D for Dumbass

Chronicles of the Most Incompetent Administration In History (Medicare Episode) -- they can't even carry off a massive giveaway to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries without screwing it up:

Drug Addled - Why Bush's prescription plan is such a fiasco. By Jacob Weisberg: "I refer, of course, to the administration's program to subsidize the cost of prescription drugs for the elderly. This plan, which went into effect on Jan. 1, offers so many baffling options that only 1 million of 21 million eligible Medicare beneficiaries have signed up for it on their own. Many of these early adopters, along with millions of impoverished Medicaid recipients transferred into the new system automatically, have been unable to obtain their prescriptions at the promised discounted price. The specter of citizens going without needed medications has provoked action by several governors, some of whom have invoked emergency powers to pay for drugs. Meanwhile, the estimated cost of this plan that no one likes has already more than doubled and is now projected at more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

It's tempting to conclude that 'Medicare D' has flopped because of Republican disdain for government. And that is indeed part of the problem. It's hard to think of a major federal program or initiative (other than military procurement and domestic espionage) that has thrived under Bush, who tends to tune out such specifics as design and implementation. With the Medicare drug bill, politically attuned but government-detesting conservatives resolved the inherent conflict between the interests of beneficiaries and the affected industries in favor of everyone. Crucial aspects of the plan were characteristically delegated to insurance and pharmaceutical companies, while the senior-citizens' lobby was appeased in various ways."

By the way, did you catch the part about this "benefit" now costing $1 trillion over the next decade? This was a program originally scheduled to cost about $300 billion, then -- after it was approved -- the Administration admitted that the real cost was $450 billion. So, the $1 trillion question: are the Chinese really going to buy all those bonds? And, will this finally cause the public to realize that Republicans are neither the party of fiscal responsibility nor the party of small government nor the party of sound economic management? Or realize that, when you elect as President an idiot who detests government, you'll get government that is stupid and mismanaged?

For failing to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, impeach George W. Bush and impeach Richard Cheney. Now.