 
Urgent! Help stop reckless 1,071-page Medicare billCONGRESS VOTES THIS WEEK ON GREATEST EXPANSION OF MEDICARE SINCE 1965
STATEMENT FROM THE LIBERTY COMMITTEE:(www.thelibertycommittee.org)Monday, Nov. 17, 2003 The Medicare prescription-drug bill is 1,071 pages. Members of Congress will not get a copy ofthe bill until Wednesday or Thursday leaving them only one or two days to read, study and understand it before casting their vote on Friday or Saturday. Most House members were barred from the closed-door negotiations, even though special interests were consulted along the way. Summaries of parts of the bill are being slowly and selectively released to members of Congress, the media and the public by the staff of the committee that wrote it. We will have only a few days to learn, in fact, what is in those 1,071 pages. But we don't need to know every detail because supporters of the bill have already admitted that this new, never-ending "entitlement" will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and, more likely, over $1 trillion. Of course, the politicians making this decision will be dead when the children of today who are stuck paying for it, realize what has been done to them and are able to vote. To politicians, the only future that matters is the next election. But as parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and responsible American citizens today, the future for us is not measured in such a callous and self-serving way. The National Taxpayers Union published a graph that tells us what kind of future our children and grandchildren will have if we allow this Medicare drug bill to become law. The graph compares the yearly Medicare expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) without the prescription drug plan and with it. The numbers were compiled from the Congressional Budget Office and the 2003 Medicare Trustees report. Without a drug "benefit," the percentage of GDP necessary to pay for Medicare increases from 2.5% to just under 10% over 75 years. With a drug "benefit," it increases to just under 40%! That's right. Not 40% of tax revenue or 40% of all government costs (that would be bad enough), but 40% of the total the U.S. produces in a year! THINK ABOUT IT. The yearly Medicare expenditure will consume close to 40% of our nation's GDP. But, once again, politicians aren't concerned about that far into the future. Urge your congressional delegation to strongly oppose this Republican socialism. Tell the politicians to be concerned about the future -- the future beyond the next election. Send your message now by going to capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=4165501&type=C Here's a link to the graph (pdf format): www.thelibertycommittee.org/deadlycombo.pdf
Kent Snyder
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