PowerPoint; Midterm Elections: Key States and Cities, Medical Emergency: Medicare

Production and broadcast of PowerPoint is made possible in part by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the National Legacy Foundation. This is PowerPoint, an information -age clearinghouse for news, issues, and ideas that impact the African -American community, the nation, and the world. The nation's most vulnerable were left in the cold, millions of poor and disabled people were failed by the new Medicare Plan D benefit. This is The News on PowerPoint. I'm Fondes Math. President Bush and three former presidents were among 10 ,000 people who attended funeral services for Kretas Khan King at a church in Lithonia, Georgia on last Tuesday. Former

president Clinton Carter and Bush joined the current president, King's daughter Bernice said her mother was a world leader who blessed the world with her love. She was not just a national figure. She was a global leader. And God wanted this world to not just recognize her, but recognize the spirit in which she lived and moved and had her be. Poet Maya Angelou said Kretas Khan King was the quintessential African -American woman. Born in the small town, repressive south, born of flesh and destined to become iron, born of corn flour and destined to become a steel magnolia. Former president Jimmy Carter also injected some political references in his recollection of how the King family had to endure being spied on during the civil rights movement. Carter Carter also took a shot at how the Bush administration

handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by pointing out the color of the faces of the people hardest hit by the storm who still need help. When it was his turn to speak, President Bush said that while a great movement of history took shape, Miss King's dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation. President Bush cites progress in the global terror war, including the derailing of a 2002 plot to attack Los Angeles. Correspondent Terry Moore has more. The president said the plot was hatched shortly after the 9 -11 terrorist attacks. In October 2001, Kaleigh Sheikh Muhammad, the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks, had already set in motion the plan to have terrorist operatives hijacking airplane using shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door and fly the plane into the tallest building on the west coast. That is the building formerly known as library tower. In a DC speech, Bush noted that al -Qaeda leaders were trying to recruit men from Southeast Asia to carry out the attack. Bush said critical intelligence helped thwart the plot, citing unprecedented cooperation from other nations. I'm Terry Moore in Washington. A

report in the New York Times says the White House was aware of the levy failure in New Orleans on the same evening the disaster unfolded. That's one night sooner than the White House has previously said it was made aware of the situation. An unidentified FEMA spokesman who saw firsthand the flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina reportedly alerted officials in Washington of the ensuing tragedy via email on Monday August 29th. The email was sent to the chief of staff of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and reached the White House at midnight on the day the levy broke. United Nations Secretary General Kulfi Anon has condemned editors who insist on publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in newspapers and magazines. Anon says while he supports press freedom for the publication of the cartoon is inflammatory. I do not understand why any newspaper will publish the cartoons today. It is insensitive, it is offensive, it is provocative, and they should see what has happened around the world. Anon was speaking as hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims in Lebanon turned a religious ceremony into a protest

over the caricatures. A leader of the Hezbollah militant group told the crowd of demonstrators that they must continue until Europe passed laws banning insults at the Prophet Muhammad. Washington DC Council member Vincent B. Orange Senior has introduced a bill to create a city office on African affairs that would focus on a growing immigrant group that has put its mark on the district by operating restaurants, cabs, and other professional services. The district has similar offices for Latino and Asian and Pacific Islander residents. The African community continues to feel they need an advocate in the government to help them with their issues and navigate the bureaucracy that, according to Orange, a Democrat from Ward 5, a public hearing on the proposed office is scheduled for next month. The Office of the African Affairs serves as a bridge between the African immigrants and native long -time residents of the district of Columbia. While a greeting card is a must for Valentine's Day, that's according to Hallmark expert Lori Edmunds, who says this is the one gift that will last forever. It's a keep fakes long after the

flowers, the chocolates, the romantic dinner is gone. That card is the one thing that's still going to be there. And a lot of women love to save their Valentine's Day cards as a keep fakes and years later go back and thumb through them and read through them and have wonderful memories of the person that they love that gave them soon. Forty percent of Valentine's Day gifts are purchased by women for other women such as mothers, sisters and friends. You can go online for more Valentine's Day tips at www .Hallmark .com. That is the news on PowerPoint. I'm Fonda Smith. And welcome back to PowerPoint. I'm Carmen Burns. The official government handbook issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services States. Everyone needs to make a decision this year. Beginning January 1st, 2006, Medicare will offer insurance coverage for prescription drugs through Medicare prescription drug plans and other health plan options. Insurance companies and other private companies work with Medicare to offer these plans. And if you join by December 31st, 2005, you won't miss

a day of coverage. Well a Springfield Missouri newspaper reported that possibly a fourth to a third of the independent pharmacies in that area may close in the next 12 months unless insurance companies make better reimbursement rates. A suburban New York paper ran the headline, Medicare Drug Plan Needs Treatment. Several states are suing the government for reimbursement under the new prescription plan D and many Americans remain thoroughly confused about the enrollment process as well as the benefit. In President Bush's February 11th radio address, he acknowledged that there have been some problems with plan D, but he said when you make a big change in a program involving millions of people, there are bound to be some challenges. And according to President Bush, the typical senior citizen will pay about half of what he used to spend on prescription drugs with plan D. So is Medicare plan D a workable drug benefit or not? In an effort to sort this out, PowerPoint welcomes in Atlanta, Vicki Michael State Health Insurance Assistant Program

Coordinator in the Department of Human Resources Division of Aging Services. The program is funded nationally by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. By phone from New York, Bob Hayes, Attorney and President of the Medicare Rights Center, a national, not -for -profit consumer organization that works to ensure that older and Americans with disabilities have access to good and affordable health care. And by phone from Connecticut, Judy Stein, Executive Director of the Connecticut -based Center for Medicare Advocacy, a national, non -partisan education and advocacy organization that identifies and promotes policy and advocacy solutions to ensure that elders and people with disabilities have access to Medicare. And if you have a question or a comment, our PowerPoint hotline number is 1 -800 -360 -1799. That's 1 -800 -360 -1799 in Atlanta. The number is 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880

-9255. Vicki, Bob and Judy, welcome. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Bob, I'll start with you. Just give us a rundown idea of what exactly Medicare plan D is supposed to be and what it's supposed to accomplish. Sure. Well, the vision common was brilliant. For 40 years, Medicare has been basically a national treasure, one of those rare domestic programs that has done just what it promised, worked efficiently. It's brought longer and better lives to older and disabled Americans. The big missing factor for Medicare has been that it simply had not covered outpatient prescription drugs. So, there was a lot of political support to do so. And rather than engraft within the Medicare program a drug benefit, which really would have been the most efficient, sensible way to do it, the whole issue got captured about three years ago by a bunch of ideologs in

Washington who decided, no, we are not going to create a Medicare drug benefit. Instead, we are going to create four people with Medicare, a whole new college industry, a four -profit insurance companies that are going to be selling what turn out to be incomprehensible benefit packages to people with Medicare. So, the problem is, number one, the private market is proven to be incredibly inept and inefficient. And number two, the cost of the program is incredibly expensive, given the very meager benefits that so many people are now facing. Judy, why was the prescription plan changed? It was created in the manner in which Bob just suggested, quite frankly, because of the extraordinary amount of interest to the pharmaceutical industry, the insurance and managed care industry, and in the past, when a program to plans to have a prescription drug program within Medicare itself were introduced, those powers, the

industries of pharmaceutical industries and managed care industries were not in favor of them. This plan program, Part D, really isn't a traditional Medicare program. Its first and foremost would be then for beneficiaries. Rather, this is an expensive means of providing some drugs to some people there. As you may know, the statute prohibits the federal government from negotiating on behalf of all Medicare beneficiaries. Another indication that what we're really trying to do here was provide some services, yes, but in order to do that, to give a lot of money to the drug industry. And also, it's presented through hundreds of individual private plans, giving them all a bite of this very big, federal apple, if you will, large subsidies going to private plans. And the taxpayers should be asking some very serious questions about why we're doing this in such not only a complicated manner, but a very uncost -effective manner. Medicare itself has been dramatically cost -effective and

moved people from no insurance in 1965 to a vast majority of having insurance and having access, at least to basic health care in the 2000s. What would have been wrong, Vicki, with just going ahead and adding a drug benefit by itself as opposed to pretty much just throwing everything in disarray? I think maybe Bob and Judy might be able to take it that far. All right, Bob, why not just, as you said, just redo it or just add a drug benefit? Well, it would have been the direct line between the two points that is the human need and political support for adding drug coverage to Medicare. I think Judy Stein though puts her finger on it when she says that democracy wasn't quite working in Congress and in the White House back in 2003 when this legislation was passed. The people who were heard were not the 42 or 43 million Americans with

