The long awaited Medicare bill is finally on the horizon. President Bush is advocating the biggest expansion of Medicare in 30 years saying, "Medicine is modernizing and Medicare isn't"(Bush). He is promoting privatization and expansion in prescription drug benefits of Medicare to help "modernize" it. Simultaneously, a new bill pushing generic drugs - far cheaper than name brand prescriptions - into the market is being endorsed. Opponents of the bill, Republicans and Democrats, argue it will only increase the government debt and will not help senior citizens pay for new lifesaving technologies. Nonpartisan economists suggest the proposed $400 billon prescription drug benefit will drive the national debt skyward. If the federal government would allow the states to slowly take over Medicare and help put generic drugs in the hands of seniors the national debt would not increase as severely.

With the expansion of Medicare, the debt will grow to...