It is not a surprise that the Medicare drug program is more of a gift to drug companies and insurers than to senior citizens. This is in keeping with the current administration policy of giving major corporations and/or people of great wealth the first consideration whenever the middle and lower classes are given a benefit. This has happened in almost every case. The tax cuts are a prime example.

There are many other examples, such as rules and legislation concerning the environment and the supply of energy. Administration officials color their arguments with factual distortion and by hiding embarrassing information. In the case of the Medicare overhaul to provide drug expense relief, revelations of low-balling the cost of the drug program and then preventing accurate information from surfacing is one instance.

In environmental and energy policy, the wishes of corporations become paramount. In order to defend their corporate bias, the administration has distorted fiscal and scientific information and eliminated from assessments those scientifically based concerns about despoiling the earth’s environment by commercial interests.

If they can’t distort information, then they just stonewall attempts by other groups to obtain the truth.

They will reluctantly permit some truths to surface only after it is deemed politically unwise to keep the lid on.

Accordingly, it was only when the political heat became great enough that the administration decided to cooperate with the Sept. 11 committee. Now, under similar pressure, Bush has decided to take to heart at least some of that committee’s recommendations.

John Pehek, Leeds

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