Limiting costs of the drug plan

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Sen. Lindsey Graham is seeking to limit the damage that will be caused by President Bush's costly prescription drug plan for seniors. Graham is introducing a bill that will hold federal spending on the drug benefit to the original estimate of $400 billion over 10 years.

That original price tag already was too expensive at a time of out-of-control federal spending, a record budget deficit and costly nation-building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But number-crunchers in the Bush administration announced recently that the drug benefit would be even far more costly — an astounding $530 billion over 10 years. That's one-third more than the plan approved by Congress in November.

The nation cannot afford such a huge drug entitlement. Graham's bill at least would place caps on federal spending so that the drug benefit does not exceed the original projected cost of $400 billion.

Graham is taking a courageous step. A spokesman for the Republican senator says the bill would hold the line on spending even if it means limiting seniors' drug benefits.

As Graham noted in a news release, every dollar spent on the new Medicare prescription drug benefit is money borrowed from future generations. "As we try to improve seniors' health care, we cannot do it in a way that will doom their grandchildren with debts they cannot afford to pay," he said.

Bush said the projected increase in the drug benefit is due to the cost of luring health maintenance organizations back to Medicare. The administration hopes millions of seniors will drop traditional Medicare coverage and opt for an HMO plan. But Bush had claimed earlier that managed care involvement in Medicare would restrain the growth of the program — not increase it by one-third.

Graham's bill will test the conservative convictions of this Republican Congress. On most federal spending issues, Republicans in the past two years have turned their backs on their tradition of fiscal conservatism.

Some Republican lawmakers, however, are beginning to get the message. House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Congress would consider trimming Bush's new $2.4 trillion budget, including his requests for farm spending, veterans' benefits and other programs. But Hastert unfortunately did not include big ticket entitlements such as Social Security and the prescription drug benefit in his list of programs to be reduced.

But Graham's bill does restrain spending on the new prescription drug benefit and strives to keep it from jeopardizing the future solvency of Medicare.