John Tierney did a little hit and run job, tossing out a few more outlandish claims in what is his last NYT column. While I ordinarily am inclined to ignore him, since we apparently won't have John Tierney to kick around anymore, I will highlight one of his errors.
Tierney claims that the Democrats proposed expanding several programs, " but they�ve been vague about how to pay for them." Well, the biggest program on this list is the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The Democrats have proposed reducing the size of the "doughnut hole" gap in coverage by having Medicare negotiate prices directly with the pharmaceutical industry, in the same way that the Veterans Administration does. This is not a vague concept, it is very clear what the commitment is (whether the Dems follow through is another question).
Anyhow, BTP wishes Mr. Tierney well in his new job as writer for the NYT Science section.
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