Medicare and the Neo-Cons

We know there will be bumps in the road…It's a new program... This is going very well." These were the words of the spokesmen for the Center for Medicare regarding their new Medicare programs. By all accounts it seems obvious that the neo-cons are incapable of governing. Everything they touch is tainted with incompetence. But, in fairness I wondered, is this is just the way governments function. An article by Jonathan Cohn, the senior editor of the New Republic, which is certainly no liberal publication, provides a clue. It points out that when the Medicare programs of the Johnson administration began everything went quite smoothly.

There were concerns about the program, since after all this was new to everyone, and the problems were many including what might happen in the segregated south. Guess what? Hundreds of thousands of people went to the hospital and everything worked. "There were no crises that I remember," said Yale University professor, Theodore Marmor. He is backed up by newspaper accounts of the day. "Medicare Takes Over Easily," said the New York Post calling it as "undramatic as a bed change." Three weeks later the New York Times reported, "Medicare's Start Has Been Smooth."

So what is the difference in the administrations? Let's start with the fact that the program was set up to make money for corporations. Next, let us look at the man who used to run the program Tom Scully who became a lobbyist immediately after the bill passed. Who was he working for? It does not seem to be the public. Stanford McClellan, who like the famous Brownie, has no experience in implementing social-insurance programs, replaced him. So either they were concerned with themselves, as Scully was, or they did not have the necessary experience.

So who implemented the "Great Society" program? President Johnson picked Robert Ball who had been in government since 1939. He was a professional who knew the ins and outs of government and the potential problems that might arise. He urged that the programs begin in the summer when the hospital are the least crowded. It makes sense to me! So LBJ chose a pro and the neo-cons, in their arrogance, feel everything that has gone on before them is wrong. Would you, I ask, hire someone who has no experience to fix your car?

Another difference, and this comes from experience as well, was that the LBJ team drew up plans in case things did not go well. There, as I see it, is one of the big differences. The Bush team refuses to even acknowledge there could be problems. Remember the Dick Cheney statement that we will be welcomed as liberators in Iraq. That, I say, is but one example of many where the Bush the team had not set up a proper game plan. They seem to be arrogant in their stupidity and were warned about this so their failure to have back up plans is an act of gross negligence.

Robert Ball who managed the LBJ program said about the Bush program. "I would not have dreamed of going into this in a way that meant individuals had to choose from all these possibilities. I would have expected chaos." Obviously, Ball was right and it makes you wonder if anyone ever spoke to this man about the possible problems. History is important because you can go back and see if things had to be the way they are and history illustrates to us that they do not.

Sources, Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic