Republicans Announce SeniorCare Demise

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On April 19th, the Janesville Gazette ran a story about Gov. Doyle and state democrats attempts to pull the Republican knife out of the back of Wisconsin seniors regarding SeniorCare.

JG Excerpt:
Doyle and U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., met with Leavitt in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss the program's future. "The secretary made clear to us he was considering the extension very positively," Doyle said in a conference call. The governor said he expected to know within the next couple of weeks whether the six-month extension will be granted.

After nearly three weeks, Bush finalized the slow death of SeniorCare when he vetoed the troop funding bill on Wednesday. Included in the bill was a provision to continue funding Wisconsin’s popular prescription program to the end of 2009. The provision, written and sponsored by democrats Feingold and Kohl received no support from Rep. Paul Ryan or Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, just to set the record straight.

Governor Doyle wanted to get a three year extension.

The knife, deeply embedded by the hands of the Republican-led Congress who authored and voted for Medicare Part D is expected to deal the final death blow at the end of the year instead of June 30. Largely responsible for the Medicare Part D program, Ryan and Sensenbrenner said its too early to know how closely their Part D prescription plan will mirror the deceased SeniorCare program next year.

In a bizarre piece written by the AP, Saturday’s Janesville Gazette shamelessly posted this well-crafted RNC-style article titled, “SeniorCare Gets Slim Reprieve” as front-page headlines replete with a picture of Rep. Paul Ryan., and played up the grandstanding Republicans as temporary saviors of the state run program, the very same program they intend to kill. After the Republicans announcement to cut off the federal funds, this article rambled on with the notion that a federal agency is there to “help” state representatives craft a new plan that can work in conjunction with Medicare Part D. What’s very obvious in the AP article also is that Republicans are already gearing up to shift the blame to state democrats with announcements that the state, overburdened in high taxes can afford to save SeniorCare by paying for all its costs without federal revenue.

JG Excerpt:
Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the state should preserve SeniorCare by paying for all its costs.

This ploy by the Republicans is just one of many, many highly deceptive political games designed to increase local taxes or cut programs for no other reason than to replace the very same federal funding they legislated to cut-off.

JG Excerpt:
“There’s no reason that we can’t fully fund SeniorCare in this budget.” Fitzgerald said.

But, if the state can so easily afford to fund Seniorcare, why can’t the Fed? The fact is, Fitzgerald hails from the same party that is responsible for cutting off the federal funding of another state program and is deeply complicit in the republican platform’s drive to cut federal taxes and expenditures at the expense of higher and higher local taxes. This is repeated again and again in each and every state, in each and every program at the behest of the Republican Party.

I would expect that at the end of 2007, the Gazette will run a front page headline titled “Governor Announces End Of SeniorCare” with a picture of Jim Doyle near the sub-title of “State Budget Excludes Popular Program.” This in effect would complete the SeniorCare/RNC propaganda cycle designed to take credit away from those who deserve it, and place the blame with those who don't.