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Medicare Rx

Aired June 16, 2003 - 13:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The senate is set to debate its Medicare bill starting next hour. The bill would give the nation's seniors a chance at prescription drug benefits, but it differs from the House version.
CNN's Jonathan Karl live from Capitol Hill following all of this for us.

Hello, Jonathan.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles. How are you?

O'BRIEN: Good, thanks.

Is this it? Is this going to be it?

KARL: Well, it certainly looks like it's got a good chance of being it. It is by no means over. There is still a long way to go on this. But prescription drug benefits for Medicare is an idea that has been pursued for at least five years aggressively by both parties. It has never gotten as far as it has so far this year. And the reason is, you have something fascinating that's happened. One, you have got a Republican president who is supporting a plan that's also supported by the Republican leader in the United States Senate, and you also have the Democrat with perhaps the most credibility on the issue of health care and Medicare, Ted Kennedy, also supporting the same plan. That gives it a good chance of passing.

Take a look at this. We had an event today with the Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to build support for this plan. Thompson, along with Democrat Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, all got on their Harley-Davidsons and took off on an event with a group of other seniors. The goal here was to try to build support for modernizing Medicare for today's active seniors. They called it revving up Congress.

But as you can see from this photo op, there's a major effort here put on by both parties to actually try to get this thing done this year.

And, Miles, they are just starting the debate in the Senate, and there will be at least two weeks before they vote in the Senate. As you mentioned, there's a different plan being pursued in the House of Representatives, similar in many respects, but different in some respects.

So they still have to pass those plans in the House and the Senate and then somehow resolve the differences before getting this to the president's desk to sign. It's certainly going to be a long road ahead. The earliest this could probably be sent to his desk is probably by August of this year.

O'BRIEN: All right, it's nice to see the secretary ride that hog and good to know he's got a lid for brain bucket there, being the secretary of Health and Human Services and all.

Why is this suddenly rising to the front burner? I'm mixing metaphors here, but nevertheless -- why is it on the front burner, Jonathan?

KARL: Well, all you have to do is look at the electoral politics here. We're going into an election, 2004 presidential election, where senior citizens yet again are expected to be the group that turns out more than any to vote.

But not only that, if you look at the most recent polls, including the most recent "USA Today"/CNN/Gallup poll, you will see that senior citizens are the group most likely to be undecided about whether or not they want to vote for President Bush again or they want to vote for one of the Democrats running for president. So they are not only the group most likely to vote, they are also the group most likely to be undecided.

The battle for the election in 2004 will largely be fought over who can win the vote of senior citizens. So this is the number one issue for them. Both sides have a major interest in trying to prove they can get this done.

O'BRIEN: I know this is hard to believe, Jonathan, but I know on Capitol Hill, a lot of people care about who gets credit for such things. And the way it's shaking out, I suppose each party could sort of take credit. Imagine that.

KARL: Yes, well, here's the situation -- if this actually passes, and it looks like it's got a decent chance of passing this year, it's going to be the president signing the ball into law. The conventional wisdom is he will get a lot of the credit. He made it a campaign issue. He's going to be the one signing the bill.

But Democrats are the ones who have been pushing this for a long time. Democrats were the first to raise the idea of a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. There's been some reluctance among Democrats to cooperate with the Republicans on this, because they are concerned NEVILLE: at their bill, the thing that they've been pursuing, will be given over to the president to take credit for.

But Democrats have really almost given up the idea of fighting this thing, because as you saw, Ted Kennedy is now supporting it. How can Democrats say it's a terrible bill when Ted Kennedy is supporting what the president is trying to do?

O'BRIEN: Tommy Thompson and Ted Kennedy, strange bedfellows indeed.

All right, thank you, Jonathan Karl. Check in with you later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired June 16, 2003 - 13:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The senate is set to debate its Medicare bill starting next hour. The bill would give the nation's seniors a chance at prescription drug benefits, but it differs from the House version.
CNN's Jonathan Karl live from Capitol Hill following all of this for us.

Hello, Jonathan.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles. How are you?

O'BRIEN: Good, thanks.

Is this it? Is this going to be it?

KARL: Well, it certainly looks like it's got a good chance of being it. It is by no means over. There is still a long way to go on this. But prescription drug benefits for Medicare is an idea that has been pursued for at least five years aggressively by both parties. It has never gotten as far as it has so far this year. And the reason is, you have something fascinating that's happened. One, you have got a Republican president who is supporting a plan that's also supported by the Republican leader in the United States Senate, and you also have the Democrat with perhaps the most credibility on the issue of health care and Medicare, Ted Kennedy, also supporting the same plan. That gives it a good chance of passing.

Take a look at this. We had an event today with the Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to build support for this plan. Thompson, along with Democrat Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, all got on their Harley-Davidsons and took off on an event with a group of other seniors. The goal here was to try to build support for modernizing Medicare for today's active seniors. They called it revving up Congress.

But as you can see from this photo op, there's a major effort here put on by both parties to actually try to get this thing done this year.

And, Miles, they are just starting the debate in the Senate, and there will be at least two weeks before they vote in the Senate. As you mentioned, there's a different plan being pursued in the House of Representatives, similar in many respects, but different in some respects.

So they still have to pass those plans in the House and the Senate and then somehow resolve the differences before getting this to the president's desk to sign. It's certainly going to be a long road ahead. The earliest this could probably be sent to his desk is probably by August of this year.

O'BRIEN: All right, it's nice to see the secretary ride that hog and good to know he's got a lid for brain bucket there, being the secretary of Health and Human Services and all.

Why is this suddenly rising to the front burner? I'm mixing metaphors here, but nevertheless -- why is it on the front burner, Jonathan?

KARL: Well, all you have to do is look at the electoral politics here. We're going into an election, 2004 presidential election, where senior citizens yet again are expected to be the group that turns out more than any to vote.

But not only that, if you look at the most recent polls, including the most recent "USA Today"/CNN/Gallup poll, you will see that senior citizens are the group most likely to be undecided about whether or not they want to vote for President Bush again or they want to vote for one of the Democrats running for president. So they are not only the group most likely to vote, they are also the group most likely to be undecided.

The battle for the election in 2004 will largely be fought over who can win the vote of senior citizens. So this is the number one issue for them. Both sides have a major interest in trying to prove they can get this done.

O'BRIEN: I know this is hard to believe, Jonathan, but I know on Capitol Hill, a lot of people care about who gets credit for such things. And the way it's shaking out, I suppose each party could sort of take credit. Imagine that.

KARL: Yes, well, here's the situation -- if this actually passes, and it looks like it's got a decent chance of passing this year, it's going to be the president signing the ball into law. The conventional wisdom is he will get a lot of the credit. He made it a campaign issue. He's going to be the one signing the bill.

But Democrats are the ones who have been pushing this for a long time. Democrats were the first to raise the idea of a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. There's been some reluctance among Democrats to cooperate with the Republicans on this, because they are concerned NEVILLE: at their bill, the thing that they've been pursuing, will be given over to the president to take credit for.

But Democrats have really almost given up the idea of fighting this thing, because as you saw, Ted Kennedy is now supporting it. How can Democrats say it's a terrible bill when Ted Kennedy is supporting what the president is trying to do?

O'BRIEN: Tommy Thompson and Ted Kennedy, strange bedfellows indeed.

All right, thank you, Jonathan Karl. Check in with you later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com