Medicare. The people who were heard were not the folks who pay taxes in this country. They were two very powerful industries that went behind closed doors and got this legislation written. And then passed really in the dead of night before most members of Congress got to read it. Those two industries, of course, of the drug industry, which again as Judy said, one hundreds of billions of federal dollars into their industry while at the same time getting Congress to forbid the government from using that purchasing power to get lower prices. That's an unbelievable scandal. At the same time, the insurance industry works side by side to see that rather than going the efficient route, bringing the drug benefit into the Medicare program, we turned it over to the four profit insurance industry, which is showing, you know, they're doing what they do. They're maximizing profits, but by no means in the rollout of the drug benefit serving the public interest. Well, Vicki, can you tell us how Medicare Part D has affected pharmacists? The pharmacists have just been at the

brunt of all of the confusion. And as Bob said before, the inefficiency and some of these plans, they have been there for the beneficiaries as they come into the pharmacy trying to get their prescription filled only to find out that they're not in the system yet. And for those who need it most, those that were eligible for the extra help or the low income subsidy to help pay for the plan, that information was not in the system. So then they were forced to make a decision between trying to give the beneficiaries their prescriptions and not know if they were going to be reimbursed by the plan or not, or to send the older person away without their medications or charge them the full price of it, which many people could not afford the full price of their medications when they were expecting to have small copays of no more than $5. Our numbers, 1 -800 -360 -1799 -1 -800

-360 -1799 and Atlanta 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255 -5, Dwayne and Houston. Let me indicate to you. Good evening, Dwayne. Hi. Dwayne, are you there? Okay. I think we're having a wee bit of a phone problem. Dwayne, hold on with me. Okay. Now we got you. Dwayne. Hey, go ahead. Hi, thanks. I just want to say having been a licensed insurance agent in the state of Texas for over 22 years and dealing with Medicare supplements for a long length of time. This is obvious. They case where there was a good political solution that could have come forth, but because of the leadership of this country, bringing forth one of the worst solutions that possibly could have come forth to decimate the concept of national health care or national pharmaceutical health, so to speak. So the people have been hurt the most with this particular plan of the seniors and having an elderly

mother myself. I can tell you, the elaborates paperwork and confusion that exists even with professionals within the entity of health care and pharmaceuticals. It should be scrapped. The elderly are the ones being hurt and obviously are the ones that are being most benefited or the pharmaceutical companies themselves. And this was written again by the Congress that is controlled as we know by Republicans. Until we get money out of the concept of politics and being elected, we'll continue to have programs like this that actually hurt the people that are supposed to help. All right, Dwayne. Thanks so much for your call and for your comment. Judy, what's your take on that? Well, I think he's absolutely right. It's very sad, actually, because we are going to be hearing about increasingly, including in the President's budget that was just introduced last week, that Medicare is all but bankrupt and we simply can't continue to afford this program. One, in fact, we have, with Part D, infused billions, literally

billions and billions of dollars that will cost the federal budget, you know, maybe too much to hold. And those billions and billions of dollars are subsidies to the private plans to come into Medicare Part D and the dollars being paid to the pharmaceutical industry to provide drugs with no restrictions, no negotiations by the entire federal government on behalf of this customer base. I've been an advocate for Medicare beneficiaries since 1977 and what's terribly sad to me is that we had a program that was proven, that was relatively easy to understand, that moved people from no insurance, over 50 percent of people 65 and older had no insurance, to over 6 .96 now, high insurance. It was affordable and it was relatively, as I say, comprehensible. Part D is simply an example of the direction in which this administration is taking part Medicare. It's the worst example, but it's an example of where they're going with Medicare and that is to fragment it, to break up

the community of interest, to stop having it be the same no matter where you are in the country, no matter how ill you are or how wealthy you are. And this is a real tragedy because since 1965, we've had one community of interest pulling together, putting money into the system so that then when people got sick, there was money there to provide them with basic insurance. And they could afford and they could understand what they were entitled to. So we really need people to pay attention to what's happening with Part D and to understand that's an example of the way in which the administration tends to move Medicare. Our number again, 1 -800 -360 -799 -1 -800 -360 -1799 and in Atlanta, it's 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255. Bob, roughly how many plans are there to choose from? Well, in just about every state, Carmen there are

somewhere between 40 and different plans. 40 and how many? And 60. Now, and that doesn't really give it justice, the confusion that is because each plan will have different costs associated and a kind of cost that you pay when you are trying to get into one of these, you know, private again, for profit insurance plans that they're selling will be the deductible you pay, the premiums you pay month by month, the list of covered drugs, one of the other great scandals of this package given to us by Congress in the White House is that the drug plans, these private insurance companies, in the course of the year, can change the drugs they cover, but the person who signed up and is paying their premiums cannot get out of the plan until a year goes by. I mean, again, think about Congress writing a bill like that behind closed doors, and you wonder who exactly they were writing for. So, they're locked into a plan for a year? Oh, the customers are, but not the plan. So, I mean, it's hot enough, obviously. I mean,

to guess in January what medicine you may need come October and November, and that's one of the wild cards in this for people with Medicare. But it gets even worse when the plans are able to basically pull the rug out on people. You know, the fact that there are people in Washington who believe that a market filled with many, many plans, a good for consumers are people who have not talked to human beings recently, because to say that choice is a great virtue, the abstract of course sounds good, but what the folks in Washington have given older Americans right now is no choice because of the complexity. It's really shooting in the dark to try to find a plan. Vicki, what kinds of, do you know what kinds of premiums people, the range of premiums people have to pay? That will vary from state to state. I know some states have very low cost plans as low as, say, $4. Here

in Georgia, they range in price from $17 a month to more than $70 a month. The other thing that has come with this Medicare Modernization Act is a wider market of what we call Medicare Advantage plans, which is a completely different way of receiving all of one's Medicare benefits, not just their prescription benefits, but also their doctor services and their inpatient services. So we've seen so many more of these plans come in and just add to the confusion for Medicare beneficiaries and it has sort of opened the door for some fraudulent activities as well, of people saying that they were just enrolling somebody into one type of plan that actually putting them into the other type of plan to reap a higher premium and get a higher commission for an individual insurance agent. So these were individual agents who were signing people up? Yes. And we're doing that. I

should just add, Carmen, it's Bob. It's not just the agents who are problems right now. A lot of these plans have been guided by the Bush administration to do things that make sense, like provide medications to people during the rollout of this drug benefit that the people need, even if it's not on the narrower listed group of covered drugs. Well, you know, the word lapdog has been associated with the administration's regulation of these plans because many, many are not doing it. Many folks call our hotlines from around the country saying they just can't get the medicine even though theoretically the plans are supposed to be providing it. So it's basically, you know, it's one thing to say we're going to let the private market, a poor profit market, take over the provision of medicines, but then to basically leave the regulation to be so loose. So if you will, you know, falling to the

