Screwing Granny Smith Out Of Her Food Stamps Is The Perfect Bush Administration Mother's Day Story
by Steve
No wonder they released this information publicly on a Saturday. The fact that they did it the day before Mother’s Day, using an elderly woman as their example is emblematic for this administration. I think Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi could draw blood with this for weeks.
Elderly people with low incomes may lose some of their food stamps if they sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Bush administration said Saturday.
When Medicare begins covering drugs in January, older Americans will spend less of their own money on drugs and will therefore have more to spend on food, reducing their need for food stamps, officials said.
Right, energy costs be damned.
The new reading of the Medicare law, set forth in a document sent to Congressional offices this week, comes just as federal officials begin a nationwide campaign to persuade low-income people to apply for the drug benefit.
The document, addressed to elderly and disabled people who receive food stamps, says, "You may qualify for extra help paying for your Medicare prescription drug costs." But it adds, "If you qualify for extra help, your food stamp benefits may decline."
The guide gives this example of how the new law would affect a hypothetical Medicare beneficiary, Mrs. Smith, who receives $798 a month in Social Security. She does not receive Medicaid. She now pays $147 a month for medical expenses, including $51 for three prescription drugs. Her monthly rent is $421.
Keep in mind, that under the Bush Administration's own example, Mrs. Smith is already spending 71% of her income on just housing and drugs. We haven't even gotten to food, clothing, or utilities yet.
Under the Medicare drug plan, Mrs. Smith will not have to pay a monthly premium or a deductible. She will have a $3 co-payment on each drug, for $9 a month. Her medical spending will decline to $105 a month, from $147, for a saving of $42.
Woo Hoo! Mrs. Smith will now only spend 66% of her monthly income on housing and drugs, assuming the drug savings actually materialize.
But Mrs. Smith's monthly food stamp allotment, $27, will be reduced to $10 a month, because her "out-of-pocket medical costs have gone down." The administration says she will come out ahead because "she still has $25 more cash in her pocket - $42 medical savings, less the $17 decrease in food stamps."
How many of you think that Mrs. Smith will ever see those $42 in medical savings, or the $25 more cash in her pocket?
Take a look at the Bush Administration moral values in play here. In a $2.3 trillion budget, the Bush Administration has decided that it is more important to cut the food stamp benefit for low income elderly recipients, than it is to put price controls in the Medicare drug bill itself. After piling trillions upon trillions of new debt onto the federal treasury in amounts that dwarf the projected Social Security shortfall over the next 75 years, the GOP gets the bonus of shoveling oodles of corporate welfare to Big Pharma and to take $17 a month in food stamp benefits from Granny Smith. Did McClellan spend a lot of time dreaming up this campaign, and if so, does he sleep well at night?
Drug price controls would save the federal government tens of billions more than what is being saved by reducing Mrs. Smith’s food stamp allotment $17 a month.
And this refusal by the Administration to control drug costs comes at a time when the industry is defrauding the federal treasury out of billions in annual corporate tax revenue with the assent of the Bush Administration, which refuses to provide the IRS with the resources necessary to go after drug makers and collect their legally-owed taxes.
What does it say about the priorities and moral values of the Bush Administration when it sees a need to cut the food stamp benefit for Granny Smith as a result of drug savings that will never materialize, but the Administration shows no heartburn over shoveling out over $300 billion for Iraq, allowing drug companies to rip off American taxpayers, and pay $4.5 billion to a GOP defense firm through a no-bid contract for airport screening devices that don’t work?
Have a nice Mother’s Day, Mrs. Smith. Your federal government loves Big PharMa and the military industrial complex much more than they love you. And no, screwing Granny Smith so that drug companies and defense contractors can pile up cash isn't a message that will help the GOP in red states next year.