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Few groups have fared as poorly under Bush as the elderly -- a fact the administration is eager to hide beneath its $400 billion Medicare reform initiative. Close examination of the plan, however, exposes it as just another example of the Bush administration's lopsided agenda. While some low- and moderate-income seniors will benefit, many of the sickest and poorest will actually be hurt by the plan, while wealthy seniors will benefit. Not only will some poor seniors have to actually pay more for their medication than they do now, but the president wants to prevent Medicare from negotiating with drug-makers to get price breaks.
This isn't the first time that Bush has allowed poor seniors to slip through the budgetary cracks. Last year, Bush proposed cutting funding for programs under the Older Americans Act by nearly $8 million -- programs such as Meals on Wheels and family caregiver support. Bush has also called for a $5 million cut to the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which provides job training and placement services for people over 55. Perhaps most importantly, Bush has proposed freezing funding for the Social Services Block Grant at $1.7 billion for five years. The block grant program provides funding for scores of programs which benefit at-risk groups, including the elderly, the disabled, and poor children.
Finally, when the president repeatedly suggested that his administration's tax cut would help older Americans, he clearly had a small group of the elderly in mind. While the elderly as a group received a large share of the tax cuts, the largest checks went to the richest seniors. In fact, elderly with incomes over $100,000, a group that accounts for only about 11 percent of all senior tax filers, received about 60 percent of the tax cut's benefits.