plans has been adding to the confusion and the difficulty and the deprivation for older people. Our number is 1 -800 -360 -1799 -1 -800 -360 -1799 in Atlanta, 404 -880 -9255. Jan in Anderson, South Carolina. Hi Jan. Hello. Hi Jan, go ahead. Yes, I'm a nurse with a cardiology group, and I'll deal with the patients every day, you know, talking about their medicine that their own, that they used to be, you know, used to be paid for, is no longer being paid for, they need to change over to new medications. We, as our cardiologist, we have not a list of the medication that is approved. You know, we don't even know how many, you know, nobody has seen anything as far as the Medicare Part D, to the doctors to let them know what, you know, orders that, what is, you know, to replace it with. Therefore, I call the pharmacy. Pharmacists do not know, because they said the only thing they can do is plug it to the computer. If it kicks it out, they don't, when I'll pay for it,

if it doesn't, they do not get a list. The patient only gets the list. When you're talking about patients that have, or in their 80s, they have no idea they get so many paperwork, so much paperwork. And you were talking about the fraud earlier, you know, when you have a weak system, there's going to be room for fraud to be performed. And nobody knows when the fraud is happening, because they don't even know what the true system is. How are you going to know if it's a fraud? Carmen, I think one of the, if I may, this is Judy Stein. Okay, Judy, go ahead. One of the, one of the really striking things here is that the nurse is saying that she doesn't have a list, on the pharmacist doesn't only the individuals do, but actually, the individual Medicare beneficiary may well not have a list. That is, the list of the formulary, the drugs that his or her plan is going to cover. And certainly, physicians do need to know that each one of these drug plans has a different list of covered drugs. The pharmacist should have access to that, but all of this is driven by web -based information.

There is a, there is a drug formulary site on the web called apocraties .com. And if you, you have to sign up for that, but that's a place to get all kinds of formularies. And you should be able to get the formularies for the different drugs from the Medicare website. But as Bob indicated, those, a couple of things, those, those formularies can be changed. Supposedly, the individual Runroly is supposed to get 60 days notice, before they are no longer able to get a drug that was originally on their plan's list. But we already know of at least three drugs that were on formularies that have been pulled. And the government is saying, well, the person should get it unless they can get 60 days notice. But the plan is not honoring that requirement. Further to what Bob is saying, and that is that the government, the Medicare agency, is not firmly enforcing. It's a directive that the plans have to do this or can't do that. So when we're hearing, they must give drugs for 30 days.

Or they must give a drug until the person's gotten 60 days notice of a being off of formulary. It may play well in the press, but when we go as advocates to enforce that for one of our individual clients, we're finding it's not so clear that it's absolutely mandated. But further to the individual calling from the cardiologist's office, please make sure that the doctor continues to prescribe and insist that what each of his or her patients needs is what that person gets. And as long as the doctor feels that there's no therapeutic alternative, or she should request an exception, it's called to the list to the formulary and fight to get the drug that the patient needs. Because otherwise, we're going to have a lot of doctoring happening by formulary lists and private insurance plans. And not by our doctors. Vicki, are you getting complaints about that? Oh, yes, absolutely. And from both the healthcare professional side, like Jan from South Carolina, and we, too, have recommended that people use the epocrates website. And

we know that a lot of physicians also carry PDAs, such as a palm pilot. And you can download the Medicare Part D formularies onto your PDA. So it's more accessible in the medical setting than trying to log on to the website every time. We know that many of the plans are not honoring that 30 -day first fill guarantee where a person's not supposed to leave the pharmacy without getting their prescriptions, at least, you know, that first month that was the expectation. But the problem greatly has been lack of access to the plan. The pharmacist would be trying to call the plan to get the authorization to be able to provide that medication. And there simply were not enough customer service lines and enough customer service representatives to respond to the demand. Okay, Vicki, we've got to take a break right here, Bob. And Judy, we'll be back with you all in just a moment. Aaron, George, and Roger, hold on with me. You're listening to PowerPoint. PowerPoint is funded in part by PowerPoint's Affiliate Station Consortium,

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Carmen Burns. We're talking about the controversial Medicare drug plan benefit. And joining us to discuss this, Vicki Michael, State Health Insurance Assistant Program Coordinator in the Department of Human Resources Division of Aging Services by phone from New York, Bob Hayes, Attorney, and President of the Medicare Rights Center by phone from Connecticut, Judy Stein, Executive Director of the Connecticut -based Center for Medicare Advocacy. Our PowerPoint hotline number is 1 -800 -360 -1799 -1 -800 -360 -1799 and an Atlanta 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255. Roger, listening to the serious satellite network. Good evening, Roger. Thanks for holding. Yes, I'm lucky enough to be eligible for the prescription drug program, but also the company I own provides insurance that has prescription included in it. I went to

one of the meetings I had in my hometown that described the program, how it worked, what your options were. And what I got out of it was that if you currently had prescription drug coverage, it was required for your insurer to furnish you with your options and what the best plan would be for you to go into. And my insurance company did that, and I'm better off with my current insurance rather than switching to Medicare. But that leads me to think that all of these people that are going to this program must not have had any prescription drug insurance before. And I'm wondering if anybody on the panel can address that of how common all of these people are having problems. Now all of a sudden when, to me, it seems like they probably did not have

insurance to start with, so I'll take the answer off the air. Okay, Roger. Thanks so much for your call, Judy. Yeah, that's actually a very important point. In fact, the vast majority of the people who are in Medicare Part D did have prior insurance. They were largely people who are so poor that they were receiving their drug coverage under their state's Medicaid program. They're known what we call duly eligible. They're people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. And according to the federal law that set up Part D, they were required to change from Medicaid to Medicare on January 1st and were automatically enrolled in a Part D plan not of their choosing that became effective on January 1st. So the vast majority of people who are having these problems are very poor. And in fact, are going to the pharmacy to collect, to get prescriptions filled usually for drugs that their Medicaid program was paying for prior to January

1st. And when they went to fill their prescriptions in 2006, found that all the array of problems that you know you've read about. So mostly they're people who are poor, very sick, a lot of people with mental illness disabilities. And they did have insurance and are worse off now as a consequence of this. There are a minority about three and a half million people and listeners may know they're about 43 million Medicare beneficiaries. Only about three and a half have signed up on their own and most of them, in fact, didn't have other insurancees. But we've heard from them as well. People have gone to get prescription drugs that they signed up for, that were on the formulary or no longer on the formulary or have been told that the copay is higher than they understood or that they have to try another drug first before they can get the one they thought was on the formulary. So there's a

wide array of problems that people are facing. But the vast majority of people on this plan did have prior insurance under Medicaid and were required to move to this program. And therefore should have been taken care of without these kinds of problems. Let's go to Aaron in Stone Mountain, Georgia, listening to WCLK. Hi, Aaron. Thanks for holding. Yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, my concern is that there's two individuals that are being hit the hardest and I know of both scenarios of elderly and those who are gravely ill. And it's created a bottleneck now where you have the elderly who don't understand fully what their options are and they're trusting these agents or individuals to put them on the right plan. And then as one of your guests had mentioned, as they get, let's say, they may get an illness that requires a new prescription. And now they're on the wrong plan or the previous plan if they had me have covered them. And it's a bottleneck. What is Congress and whom do we go talk to

to help the very sick people who were once, you know, self -employed or middle income who've now, because their illness can no longer maintain a job. Where do we send these people for assistance? Good question. Thank you, Aaron, for your call. Bob, any ideas? Well, it's a great frustration to try to answer that question. There's no doubt with incredibly strong internet skills, maybe a medical degree and a lot of good luck. People can benefit by picking a plan that will probably help them. But that being said, states, you know, throughout your listening area, Carmen, have overwhelmed programs that can give advice. I think Vicki probably can talk about the Georgia ship program better than I can. So there are, you know, people, you know, Judy Stein's organization, the Medicare Rights

