Reader Questions "LoBiondo Math" Regarding Medicare Drug Benefit

Benjamin Disraeli said; "There are three kinds of lies, lies, damned lies and statistics." As an attendee at the recent workshop on Medicare's new prescription drug benefit sponsored by Frank LoBiondo and held in Atlantic County, I had questions about how this unfunded boondoggle giveaway to the drug industry added up. LoBiondo told the 70-plus in attendance that he as their representative had merely "dealt with the money issues." Thus, I felt questioning how the program would be paid for seemed appropriate, even though getting a straight answer from any politician is like trying to hold helium in your fist. The fact is that two years ago, responsibly fiscally conservative Republicans (not LoBiondo) had joined with Democrats to initially defeat 218-216 this plan. Democrats calling for a repeal of the tax cuts for the super rich to provide universal health coverage. The unfunded Medicare prescription program then only passed after Bush and Tom Delay twisted Republican arms based on phony cost estimates. After the vote, the bombshell fact slipped out that the White House Office of Management and Budget projected the cost at well over $500 billion, not the $400 billion the administration had represented. Further, with the unfunded cost of the war exceeding $300 billion, fiscally responsible members of both parties had suggested the expensive Medicare prescription drug plan be postponed. LoBiondo was not one of these members either. My question is how did "LoBiondo's Math" add up. LoBiondo's opening remarks were followed by a perky, peroxided presenter who explained the ins and outs of deciding which of the many plans to go with. She indicated that there were 44 different plans in New Jersey and expressed doubt that any of those in the room (70-plus) would decide on the same plan. The lady, was obviously a practitioner of "LoBiondo Math." The congressman at some point had slithered out of the room by the time the workshop was opened up to the public for questions and eventually I got to ask about where the money was coming from that would pay for the Medicare drug plan. And I asked how LoBiondo could just have voted to cut Medicare funding by some $12 billion. The question was never answered as LoBiondo's aide rushed over and yanked the microphone out of my hands, and declared that this was not the place to ask that kind of question. What is the place to get an answer if not there? The meager estimated prescription savings of some 25 percent for seniors still would mean that buying the very same drugs from the same manufacturer in Canada or Europe would actually be cheaper. Perhaps Homer Simpson said it best about those in Congress who passed this legislation: "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers." One has to wonder what kind of hallucinogenic drug LoBiondo is using to have morphed from a "Contract With America" balance-the-budget Republican into a "Voodoo Economics" snake oil salesman for Bush and Tom DeLay. The only hope is that the faulty "LoBiondo Math" will not add up when the votes are counted in his next election in 2006.

LARRY ANGEL

Mullica Township

Letter published in the Hammonton News, February 1, 2006