We learned today how the Obama administration plans to soothe seniors who have been seething over Obamacare. Kathleen Sebelius has issued a “progress report” to Congress outlining how Obamacare has been “bringing down costs,” and one of its passages (4th paragraph, page 3) reads as follows:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plans to issue $250 rebates checks to Medicare beneficiaries … the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects four million beneficiaries will receive a check in 2010.
Now, for any journalists reading this, 4,000,000 multiplied by $250 comes to a cool $1 billion. The ostensible reason for mailing these checks involves closing the infamous “doughnut hole” that those evil Republicans left in Medicare Part-D. But it looks like a vote-buying scheme to me.
It’s not hard to imagine Democrats using this as a rejoinder to Republicans who (correctly) tell seniors that Obamacare will be largely paid for by cuts in various Medicare programs and benefits. Those cuts won’t happen until after the election. The $250 checks start going out in June.
Comments 1
My neighbor, USAF LtCOL, Ret., now HS government teacher, told me of this tonight, with the derisory comment that “H___ will freeze over if He thinks this will buy them Any votes come Fall - very insulted - in fact this is the sort of thing that will blow up in their faces - big time.
Posted 11 May 2010 at 7:34 pm ¶Post a Comment