Center, you know, who are trying to help people in a sense, you know, make the best possible choice. But at the end of the day, if nothing else comes out of this conversation and it's difficult since you're really hearing a drum beat of repetition from each of us, Carmen, if nothing else comes out of this, it's got to be that, you know, it doesn't have to be this way. I mean, Congress should be ashamed of itself for selling the American people out for the special interest that got this legislation. The administration should be ashamed for pretending everything was going to go just swimmingly and basically lying throughout the last part of 2005 about how everything was under control. And, you know, guess what? For the first few weeks of January of this year, as people were being turned away in droves from drug stores, the White House continued to say everything was fine. And it was only the governors of state after state. And this isn't just Democrats, Republican governors across the country, as well as Democrats launched emergency rescue programs for their people. Why taxpayer is at the federal level are paying, you know, hundreds of

billions of dollars for a program that requires a rescue by state governors is something that every member of Congress is going to have to explain this November. Vicki? Yes, I support what Bob said. There are ship programs in every state in Georgia, we're known as the Georgia Cares program. And ships nationally serve as the local source of information and operate toll free hotlines so that beneficiaries and their family members can call for counseling and assistance with these plans. And we do our best to help people sort through their options. It's a daunting task given that, as was mentioned earlier, there are 40 to 60 plans to choose from and trying to explain over the phone, all of the different options and how the payment structure works with the deductible and initial coverage limit and the coverage gap or the so -called donut hole. And then catastrophic coverage is not the easiest thing to do, but that is something we're out

there trying to help with. And just by way of example of the day -to -day problem, I mean, Vicki correctly said that there are a range of premiums, people are required to pay each month for these drug programs. And of course, a lot of the insurance companies are selling their products saying we have the lowest premium, but even that doesn't really tell a consumer very much because frequently the lowest premium plan may be the worst plan for somebody, because they'll find that even though they're only paying $10 or $20 a month in premium, they take a prescription to the drug store. They could be stocked with a copayment, the amount you have to pay for each prescription of $50, $75 or $100. So the confidence with which even we experts are able to help people make informed choices is very low, very hard. Let's go to George, listening to WLJK. Good evening, George. Yes. Hi, go ahead.

I've had very good service from the plan. I called 1 -800 Medicare and I've done just like the local TV station here said, have you drugs out and know what you're taking and give them the list. And I followed the lady, she offered me three or four choices. I picked one. I got to the drug store. It was confusion that day. Oh no. The month when we get our checks, you know, I buy my drugs and it was total confusion at the drug store that day. But everybody was working together and they worked it out and it seemed to all work through. So maybe I'm in a positive area. Okay. Well, we're glad for you. I'm delighted to hear it worked out and I hope that that will be the case for more people. Unfortunately, we, and I know Bob's organization as well. I'm probably thinking here from the hundreds, literally hundreds and thousands of people both on the phone and by email and by letter who've contacted us from all over the country who have had one

problem or another. Either not being recognized on the computer screen or the drug they were, they thought they could get covered, requires some prior authorization or them to try some other drug first. And I think that the main thing here is that none of this is an example of the way to run a good Medicare program that's comprehensible, that people can understand and can use well. And that's cost -effective for taxpayers. And I think that the listeners and people who are working with this program and see how it's created such confusion for so many. And I'm glad not for George really made me to make their voices heard, write letters to their local newspapers, be in touch with the congressional delegations. These bills have all passed by just the smallest of margins and it needs to be heard in the next coming election, how you feel about how this has worked or not worked. Let's go to Hank in Baltimore, listening to WEAA. Good evening, Hank. Hank. Hello.

Hi, go ahead. Good evening. I'm sorry to what I've been hearing most of the speakers and guests here. Hank, excuse me, Hank, could you turn your radio down for me? I'm getting a little bit of feedback. Okay, do you hear that now? All right, that's better, I think. Yeah, go ahead. Well, as I was saying, contrary to what I've heard the speakers here on the program saying, I wanted to make very clear that we have found the program, the Plan D, to be very good for my mother -in -law, who is elderly. And we have been able to find her a plan that was quite frankly has saved her about $3 ,000 in what she paid last year for her drugs. So we have been very happy with it. So, Hank, did you help her way through all of the different plans? Oh, yes, but there was not much waiting through

it. And I'm certainly not a computer scientist, but on medicare .gov, we were able to find it, and it's straightforward. What I would like to say, it is very straightforward, and it was very easy to follow. And quite frankly, we were surprised that, and she has about 10 different prescription drugs per month. Okay. And the formularies were easy to find, comparing the plans, it was very easy. And this is for a non -computer scientist. All right, well, I'm very happy for you. Thanks so much, Hank, for your call and for giving us that feedback. So, Vicki, what do you think the confusion comes in? I think mostly it's just because medicare beneficiaries were used to having a pretty straightforward program, as Judy mentioned earlier. And this is just

brought up with it so many choices and so many different considerations that it's just brought about the confusion. But I'm glad to hear that Hank was able to use the medicare website. It is a very good website, but we have found that a good number of people, one, do not use the internet to make choices like this, or two, haven't been able to navigate it through it independently. So that's where our program has come in and tried to help people. To get through the internet or whatever choices they need to make. I mean, sometimes I think we forget that even though it is a 21st century, all the data shows that about one out of four people with medicare have even been on the internet once. So it really is something wrong with the picture where about the only chance and Hank obviously did a good job. The only chance one has to make

even quasi -informed choice requires navigating this pretty complex internet tool. And you know, three out of four folks with medicare can't do that. That being said, one thing that, one of the few things probably you'll hear us talking tonight in unison with the Secretary of Health and Human Services is that we really do have to all help out people with medicare. I work through this because on the one hand, I think there's almost nobody who's looking at this program who isn't angry and doesn't think Congress sure benefits it. But that being said, I know the three of us who are your guests tonight, Carmen. It's been most of our waking hours trying to help people make the best of it. And that really does require it digging in with a bunch of volunteers into the internet. Let's go to Tom in Bakersfield listening on the Syria satellite network. Good evening, Tom. Thanks for holding. Good evening. Hi, go ahead. I just want to make a comment on how I think this program is helping a lot of people. Initially, when it first came out,

I thought it was a very confusing plan. And I thought there was going to be a turmoil in the farm. I'm a pharmacist and I work in a pharmacy. But you know, we worked out the kinks and it seems to be working for a lot of people. I think it's a good thing. So have you had many problems lately or is it just all kind of leveling out? It's all leveling out. I mean, everybody, you know, the plan that they choose, if they didn't choose a plan, then I sent them to, you know, like a place to sign up for a plan. And then if they do, if they have chose a plan, then you would just build it just like a regular insurance. So what about the reimbursement for the pharmacy? Well, the reimbursement part, we don't know yet. I think that this might hurt a lot of pharmacies. A lot of retail pharmacies, and we haven't really looked at the profits and loss. But no problem getting reimbursed so

far. You haven't got any. Far no problem. Okay. So far it's been pretty smooth. All right. Well, great. Well, thanks so much for your call and for your comment, Tom. You're welcome. Have a good night. You too now. Now, Vicki, what kinds of pharmacy complaints have you all gotten? Well, or has that started to level out as well in Georgia? To some degree, it has leveled out in that CMS, the federal medical agency had issued instructions to the plans that they needed to improve their customer service system so that pharmacies could have better access. So we have seen some improvements there where they have provided the pharmacist with a code to enter in for prior authorization so that beneficiaries could get that first fill. But we're still seeing problems where people who went into the pharmacy in January and had no problem found that when they went back in February, there was now a problem because the information was no longer in the

system. Or they were one of those individuals who should have been automatically enrolled in a plan because they were, as Judy was talking about earlier, one of the Medicaid beneficiaries. But they ended up in a national contracted plan that only gave them access to 14 -day prescription so when they went back in February to get their second prescription, they had some problems. We're going to take a quick break right here. Stay with me. Our number is 1 -800 -360 -799 -1 -800 -360 -1799 and it led a 404 -880 -9255. You're listening to PowerPoint.

