Surveying the political landscape after his victory in securing the Medicare reform package, President Bush must feel a tad disappointed. After all, he had hoped the bill would boost his image as the 2004 elections loom, especially among the elderly. Yet seniors -- despite the AARP's stamp of approval -- have been singularly underwhelmed with Bush's great accomplishment.
Most of them can do the math: In the end, the great reform of 2003 means about $800 annually in drug benefits to the typical Medicare recipient -- "peanuts" as one told a reporter last week. For anyone struggling on a fixed income, it's an amount unlikely to make prescription drugs really affordable. Nor is it enough of a discount to make the comfortable classes rejoice.
So, why wasn't it more? Congressional polarization explains part of it. Ditto budgetary realities. But at the heart of the measure's failings is this fact: The pharmaceutical industry wields tremendous political clout.
Both the president and the GOP have actively courted pharmaceutical industry support. Court documents filed in connection with lawsuits challenging last year's campaign-finance law show that in 1999 Jim Nicholson, then chairman of the Republican National Committee, wrote to the heads of several brand-name manufacturers. "We must keep the lines of communication open if we want to continue passing legislation that will benefit your industry," he wrote. He then suggested the manufacturers join the committee's "Season Pass" program for VIP benefits at the GOP convention -- for a mere $250,000 apiece.
The pharmaceutical industry has responded to such pleas with tons of cash -- about $50 million over the last four years, 79% of it designated specifically for Republican causes and candidates. The money has purchased enormous benefits for the industry. Hank McKinnell, chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc., has become the president's virtual consigliere, flying on Cabinet-level missions and sitting alongside the president at economic conferences. And that's just the beginning.
