company a premium, thus the reason they offer beneficiaries such low premiums. With Advantage, Medicare is completely out of the picture as far as the beneficiary is concerned and they deal only with the insurance company on everything. With someone who is living strictly on Social Security or a very limited income, these low or no premiums can be very attractive. However, the insurance companies (and their representatives) always conveniently ignore telling the beneficiaries there will be a huge deduction (out-of-pocket expense) for medical care before coverage kicks in, usually in the thousands of dollars. These out-of-pocket deductions far out weigh what the beneficiary was paying in Medicare premiums, with no better coverage. In many cases there are sever restrictions on what, who, and where medical care is administered and where drugs can be purchased under these Advantage plans. After you realize you have been taken in and spent thousands of dollars of your own money, it takes an “Act of Congress” to revert back to regular Medicare coverage. And regulators warn beneficiaries that during open enrollment each year they should be on the look out for these unscrupulous insurance agents, saying they (the agents) view it as “open season” for preying on older adults.

Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America’s Future said “this costly, confusing and corrupt prescription drug plan written by and for the pharmaceutical and insurance companies exemplifies the conservative ideology of governance — outsource essential government services to corporate cronies and pass the bill on to the taxpayers”.

The underhandedness of this bill was magnified even more by the way it was passed and when it was passed. It had reminiscences’ of the 2000 Presidential election. The vote took place late at night and took 3 hours; the longest recorded vote in the history of the United States. The bill passed by a very close margin, but only after some Republicans changed their “nay” vote to “present” (“present” automatically means “aye”, but gives the voter an out when questioned about it later), and other Republicans were pressured, and in some cases threatened, to change their “nay” votes to “aye”.

Within a month of bill-signing by Bush, it was learned the real cost estimates were 25% more than what was quoted during the “selling” of the bill. These actual cost estimates were deliberately hidden by Thomas Scully, chief administrator for Medicare at the time. Scully threatened to fire Medicare’s top actuary (statistician who computes insurance risks and premiums), Richard Foster, if the latter revealed that internal cost projections for the bill was higher than the stated $400 billion. This information was exposed after Scully left Medicare, just days of the bill being signed, for a job as a lobbyist for the health care industry.

During the negotiations of this bill the drug industry and HMO’s deployed nearly 1000 lobbyists to push the bill through. Special interest spent $141 million and hired 431 lobbyists. They were back and forth between the White House and Congress like a revolving door. The bill is often referred to as “The $80 Billion Medicare Sellout”.

About the only good thing that came out of this drug bill was it brought a lot of attention to the relationship between our elected & appointed officials and big business (corruption). Billy Tauzin’s new job made a lot of jaws drop. However, as usual, within weeks that became “old news”, and no serious attempts have been made to pass laws preventing another “Tauzin” and “Scully” disaster.

In 2007 the Democratic controlled House passed legislation requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers. It passed with 170 Republicans voting against it. Bush said he would veto the bill if it reached his desk.

The “Industry Friendly” Energy Bill

Bush & Cheney had three major pieces of legislation they wanted to enact their first year in office; the tax give-a-ways to corporations, Medicare Part D drug plan bill covered above, and the industry-friendly energy bill. Bush found considerable more resistance to his energy bill than he did his tax cut bill, and never got the bill passed in his first term, primarily because it had a $31 billion price tag (more tax breaks). But with his re-election in 2004 and a stronger Republican majority in the Senate, he got the 1,724 page bill passed in August 2005. Like the tax cuts & Medicare deal, the energy bill was full of goodies for the energy industry, paid for by the taxpayer as usual. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would increase direct spending by $1.6 billion and reduce revenues by $12.3 billion.

The energy industry contributed $115 million to political campaigns from 2001 to 2005, of which 75% went to Republicans. 16 companies spent $70 million lobbying Congress on the bill. This information is contained in a report published by Public Citizens called “The Best Energy Bill Corporations Could Buy“. The industry was granted $14.5 billion in incentives, but the bill did not address America’s energy problem. The oil & gas industry alone received $6 billion in incentives, $3 billion in tax breaks (the latter being part of a $8.5 billion tax break for all companies), and a bonus; the roll back of several regulatory laws the industry did not like, which killed several lawsuits against the industry for polluting water supplies. One of the major recipients of these roll backs was Cheney’s old company, Halliburton.

Take a look at some of what we know about Cheney’s Energy Task Force that put the energy bill in motion. The task force was created by executive order on January 29, 2001; just 14 days after Bush and Cheney took office. A National Energy Policy was presented to Bush just four months later with an official record which said only government officials were part of the task force. Of course, we know now that was a lie (surprise, surprise). Cheney had a revolving door for a whole host of energy executives, energy lobbyist, and industry representatives. A law suit was filed by the General Accounting Office to force the Bush administration to release all relative documents, but Judge John D. Bates, a recent Bush appointee, dismissed the law suit. (Judge Bates appears to be the Bush administration’s guardian angel.) Another lawsuit was filed by Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club to force the administration to release all documents relative to the meetings. They won the suit, but a Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the law suit.

Cheney had said he was prepared to invoke executive privilege if the law suit did not go in his favor. It really made one wonder what secrets were so important that Cheney was willing to go that far, but now we know. For years Cheney denied any energy people were involved in the task force, but White House documents say oil chiefs met with the Cheney task force on several occasions, although these same oil chiefs lied about it before a congressional committee (Republican Senator Ted Stevens{bridge to nowhere} demanded the oil chiefs not be sworn in, thereby circumventing any prosecution for lying under oath). The documents showed that approximately 300 groups and individuals met with the Cheney task force and it named names, affiliations, and date & time of meetings. An article by The New York Times, Behind Closed Doors, gives a good summary of the secrecy behind the task force.