followers of plans. There's a few national There are and a few plans do serve the entire country. And if you do join a plan that's not one of the national plans and you leave the

region that's served by your plan, you, depending on how the plan works, you could have one of a variety of options. One would be to get your drug through mail order. Many of the plans do have a mail order option. The other would be if you have not yet switched plans and you leave the geographic area in which your plan is good and it's good to you, you can one time, it's Bob indicated before, you can't keep changing, but you can change one time and you could make a switch. But it's a very important change again to the Medicare program that what we have here largely is a benefit that is not uniform throughout the country and not going to be valuable to people regardless of where they travel within the country. Unless they have chosen one of the national plans. And Carmen, that's again one of the things I'd like people to think about as they think about whether this is the good way to approach Medicare because Medicare has been a national health insurance plan. So if you did travel and you got sick at your kids'

house or on vacation or moved, you should still have been able to get the same kind of coverage as you had when you were in your other home state. Now, is there a difference in the fee or the premium for a regional plan versus a national? They don't necessarily true that the national plan will be more expensive than the regional plan if that's your question. Yes, and it's certainly worth looking into. Bob in Powder Springs, Georgia. Good evening, Bob. Hi, go ahead. Hey, I got a real two quick questions. A retired military who are under humana. How do they fit in with Medicare? And number two is that I was at a seminar and I heard that $33 .12 was anything that you desire in Medicare. And number three is what happened to Canada drugs. Is that obsolete now? Now, you said

$33 .12. That was like a magic number and it covered everything? Yes, that's co -payment and he said to just come out in January. And I don't know if it was Edna or who, but I'm a military retired and I was wondering how does that fit also with Medicare. Okay, and the other one was what happened to Canada drugs. All right, thanks for your call and for your question, Bob. Well, also with Canada and just say this, there having some quick analyses by academics that suggest that if we simply do what Canada does, which is to say we had our national government regulate for lower drug prices so that we pay in the United States what a Canadian citizen pays for medicine. And we threw out this $800 ,900 billion Medicare drug benefit that the net value would be roughly the same. So that's to say that

this plan continues to have Americans pay very, very high prices, the highest prices in the world for medications and continues to fight against bringing prices down to what are really world levels and it's unfortunate. It's not to say that, you know, simply importing prices from other countries is the sole solution here. But it does, I think, underscore that the United States government has had several options to bring affordable medication to the American people and it's chosen the most expensive way. The $33 .12, I'm guessing that the caller probably heard that was an average premium that people are paying around the country. There is not a single party insurance company that is offering a total cost of $33 .12 for sure. So I'm not quite sure what that is. Maybe one of the other guests could help out. Vicki? That is the

average priced plan here in Georgia. So if a person was eligible for the low income subsidy, that's the amount that it would pay. It's actually $33 .17. What about retired military, Vicki? Does that, how does that impact him? Well, if he is retired military and has try care, try care for life, then that sort of insurance is as good as or better than Medicare and he does not need to worry about Medicare Part D. If he's using VA services, we've found that some VA pharmacies don't offer all prescription. So some people, although that is also a good source of coverage and does not require you to take Medicare Part D, some people have taken Part D in addition to that to be able to gain access to other prescriptions not available to the VA. So very often the prescriptions that are available to the VA have had good negotiations

by the Veterans Administration on behalf of all the about 8 million people they're working on BEAT -4. And so though we want to make sure that if you do qualify for the Veterans Prescription Programs, that you make sure that you see whether that is a means of getting your coverage first. Absolutely. Gail in North Augusta, good evening Gail. Hi Gail, go ahead. I just wanted to know, I have a question. I'm not a seasonal citizen, but I will be soon. And I wanted to know if the majority of the drugs that aren't accepted in these plans fall in the category of old drugs that are cheaper. And there's a second question too. And also, what if a senior citizen suddenly needs a drug that's not on their plan? Since they can only change plans one time, if they suddenly develop other illnesses, are they just out of luck? All right Gail, go ahead. There is a process by which an individual

can try and get a drug that's not on the plan. Say as you've indicated, they're unable to switch plans because they've already made one switch or the time for making a change is passed. Then the individual can request what's known as an exception. And the doctor has to support that request and indicate that in the doctor's opinion, the drug the patient needs cannot be replaced with one of the ones on the plan that's considered in the same therapeutic class. But you need to make sure that your doctor will support you in this, get a written statement from the doctor. Bring that to the pharmacy is the best way to get it done and get the pharmacist to ask the plan to give an exception to the drug on the formulary. Because they will have one that they think is as the one that you should try that's close to what the doctor says you need. What about the first question now? Gail, I've got to go with that. I can't, we're really up against the clock right now.

Judy, Vicki, Bob, thanks so much for being with us and to all the scholars we weren't able to get through to tonight. I do apologize you're listening to PowerPoint. This is PowerPoint, a production of WCLK FM, a broadcast service of Clark Atlanta University. Music Production and broadcast of PowerPoint is made possible in part by a

grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the National Legacy Foundation. This is PowerPoint, an information -age clearinghouse for news, issues, and ideas that impact the African -American community, the nation, and the world. It's been called a heavyweight fight, what's its stake? The title to take back Washington. Will scandals Hurricane Katrina and Iraq's way voters? Hello, I'm Carmen Ferns and this is PowerPoint. The battle lines have been drawn. Will the GOP continue its campaign against terrorism as the major appeal to voters and what's the strategy for Democrats with a clear opposite view on national security up next on PowerPoint's strategy to the 2006 midterm elections? But first, the news. This is the news on PowerPoint. I'm Fonda Smith. President Bush and three former presidents were among the dignitaries who paid tribute at

Tuesday's funeral service for Coretta Scott King. Don Dornberg has more. The courage in your eyes. Former President Carter says he could not have won the presidency without the work of Dr. and Mrs. King to extend the right to vote to African Americans. Former President Clinton says Mrs. King solidified her commitment to the movement when she went to lead a garbage worker strike in Memphis the day after Dr. King was assassinated there. She went to Memphis, the scene of the worst nightmare of her life, and led that march for those poor, hard -working garbage workers that her husband got. President Bush said that while a great movement of history took shape, Mrs. King's dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation. Don Dornberg at Lata. Senator Hillary Clinton says she remembers being a college student and listening in amazement to the news reports after Dr. King's assassination and how Coretta Scott King took up her husband's struggle on behalf of the dispossessed. The New York Democrat and possible

presidential candidate in 2008 says Mrs. King leaves a burden that all of us will have to carry. Now poet Maya Angelou was among the dignitaries honoring the memory of Coretta Scott King. Angelou said she and Mrs. King frequently had conversations about how they believe that peace and justice should belong to all people. Peace and justice should belong to all people everywhere all the time. Angelou said Mrs. King was the quintessential African -American woman who came from the repressive South and was born a cornflower and destined to be a still magnolia. Some displaced hurricane Katrina victim staying in hotels on the government's expense are lashing out at the Bush administration for now having to pay for their temporary housing. Katrina victim staying at the John F. K. Radisson hotel or on the steps of New York City's hall demanding the government extend its deadline that expired Tuesday to help families still in need. So president Bush

