Nathan Newman makes the only political point worth making on the Medicare Drug Benefit:
Whatever the intentions of the GOP, the existence of Medicare Part D means that seniors now have an expectation that the government will help them pay for the costs of prescription drugs. And given how screwed up the plan is, that leaves plenty of political room for Democrats to advocate for improvements in the plan at the next election.
One reason I cheered when the bill was passed was that, despite its flaws, the dynamics of middle class entitlements are that they create a political feedback mechanism of demands for improvements. And whatever the short-term political gains for the GOP from passage of the original bill, ideologically the rightwing does not win by adding another permanent political issue of how to improve Medicare Part D to every election cycle.
Bingo. I've been beating this drum for awhile, but the long-term effect of Bush's Medicare expansion was to codify prescription drug coverage as a legitimate and expected use of the welfare state. Medicare is now a vessel for, among other things, prescription drugs. And if what currently inhabits the shell is a legislative clusterfuck, that can be fairly easily switched out for a coherent, efficient plan (like this one). And until it is, Democrats have an issue. Funny legacy for Medicare Part D, which was supposed to deprive Democrats of a perennial campaign issue and instead heightened its relevance and made Republicans look totally incompetent on the subject.
