Taxpayer Group Urges Administration to Pull Plug on Costly Medicare Ad Blitz

2/5/2004

From: Pete Sepp or John Berthoud, 703-683-5700 or pressguy@ntu.org, both of the National Taxpayers Union

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 5 -- The Bush Administration's new $12.6 million ad campaign on behalf of the forthcoming Medicare prescription drug benefit drew a swift rebuke today from the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union (NTU), which called the White House's effort a "political and fiscal insult to taxpayers."

"First it was the blimp, and now it's the blitz," said NTU President John Berthoud, referring to the federal government's use of an airship last year to advertise Medicare's information services. "Forcing Americans to pay millions for hyping a program that will eventually cost them trillions is truly a two-handed slap at taxpayers."

Berthoud noted that such a major ad buy ($9.5 million for television and $3.1 million for print, radio, and Internet) for a program that won't actually take effect until 2006 has all the timing of an election-year ploy rather than a genuine public service announcement.

Worse, the ads appear deliberately designed to gloss over many taxpayers' concerns that the benefit scheme will worsen Medicare's precarious financial condition. Long before the White House announced its revised estimate of the program's cost (now 35 percent higher than originally advertised), an August 2003 study from NTU's research affiliate predicted much higher burdens than supporters of the plan were willing to admit. For example, in the year 2026 alone (the projected insolvency date of Medicare "Part A"), the prescription benefit would increase the overall cost of Medicare by $300 billion.

"Late last year, 46 citizen groups representing millions of politically-active Americans urged Congress to reject the fiscally irresponsible Medicare prescription drug proposal," Berthoud observed. "Elected officials failed to heed our warning then, but now they at least have the chance to shut down this anti-taxpayer propaganda mill."

"The U.S. Congress already abuses its own taxpayer-financed franked mail and studio recording privileges for political gain," Berthoud concluded. "The Administration should set a better example by pulling the plug on this campaign."

NTU is a non-profit citizen group founded in 1969 to work for lower taxes, less wasteful spending, and accountable government. More information on the group's opposition to the Medicare prescription drug bill is available online at http://www.ntu.org.