I say you are not doing your job and you have let America down and you have let the people in the Gulf coast down and you are not doing your job and you need to be as adamant about us as you are about a red. FEMA has agreed to extend the deadline until March 1st for about 20 ,000 hotel rooms. Less than a week after five Baptist churches were torched more fires have been reported in rural Alabama. Officials say three more Baptist churches were destroyed and a fourth was damaged by suspected arson attacks. All of the churches hidden the latest fires were no more than 17 miles from each other and belonged to black congregations. The five churches burned in Bibb County last week were also close to each other and four belonged to white congregations. No injuries were reported in any of the fires. The FBI said the special agent investigating last week's fires will also look into the latest series of fires. Organizations across the nation mark national black HIV AIDS Awareness Day Tuesday. The community mobilization effort is designed to

increase awareness participation and support for HIV AIDS prevention diagnosis care and treatment among African Americans. AIDS service organizations community -based organizations and local health departments are sponsoring testing events and educational programs. Many people think they can guess a person's ethnic background just by their voice. John Ball the director of African and African American studies in Washington University says that has to do with certain speech patterns that are based on stereo types. Based on our research about 80 percent of the time people guess right when they guess the race of the speaker and in the 20 percent where they don't there are mitigating circumstances that mask the nature of the voice. Ball says so -called linguistic profiling can lead to other discrimination when a voice sounds African American or Mexican American. That is the

and welcome back to PowerPoint I'm Carmen Burns last summer a Wall Street Journal NBC news poll showed at the time the overall approval rating for Congress stood at a poultry 28 percent. 46 percent of Americans said it was time to give a new representative a chance rather than reelect their incumbent member of Congress. Control of Congress is its stake will strategies backfire

or succeed this year. To give us insight into the 2006 midterm elections PowerPoint welcomes from the University of South Carolina Dr. Laura Wolver political science professor and associate director of women's studies. Dr. Wolver is an expert on congressional politics interest group social movements and gender and politics and from Purdue University head of the Department of Political Science professor Bert Rockman. Professor Rockman is the co -editor of a book series assessing the terms of former president's George H. W. Bush Bill Clinton and the first term of George Bush. As always we invite you to phone in with your questions and comments our PowerPoint hotline number 1 -800 -360 -1799 -1 -800 -360 -1799 and in the Atlanta area 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255. Good evening to both of you and thank you for being with us. You're welcome. Good evening. Professor

Rockman National Security Fighting Terrorism all on this central agenda for the 2002 midterm elections and now it still seems to be the primary issue. Is 9 -11 being exploited particularly by the GOP? Well yes I think it has been to some degree the Bush administration has made it kind of the central point of its administration I think did so in the 2004 election. The Republicans do enjoy an advantage on national security issues that preceded the 9 -11 incident and so to a considerable degree the 2004 election strategy of the Bush administration I think was predicated on its leadership or argument about its leadership in preventing another terrorist operand of course tried to tie the war in Iraq into the more general war on terrorism and that

has been it so I think really the lead issue for the administration. Dr. Roller? Yeah I think that that is true that in 2004 the emphasis was still on the Iraq war and on terrorism since 2004 though even the Bush administration has admitted that there are not any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that was the excuse to go to war and so I think in 2006 the public is going to be more interested in given that and given the casualties in Iraq and given the rising anti -Western protests by Muslim people around the world particularly aimed at American power what will the Bush administration do to restore our diplomatic presence in the world and our credibility. What do you think or how do you think the wiretapping

issue and the whole circumstances surrounding this the NSA will have and how much of an impact will that have on these midterm elections Professor Rockman? Well it's hard to say just yet because while it's created quite a bit of buzz in Washington and in a few places outside especially among constitutional lawyers and so on the public seems to be kind of divided or perhaps even just simply uncertain over how to respond to it the people on the one hand want to feel safe and the Bush administration I think has kind of played into that as part of their strategy. On the other hand they also do express some concerns about privacy issues and so there seems to be some ambivalence there but if there's a choice between the two issues a somewhat greater proportion of the public

comes out in support of the security issues than they do with the privacy issue. You agree with that Dr. Walver? Yes I do for the most part and I think that by November of 2006 some of these issues will be even further back in the public's mind that wiretapping privacy issue right now is very salient but by November a lot of people will have forgot about it unless the opposition continues to make people think about the implication of this kind of power without you know going to the judiciary for the power to do it. One other issue or one of the concern of course is the economy and with gas prices still kind of fluctuating one week they're up next week they're still up. So what kind of impact do you think that might have and the economy I

think it well it seemed to have taken a bit of a turn but has it taken enough of a turn to make a difference as far as the GOP or the Democrats are concerned Dr. Walver. Well I think that the economy is going to be very big issue in the November elections and it's not just going to be the price of gasoline but also the price of heating oil and I'm following very carefully the storms in the northeast which I guess will mean people are going to use more heating oil and electricity and all kinds of power to keep warm and this is something that we've been anticipating with the rising cost of heating that if the winter got severe or even if it got normal that people would really feel the impact of the rising cost of this energy. Another thing I've been noticing is the very big headlines on layoffs from American manufacturers who we thought were

pretty secure or who are sort of bedrock employers in many communities and those thousands and thousands of layoffs in the auto industry and in textiles and in other industries have an effect on these communities that I think will have an impact perhaps in the 2000 elections. Professor Rockman? Well yes I think there's I think that those are important issues I think that the Bush administration has some things that they can claim to. One is that markets are up and they will probably argue that the tax cuts have helped stimulate the economy from overall and that the overall stimulation will help everybody and that I think has got to be their major argument and they do have you know

they have something to say on that. On the other hand I think as Laurel points out the price of heating oil particularly over the winter the likely rise in gasoline prices everything having to do with petroleum and so forth. Lost jobs although the overall job picture is mixed it's clear that not only are we losing jobs and manufacturing but probably even more salient that retirees as well as current employees are losing pensions and benefits as well. That's right. So I think that the picture is mixed but on the whole I suspect that the issues that really hit to hearth and home are going to be ones that tend to favor the Democrats. 1 -800 -360 -1799 is our number 1 -800 -360 -1799 and in the Atlanta area

404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255 so do you think that the Democrats have a bigger challenge with or the Republicans do Dr. Wolver? Well in this particular election the Republicans have a pretty big challenge because they are the majority party and this is an off -year election and traditionally with rare exceptions the majority party in an off -year election and an off -year election is an election when there's not a presidential race. That party tends to lose seats in the House and also in the Senate and the Bush administration and the Republicans have quite a few burdens and issues that they'll have to deal with in the election like we just discussed energy, the economy, the war. I think that the Abramoth lobbying scandal will still be salient in November and I also think that in

November there will be also repercussions from the way that the administration dealt with the Katrina hurricane disaster in the Gulf Coast. We'll also see in November a lot of people who are still displaced from Katrina wondering how and if they can vote and I think that will resonate with a lot of people who will think gosh isn't it horrible they lost everything and now maybe they can't even vote so it's going to be very interesting for the Republican Party. Professor Rockman? Well I'd rather be sitting where the Democrats are right now than the Republicans. The Republicans are clearly on the defensive and Laura's playing it out I think some of the issues that typically the majority party especially if they have their own president in office has to defend especially by the time they get around to the second midterm election and

there are a lot of things that really have broken in the last year particularly that put heavy incumbent party on the defense of the corruption scandals the war in Iraq not going at least notably well. The issue is involving particularly privatization potentially of Social Security and health care although Social Security is now off the table but the Democrats won't stop pointing to what the administration wants to do I suspect they'll also argue that the Republicans have been unfair in their tax cuts and that it's now affecting programs like Medicaid education loans for higher education and the like I think they'll probably try to translate all of that into what they see as programs affecting the common person rather than the investor class so I think on the whole there is both historical tradition that says that the out party

should do much better under these circumstances and a batch of specific issues that really do advantage the out party in this particular election. Well it probably didn't help either that we just heard from a number of people about the Medicare Part D that didn't really kick off very well for the Republicans this year. Yeah that's a big issue because it is a program that is sort of a test case or a pilot project for a lot of the plans to privatize or sub contract out on different government programs and it's not going very well and it's causing a lot of hardship for people who are very sympathetic to the American public the elderly did disabled people with limited economic means. How many seats does the Democrat do the Democrats need to become

