"Background Noise"?!!

According to Reuters, when reporters asked President Bush how preoccupied the White House was by distractions that include an investigation into whether any of his top aides deliberately outed a CIA operative, a conservative revolt over his nomination of Harriet Miers as a Supreme Court justice and investigations into senior Republican leaders in Congress. Bush told reporters he was concentrating on his work, That he was focused on his job and not on what he called "some background noise."

"There's some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining. But the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to," Bush said in the White House Rose Garden.

And folks, that certainly ain't where all the background noise is coming from.

In another Reuter's post the headline states:
"Senate Republicans agree on health cuts.
U.S. Senate Finance Republicans, aiming to find $10 billion in savings, have reached a deal on health care budget cuts and will release details on Thursday afternoon, said an aide to committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley"

"Senate conservatives had hoped to trim Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for the poor, by about $10 billion over five years but moderates on the panel pushed for some of the savings to come from Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly."

If my calculation that there are about 20 million recipients of Medicaid and Medicare is correct, the Senate cuts would come to about $100 per person per year. And it can't all be Viagra!

The House is divided over its budget plans, with conservatives pushing for deeper spending cuts.

House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, said he was aiming to present a list of spending reductions to the House floor next week. This could include up to $50 billion in savings over five years on mandatory programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

At ten times the amount of the Senate version - that could come to $500 per recipient per year!

Now, we all know that any program can be trimmed of fat - as I mentioned before - Viagra. But lets face it, Medicare presently doesn't cover other items which it should.

For example, after many years, Medicare finally decided to cover the cost of mammography for women to detect breast cancer. That was good and certainly has saved lives. An equally fatal cancer is the PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) screening blood test for men to detect prostate cancer is not covered by Medicare! (Those two diseases have remarkably similar mortalities!)

That is certainly being ‘penny-wise and dollar foolish' when you consider that it is vastly cheaper to test and prevent than it is to cure - assuming that cure is even possible by the time there are physical symptoms of the disease.

President Bush can enjoy the luxury of ignoring the "background noise" because in less than three years from now he'll enjoy being an exalted civilian back on his ranch in Texas - far away from the sounds of poverty and pain of the people he has failed to serve.

But I wonder whether those ultra conservative Republicans such as Senator Kyle of Arizona who is not a friend of Medicare/Medicaid, can afford to jeopardize their potentially perpetual futures in Washington by kicking their less affluent constituents where it hurts - their health.

Perhaps their lobbyists and business interests can make it worth the risk for these guys.