One provision in the energy bill repealed the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), a bill designed to protect consumers. That bill was passed in 1935 in response to corruption and scandals in the utility companies. Before the bill was enacted in 1935, thirty-five utility companies went bankrupt because of their underhanded dealings & greed; since then none have gone bankrupt. But now, with the repeal, the door is open for a rerun of what happened in the early 1900′s. This could end up being the worst part of the energy bill as far as consumers are concerned. The provision was so obscured in the bill it basically went unnoticed, with only “The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (15 U.S.C. 79 et seq.) is repealed”. But rest assured the public will pay greatly for those few words. Now your local utility company can be bought out and/or consolidated, eventually making utilities unaffordable for millions of Americans, in addition to removing all protection the consumers had. As it turns out ExxonMobil was heavily involved in getting the act repealed, as was ChevronTexaco, as documented in the hyperlink above; probably a step in preparing for a switch from fossil fuels to alternative fuels and becoming a big player in supplying our energy.

One of the really oddball provisions of this energy bill is the Bush administration included $48 million in tax breaks for Home Depot (what have they got to do with energy?). It also had a clause which lifted the tariffs on Chinese-made ceiling fans made for Home Depot. Maybe that was payback for the $907,950 of “soft money” received by the Republican National Committee from the Home Depot family.

Going all the way back to his first campaign for President, Bush talked up “renewable energy”. However, it all seems to have been nothing more than Bush’s sleight of hand, having never asked for or supported real legislation for renewable energy. He’s still talking it up, this time probably because of the negative impact caused by huge increases in oil prices. But had he followed through on his campaign promises for renewable energy instead of drastically cutting research funds in 2003 and again in 2006, maybe we wouldn’t be so dependent on foreign oil now, and oil & gas prices wouldn’t be so high. However, that wouldn’t have been conducive to the existing energy industry. Or maybe he was just buying time so the existing energy industry could position them selves to be the benefactors of renewable energy.

Scandals Under the Bush Administration

The Enron scandal is widely touted as the “first” scandal under the Bush administration, although it really wasn’t. There were many scandals in George W’s administration, and many sites can be found attesting to them. The following are just a few.

• A Guide to GOP Scandals
• Bush Administration Scandals
• Republican Scandals One
• Republican Scandals Two
• Surprisingly, even Fox News published an article on the Bush administration scandals.

Corporate Criminals

This issue could take dozens of pages to cover and still not get them all, so I only give you a couple of the dozens of web sites available to consider; “In Bush’s America, Corporate Criminals Walk” and “Crime Without Conviction“. I and others have said many times there are two sets of standards for similar crimes; one for the traditional criminal and another for the white-collar corporate criminal. Although the latter hyperlink references some corporate crimes before George W’s reign, the majority were during Bush’s administration with considerable pressure from the White House not to prosecute.

Bush’s “Affordable” Housing Plan

This article was written by “Doris” from Des Moines, Iowa in April of 2000. As for its many references to Bush’s actions concerning housing in Texas when he was governor, I did not research any of that. However, most of the stuff she writes about his campaign promises and ensuing actions after elected can be mostly substantiated; therefore, I believe with research her claims about his similar actions when he was governor could also be substantiated. With at least one of his appointees to the Texas state housing agency being convicted on bribery, theft, and other charges, it certainly mimics a “president” Bush model. In a nutshell, Doris points out how Bush never kept his campaign promise to make affordable housing available to low income homebuyers, but did set up a program under that guise which made millions of dollars for his cronies.

George W’s Veto Record

George W. Bush set a 200 year veto record in 2006. That is to say, a record of not vetoing Congressional legislation. He vetoed only one bill during that time. We must remember that was the period the Republicans controlled Congress under the Bush administration. But since then, in just one and a half years, under a Democratic controlled Congress, he has used his veto pen 11 times.

Some General Insults to America

• Bush disobeyed more than 750 laws the first six years he was in office by citing “power of his office”.
• Bush overturns “blacklist” rule on federal contracts – This rule required federal contacting officers to consider a company’s record of compliance with labor, environmental, and consumer protection laws before awarding government contracts.
• Bush’s policy on releasing his internal records differs in case of Clinton – Bush refused to give Congress information about his administration’s contacts with energy industry executives but had no problem releasing similar Clinton records.
• Mama Bush, Daddy Bush, and Republicans try to bail out Bush on the Katrina fiasco – A brief summary of their efforts.
• Bush ignores API reporter Helen Thomas – Helen Thomas has been a respected front row icon during Presidential press conferences for more years than most of us can remember. But Bush ignored Thomas for three years because she asked him tough questions, something Bush does not tolerate (he considers himself above that). What was the first question she asked after being ignored for three years? “Why did you really want to go to war?” She’s never been called on again.
• Barbara Bush’s Katrina earmark money (not related to “President” George W) – Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil.

Interesting Articles Not Included in Post

• Representative Dennis Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment
• Bill Clinton vs. George W. Bush Fact Sheet
• Review of Bruce Bartlett’s book “Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy”
• How Bush Destroyed The Republican Party
• Five Ways Bush Sunk The GOP – A Video

Conclusion

Aren’t we all glad George W didn’t have sex in the Oval Office? Boy, if he had, he would have really disgraced the Office of the President of the United States of America.

Although this report is very long, there’s tons of information I didn’t include that’s just as insulting to the Oval Office, the United States of America, and the citizens of America; some even more so. But my objective here was to point out in a somewhat condensed version what has already been reported over the nearly 8 years he’s been in office; George W. Bush has been a terrible president for our country. His record will leave a huge long-lasting black mark on America.