the majority now Professor Rockman? Let me see I'm just trying to remember exactly that I think they need to turn around 17 seats or something in that vicinity and maybe 15 to 17 and one of the problems is that there are fewer and fewer seats in play generally probably that estimate would be somewhere in the vicinity of 30 to 35 seats that might actually be in place so they really have to win almost everything that is in play that is either a normally competitive district or in which an incumbent is no longer running in the House. Now by one count the Boston Globe reports at least 11 veterans of the Iraq war or Afghanistan are hoping to get elected to the House or Senate and all but one of them Democrats excuse me Dr. Wolver is that surprising? That is a little

bit surprising and I think that is something that the Democrats might get some mileage out of because these are people who of course can speak from what they have witnessed and experienced and lived with in the Iraq war and a let 10 out of 11 of them are Democrats. Now what it means though when we say that the House will only change if there are 17 to 15 seats to change over and that there's 35 seats that are in play is that a lot of the congressional elections whether you're an Iraqi veteran or not a lot of the congressional House elections are very safe seats because of the way that the incumbent party has drawn the districts after redistricting and one of the interesting things about the stepping down of delay Tom delay from leadership in the Republican Party is that one of the things that was

sticking to him were questions about his use of power during the Texas legislature's reapportionment of the seats in Texas and so it's very interesting to see that there are these Iraqi veterans and their Democrats but what would be more important is if they're in as Bert says open seats or if they're in contests that are even in play. 1 -800 -360 -1799 is our number 1 -800 -360 -1799 and Atlanta 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255. Now November is a little ways off. The president has already started to make appearances to help jump start Republican campaigns but his approval rating isn't exactly hitting the high notes so is that is his are his appearances helping or hurting Professor Rockman? Well they help to stimulate the

Republican interest. His great strength is in his party space and a lot of these elections are going to be determined by the proportion of each party space that really comes out to vote. I think that Bush was the first person within recollection certainly to win the presidency in 2004 to be reelected without having one a majority of the independence or non -aligned vote. So helping to get this party based out, I think that's what it's about at this point. Helping to get a message out to Galfa and I step support is really what it's about. He's extremely unpopular among people who identify themselves as Democrats and at this point not particularly popular either among people who identify

themselves as independents. Dr. Oliver? Yes that's all true and another thing that Bush's appearances and also Vice President Cheney's appearances do is they raise a lot of money. The Bush campaign is phenomenal in raising campaign cash and contributions and they can translate that into the Republican party efforts and into their strategies to blanket the airwaves and print media for the Republican cost. 1 -800 -360 -1799 is our number 1 -800 -360 -1799 in Atlanta 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255. Brian in Salem. Good evening Brian. Thanks for holding. Hey how you doing? Hey go ahead. The reason why I'm calling I have two questions

I want to ask. The first question, well the first comment I just wanted to say is quite obvious that the Republican party is pretty corrupt at doing things to get things done their way. Now my first thing is the first question is actually why isn't that anybody, no one has stepped in to force the Bush administration to stop what they're doing in the Iraq war. It was clearly obvious that they went to war because they said it was in weapons of mass destruction there and it was proven that there were none there. So why is it that they're allowing our soldiers to be over there to perform a function that they feel is necessary and being picked off by snipers and being killed on a daily basis for something that was all based on a lie. And my second question is after the months of Katrina, why is it that this government has not stepped in to give these people the help that they need in that area. What is prolonging it and stopping them from doing what they have to do

and clearly my overall mindset at this point is why hasn't the government stepped in to come up with something or whatever to impeach this president and his administration because of the downfall of the economy, the lies about Iraq and what's going on in Katrina. Why isn't anyone stepping in to stop him. Brian, thanks for your call and for your questions, Professor Rockman. Well, the easiest thing to start off with is impeachment and there's a very good reason for that because the Republicans have the majority in both chambers so that's not an issue that's ever going to get raised and usually that something, some very particular incident or set of incidents are typically required to start that off. With respect to the war, the critical moment was 2002 and partly the Democrats have been traumatized by their

inability seemingly to win the public's confidence on national security issues. The majority voted against the resolution in 1990, 1991 in the first goal for and turned out, I think they turned out to be adversely affected by that and so in 2002 they became overly generous perhaps and voted for a resolution to which probably a Mack truck would have been driven through and so they had a difficult time defending their position in 2004. Their major issue now with respect to Iraq has really been the way in which it's been handled. That is, and that connects it to the issue of Katrina, that is, the question of how competent is this administration in planning for events and responding to events and in being able to think through what is needed. I suspect that the Democrats will make that a

major issue in 2006. Dr. Wolver? I think that the Katrina issue is one that resonates with a lot of people around the country because it makes them wonder if the government is prepared to address any large -scale domestic crisis, whether it is from a natural disaster or it's from terrorist assault. It looked like with Katrina that the government had tripped so much of its social services and so much of its preparedness domestically down to the bare bones and had not paid attention to simple things that they had seemingly learned from the September 11th bombings, like, you know, that the different agencies needed to communicate with each other. Dr. Wolver, I've got to step in right here. We've got to take

a quick break. We'll be back in a moment with more . And welcome back to PowerPoint. I'm Carmen Burns.

We're talking about the midterm the upcoming midterm elections. We are joined by Dr. Laura Wolver from the University of South Carolina. She is a political science professor and associate director of women's studies and from Purdue University, head of the Department of Political Science, Professor Bert Rockman, who is the co -editor of a book series assessing the terms of former president's Bush Clinton and the first term of the current president, Bush. Our phone number 1 -800 -360 -1799 -180 -360 -1799 and in the Atlanta area 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255. We went to break Dr. Wolver. You were talking about the situation surrounding based on the question from Brian about why the government hasn't stepped in to help people who were involved in the Katrina disaster. Yes, I think that it is an issue that a lot of Americans feel very nervous

about because if it could happen this way with a lot of warning ahead of time that the hurricane was going to be disastrous for the city of New Orleans in the surrounding area and the government responded so ineptly, then I think that a lot of people could be concerned about if there was another natural disaster or human -made disaster, how the government would respond. Another issue that I think might come up in November and it relates to Brian's questions about Iraq. Is there now emerging reports from Iraq about untold millions and millions of dollars that are unaccounted for either dispersed in cash or in checks to subcontractors and I think that over the spring and the summer we'll hear more about that. There's also, I just

saw the report on 60 minutes about I think it was custard battles that one of the contractors that was involved in that and there's a lot of other underpinnings of possible investigations involving a lot of money, millions, as you mentioned, millions and millions of dollars that's totally unaccounted for. Yeah, totally unaccounted for and still massive power outages and lack of basic services all over Iraq. And so those questions can be very devastating to Republican Congressional and Senate incumbents in November election. Our numbers 1 -800 -360 -1799 -1 -800 -360 -1799 and in Atlanta it's 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -909. Richard and Houston, let's communicate to you. Hi, Richard. Hi, I just had a question. The

Democratic Party needs to outline a plan. Right now, I think this is what hurt Democratic Party in the last election was that everybody kept saying that they had a plan but they never outlined it and people, I don't know how a lot of people run their lives, but you almost have to plan everything today. And when you hear a politician talking to you that I have a plan but they never disclose it, it's kind of like the old time politician promised and everything and deliver nothing. And I think people are a lot smarter than that now. There's a Democratic Party going to be able to do that in the future. And then the other part of my question, too, is like Ted Kennedy. I mean, does he help or does he hurt the Democratic Party? Okay. Every time he talks, you know, he sounds to me. I mean, I'm a pretty much common sense guy. And Ted Kennedy, he

sounds stupid to me and he represents the Democratic Party real bad. I think somebody needs to tell him to retire or something, you know? Okay, all right. Richard, thanks for your call and for your questions. Professor Rockman? Yeah, well, those are interesting questions. The part of the problem of outlining a plan, I guess, is a plan for what? And specifically, I think the Democrats at this stage are going to outline themes rather than plans because plans gives the opponent an opportunity to shoot at something very specifically. What they are likely to do is to outline some themes, I think, in terms of what they perceive to be growing social in securities of people concerning pensions, benefits, health care, social security, joblessness, and the like, whether they have a plan for those things is another question. But they certainly are going to argue that the Republicans' ideas

are ones that are not helpful. They are likely, I guess, to steer away from something very specific on Iraq, although there may be division within the party on that because there isn't a very clear answer to what they can do in Iraq. So I think at this point, what they're really likely to do is to find a few themes. One of those things being that the Republicans domestic agendas unfair, another being that the Republicans having all of the institutions of power have been corrupt, a third that the Republican administration has lacked competence in both the handling of the war in Iraq and in, as I'll point it out, in other matters that deeply affect people here, in which can link to the question of security concerns as well. What about Ted Kennedy,

