the new Medicare prescription "benefit" is a joke. it's a masssive entitlement where costs were deliberately withheld from Congress. the primary beneficiaries are the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry, who are (surprise!) amomg the largest Bush campaign donors. among the goodies this bill contains are provisions forbidding the government from negotiating drug discounts and forbidding foreign drug importation - it's yet another case where industry virtually writes the bill that regulates it
