Word: gop
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...shift from Medicaid drug coverage to the confounding new prescription drug program. And no one hopes more that they'll be fixed than George Bush and Congressional Republicans, who two years ago rammed through the bill setting up the new Medicare Part D program that began Jan. 1. GOP lawmakers insist that once the kinks are worked out, seniors will eventually appreciate the measure they passed. They're counting on that, because if seniors haven't forgotten the initial nightmares of the drug plan by November's midterm elections, Republicans could end up feeling much of their pain...
...Another dark cloud for the GOP is the plan's so-called "doughnut hole." Under the standard benefit, seniors will get 75% of their drug costs covered by Medicare until their total drug spending reaches $2,250. Beneficiaries then pay all drug costs until their bills reach $5,100. That $2,850 gap in coverage has been nicknamed the "doughnut hole" when seniors must pay for drugs with their own money-as well as continuing to have to pay their average monthly premium of $32-and Democratic political strategists calculate that most seniors will bear the brunt of it around...
...Congress. While front-runner Roy Blunt of Missouri tries to fend off challenges from Arizona Republican John Shadegg and Ohio Representative John Boehner ahead of the Feb. 2 vote, there's been a quiet push, led by California's Dan Lungren, to force an election of all of the GOP leadership jobs-except for Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is popular among members. "We need some new vision at the leadership table," says Anne Northup, a GOP member from Kentucky who has called for elections. In fact, the race itself has quickly become a referendum on whether the House needs dramatic...
...With his apparent lead, Blunt could quickly win the election, which is conducted by secret ballot among the GOP's 231 members. But if he doesn't get the 117 immediately, it would bring a second runoff with either Blunt and Boehner. In his public statements, Boehner has seemed to be positioning himself for that possibility, suggesting that people who support Shadegg are calling for the same kind of dramatic change as he is. But it's not clear how closely allied Boehner or Shadegg's boosters are, or if the combined vote of Shadegg and Boehner could overtake Blunt...
...candidates will continue campaigning. The conservative Study Committee has a retreat on January 30-31 where each will speak, as well as conservative icons Donald Rumsfeld, Newt Gingrich and George Will. And all three already have plans on Feb. 1 to speak to the Tuesday Group, a coalition of GOP moderates. Neither the moderates nor the conservatives, however, are likely to make a single endorsement en masse, since clusters of each have already endorsed different candidates. Which just goes to show that the once unified congressional Republicans, left to their own devices, can be as fractious a group as their...