Buyer's Remorse

The fate of all Faustian bargains.

Lifted wholesale from TAPPED (thanks to Atrios for the link):

TAPPED: January 2006 Archives

CHANGE YOUR MIND, HUH? AARP is apparently seeking redemption for their shameful support of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit bill by demanding inclusion of all the critical elements originally left out: government authority to negotiate prices, legal reimportation of Canadian drugs, less stringent asset-inclusion when determining subsidization levels, and so forth. All good ideas, though the level of the pander is really revealed by the fact that two of them, both popular, contradict: if the government could bargain drug prices, Canadian reimportation would be redundant. Nevertheless, these would be fundamental changes in the right direction, and if AARP could obtain them in advance of the 2006 election, it would be to their credit.

But good as it is to see AARP returning to the light, their complicity in the bill's creation and passage shouldn't be forgotten. The best recounting of their betrayal came from Barbara Dreyfuss who detailed the Republican seduction of AARP for The American Prospect's June 2004 issue. It was understood then, as now, that AARP had hoped their support would lead to increased influence in the Republican Party. But as Bush' Social Security push proved, that wasn't quite the case. Now, as AARP returns to lobby on the benefit they helped pass, we'll see if their strategy bears any more fruit, and eventually creates a decent prescription drug benefit for their members. Somehow, I'm not optimistic.

--Ezra Klein

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