Yeah I know that I just posted a diary entry a couple seconds ago, but this is another important article.
The White House has concluded that adding prescription drug benefits to Medicare will cost one-third more than the $400 billion advertised by Congress and the administration when President Bush signed the bill into law less than two months ago, federal sources said yesterday.
The budget Bush is to propose on Monday will say that the new Medicare law, which sets in motion the largest expansion of the program in its history, will require $534 billion in the next decade, $134 billion more than the president and lawmakers said, according to congressional and administration sources.
Word of the escalation in the spending forecast immediately enraged lawmakers and policy analysts at both ends of the ideological spectrum. Congressional Democrats and conservative Republicans alike vowed that they would intensify efforts they already had been planning to alter major aspects of the Medicare law this year. "This is a work in progress," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), a conservative who voted for the law.
Just incredible. Of course Bush won't propose any tax increases to pay for the additional costs. I had always thought that Bush alienating small government types like me was almost impossible because Democrats weren't offering anything better. But a tax and spend democrat is a whole lot more responsible than a taxcut and spend republican. Seriously the idea that Bush cares more about getting re-elected than he does about whats best for the future of the country will have great power to keep fiscal conservatives away from Bush during the general election.