GOP Senator Urges Halt to Medicare Ads

[AnnInLa]

more of this story can be read at associatedpress.com/politics

Politics - U. S. Congress
GOP Senator Urges Halt to Medicare Ads

Tue Aug 31, 6:22 PM ET



NEW YORK - An author of last year's law creating Medicare prescription drug benefits says liberal groups are undermining the program by spreading false information about it, and he wants them to stop. But the organizations will have none of it.



Sen. Charles Grassley (news, bio, voting record), R-Iowa, said some advertisements on television and posted on the Internet are aimed at discrediting the program and scaring senior citizens. He said the claims include statements that the new program — which takes full effect in 2006 — is a giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry.

The groups "must get out of this mindset of the senior citizens of America being the property of the Democratic party," said Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

The organizations he listed include liberal tax-exempt organizations like MoveOn.org and advocacy groups like Families USA, which favors better health care benefits.

The measure has given Republicans less of an election-year boost than they had hoped. Democrats and their supporters have been criticizing the Medicare expansion as inadequate since it became law last winter.

Papers distributed by Grassley, who is attending his party's national convention, said the "demagoguery" is "one of the reasons why seniors have been slow to sign up" for the Medicare drug discount card program

[Tempest]

1. Need a link

Articles posted to LBN require a direct link.

[AnnInLa]

6. OK let me find it again

[cal04]

9. GOP Senator Urges Halt to Medicare Ads/Links

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/9546747.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040831/ap_on_go_co/prescription_drugs_2

[Tempest]

11. Thank you

n/t

[Kagemusha]

2. So he's alledging slavery of seniors by Democrats.

Instead of say, using Olympic images and images of Iraqi soccer players without their permission.

[amber dog democrat]

3. He sounds miffed.

Too Cheney-ing bad. If this Medicare prescription drug benefits program is the best they can do, it won't fly.
A complex, lame and restrictive program is worse than having none at all.

[farmbo]

4. Then why the hell did you pass a Drug Industry bailout bill!?!

You're just mad because Senior Citizens are still smart enough to see through the Cadillac facade to the rusted-out Edsel underneath.

[denverbill]

5. Hey Grassley, you moron.

The elderly aren't as stupid as you seem to think they are. The reason they aren't signing up for your crappy little program is that is isn't worth shit.

[Wickerman]

7. People figured out on their own this is a loser

They didn't need the Dems help. Grassley is occassionally right - odd for a Republican - in this case he was dead wrong and his calling for removal of the ads should only spark more interest in how wrong he and the administration are.

[GainesT1958]

8. Well, Chuck...

That's because those ads are RIGHT!:mad:

We're just telling the truth, and Grassley thinks it's hell!:eyes:

B-)

[AnnInLa]

10. Link for the above report

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&e=1&u=/ap/20040831

[Princess Turandot]

12. Maybe he should be asking Pfizer why they are dropping their Medicare drug

plan..

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/business/01drug.html

"Pfizer, the nation's largest drug maker, ended its widely used discount card for the elderly yesterday, leaving several hundred thousand low-income Medicare beneficiaries at least temporarily without access to reduced prices for popular medicines like the cholesterol treatment Lipitor.

The company said that it had been warning its 536,000 cardholders for months that it would discontinue the discount program on Aug. 31 and that it had advised them to sign up for various discount cards that became available under a new Medicare program that began in June.

But consumer advocates, citing the widespread confusion over the new Medicare program, had asked Pfizer to keep its discount card in place until 2006 - the year that prescription drugs will become a standard part of Medicare benefits.

"A lot of people will be left high and dry starting tomorrow," said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. " (End Quote)


They probably need more money to put into Viagra...

[REVOLT823]

13. Randi Rhodes just had him on her show,

she said he slammed down his notes and stormed off at the interview. It seems to me that the Repubs are having a lot of trouble trying to defend all this bullshit they are up to.

[saigon68]

14. Chuck's Plan is a Turd in a Punch Bowl

Not very good to look at------ and does nothing for you.