Dusty codgers shake their canes while whippersnappers whistle

Why is the Bush addicted to creating big bureaucracies with no benefit?

I'm not opposed to big organizations. Administering complicated programs take money and people. Medicare is a huge program, but its cost per person is significantly less than the expensive private insurance the rest of us suckers use. But this tax-cut-and-spend White House has gone overboard with creating costly programs that sit passed-out and bloated on a budget sheet while our country's problems get worse.

Remember the television ads the Bush administration put together to advertise the wonderful benefits of the new Medicare prescription drug discount card? The one the Democrats decried as a shameless waste of taxpayer money on what was actually just a Bush campaign ad? Well, they shouldn't have been commercials. Thirty seconds isn't enough to explain the "benefits" of this bill. These commercials should match the length of Lawrence of Arabia, because this bill is complicated, and even after paying a fee for the card and shopping around for the best benefits, seniors (and young people paying the cost) have received a real trojan horse of a gift.

I wanted to give Bush an attaboy on this one. I wanted to believe that we're all sincerely interested in getting cheaper prescription drugs in America, and that no matter how many ties the president has to prescription drug companies, he's doing the right thing. But I was wrong. When benefits from the president's prescription drug "discount" card get you the same prices as Drugstore.com, we've got problems. When the tax money for that benefit goes to corporate profits, we've got problems. $500 billion worth of them.

And I've got to tell you about this: a judge ruled yesterday that the Bush administration may have broken the law when they withheld the cost of their Medicare plan. Even if it's not illegal, isn't it morally wrong and just weasely for politicians to withhold cost information from the public and from Congress? It makes me sick. Twisting numbers is part of the political game; a president forbidding government administrators from releasing cost projections to Congress is not.

And if you're interested in knowing about what's going on in the minds of old people (or, the "Geriatric Street" as wonks call it), here's an account of a meeting between lawmakers, Medicare experts, and those spirited cotton tops actually receiving the "benefit." America's official Greatest Generation has spoken, and they say: I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

The audience booed U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, Brenda Kelley, director of the Connecticut chapter of the AARP, and John Swen, senior director of U.S. Science Policy and Public Affairs for Pfizer, as they spoke positively about the Medicare reform.

Many seniors whispered their distrust of the speakers and complained that the Medicare reform would profit everyone but them.

But they applauded state Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, who called the Medicare act a disaster because it did not control the price of prescription drugs and did not guarantee that the cards' monthly premiums would stay under $35.

The audience settled down after the introductions but they periodically hissed or booed the speakers.