Being retired, I’ve been spending some time listening to Senate speeches on the proposed Medicare prescription drug plan. Washington still doesn’t get it!

The Senate voted a tax cut of $350 billion, which will help mostly the wealthy, but could only cough up $400 billion for a watered down Medicare drug plan for seniors and the disabled, a program that is not scheduled to begin until 2006.

Do you feel as insulted as I do right now? If you don’t you should!

Another farce is the proclaimed poverty level. Doesn’t Congress realize that the poverty level is different for each state?

Maine, being the rural state it is, has a much greater poverty level than New York, Virginia, etc. Yet, Congress has set the Medicare prescription drug program at 160 percent over the poverty level.

My arithmetic tells me that most of the people of Maine will not be helped very much with this Medicare drug program. That 160 percent should be at least 250 percent, and even then our budgets will be tight after paying our Medicare premium along with an additional Medicare drug premium.

The governor’s drug and health program is more compassionate than what Washington is trying to push through.

Why doesn’t Bush donate the $20 million he is mustering for his up-and-coming presidential campaign? That would buy a lot of prescription drugs for a lot of poor people.

Twenty million dollars to buy his way back into the White House boggles my mind.

Eugene P. Elcik, Lisbon Falls

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