Dr. Wolher? Ted Kennedy? Yeah, well, he's the Democrats George Bush in one sense, and that Kennedy resonates well amongst core Democrats. I think solidifies or embodies most of what Democrats at least think they believe in and gives voice to it. He has a much more controversial image outside of the core Democratic supporters. Dr. Wolher? Well, Ted Kennedy is an icon in the Democratic Party and also somewhat controversial and troubling to some people as the caller just revealed. But one thing about Kennedy is that sometimes he's very effective and he's able to work with senior members of the Republican Party in the Congress in surprising ways. And one issue that I'm thinking of is when he partnered with Orrin Hatch of Utah

to provide healthcare benefits for working poor children. It was really a, from both Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy a monumental piece of legislation and something where they were doing things in a bipartisan way for the benefit of the children of the country. And I think that Ted Kennedy and some of these old senators and their staffs are able to do this sometimes. But we don't often hear about it to the media or remember it. And we know instead about sort of their more bella coastings that they do Ted Kennedy and a lot of the Democratic senators didn't look too swift during the Alito nomination hearings. And I think that their kind of hapless behavior during those nomination hearings is something that the Republicans can use in

their campaigns in November. What about the Democrats and a plan? And do they, because as the caller said and as Dr. as Professor Rockman expounded on, they took, the Democratic Party took a lot of heat for not really having a plan of action. But do they really need to work on a plan or can they again just harp on the things that the Republicans have done wrong? Well, they can do it both ways. They can, as the minority party, they can be the big time critics. And as the minority party in this election, they don't have as much to lose obviously. And so they can point out all of the issues that have come about that make the Republican incumbents nervous, Delay, Abraham Off, Iraq, Katrina, Delay Off,

the dwindling numbers of people who have pensions, who have health insurance, things like that. At the same time, they do need to be able to articulate some kind of a plan. And in their party platforms, they do have some plans for things like health insurance and some plans for things like education. But those aren't the kind of things that really mobilize the base of voters and that can trump the Republicans on the issue. The Republicans have been so successful with since 2001, which is terrorism. So the Democrats have to figure out a way to mitigate somewhat the Republicans' lead in the terrorism issue. And they can do that in part by pointing out to the fact that the incumbent

party has had so many years to prepare for disasters and have they really made the hard, done the hard work that would prepare the country to face huge disasters again like Katrina. Our number is 1 -800 -360 -1799. 1 -800 -360 -1799 in Atlanta 404 -880 -9255 -404 -880 -9255. Now, you've talked about the scandals from delayed Abramov and we haven't even talked about Karl Rove and some of the other things. But could the Democrats really beat these issues up so much and just turn off voters, Professor Rockman? Well, it's possible, anything is possible, but I doubt it. I think that these are issues right now that are concerning a lot of people, even if they don't know of specific names and so forth. There is an aura that the Republicans have kind of gone off the

deep end and in terms of their corruption issues, although people do tend to think that both parties do it, but the Republicans are the end party at the moment, so they're going to get the brunt of the responsibility. I think that the Democrats can really, as Laura said, I think that by being the out party, they don't really have to have the responsibility of coming up at the specific set of plans. And I would say that our system is not kind to any really kind of serious planning because most everything we do, if it's ever going to get done in terms of legislation, requires some kind, typically, some kind of compromise at a bipartisan level, or at least with some partnering across the parties. So plans can be, you know, if it's just purely a partisan plan and we see those things sometimes in the party platforms, they don't necessarily mean anything

in wheel terms because that's got to be undertaken in the political arena, in the business that the public often doesn't see. The Democrats do have, it seems to me, they're one thing that they really could play as a theme, and that is that we have put a burden on our businesses, especially those that compete internationally that's incredibly unfair, and that is that they are in the business now basically of building out what we would call the elements of social security, healthcare benefits, pension benefits, and so forth. And all of these things are beginning to collapse at this point. The parties have really two different kinds of takes on it. The Republicans say, well, basically, there should be, you know, everybody's individual responsibility, and tax credits or other incentives of that are ought to be used. The Democrats can point to programs like Medicare and Social Security and say that we pull the

risk, and by pulling the risk, we create incredible efficiencies. In fact, Medicare is actually the program, the one healthcare insurance that actually has the lowest cost overhead of any. So they could do that if they really kind of want to put several things together, which is keep it simple, produce efficiency, take the burden off of business and let our business be able to compete better. Dr. Rover? Yes, those are all very good points, but what we don't know is in November, what kind of issues of mass distraction might be used to mobilize the base and get voters not to think about these very, very important structural issues like the the imploding of the pension systems and the healthcare crisis and the balance of payments and, you know, the trade imbalance, but rather fight about something like another

case similar to Terry Shivold, or maybe some of the states will have referendums on their statewide election ballots that will mobilize a lot of people to the polls based on that issue. That was something that happened in the last election when about 11 states had anti -game marriage, referendums on their ballots and instead of discussing then some of these, you know, structural and foundational issues about the health of the economy and the democracy, people were fighting about, you know, game marriage and there might be other issues that come up in November that could be similar. 1 -800 -360 -1799 is our number and in Atlanta, it's 404 -880 -9255. Andre in Atlanta, listening to WC -OK. Good evening, Andre. Good evening. How are you doing, Carmen? Good, how are you? Yes, I'm on

the operator. Okay, I've spent like $52 ,000 just here on June, all right? And you talk about the economy, 4GM, everybody's shutting down and when things shut down, neighborhoods go down, what about that aspect? What have Congress and what plans do they have? Because when you shut the economic neighborhood down, the neighborhood goes down, jobs go down, you have crime, what about that aspect? Those are really good points and it's interesting because the recent layoffs that have been so large have been not just in what we used to call the rust belt but also in like Tennessee and then of course the devastation in the Gulf Coast and in the New Orleans area is in the South and it's been interesting to see some of the Republican senators and members of the House from the Gulf State region asking for

more federal government aid and more federal government assistance in the recovery and questioning in a kind of a kid glove way but raising questions about priorities of the administration given the devastation in their constituencies. Okay, if we outsource and everything they make and money the still industry is going over to overseas, you have all these economies going overseas and every time they let big business off the hook and they outsource their stuff, yet still as Americans they want us to be consumers. I don't see how that's going to bounce out. Okay. All right, Andre, thanks for your call and your question, Professor Rockman. Yes, well the investment issue, I mean there are serious problems obviously affecting communities when they're organized around single plants or so forth and there's a big layoff. The

and the two parties really have different kinds of takes on how to deal with those issues. The Republicans generally push tax incentives things about sort, Democrats tend to push things like job retraining and investment credit what I guess is sometimes a lot of the support barrel of those parties do that. Okay, Professor, I've got to interrupt. We've got to take a break. We'll continue this conversation in just a moment. And welcome back to PowerPoint. Professor

Rockman, I had to cut you off mid -thought there. Go ahead. Yes, I think the another point that Andre was making was about the displacement of jobs elsewhere outside of the country. To some extent what's really happening is that manufacturing industry has become incredibly more efficient, not just here but elsewhere. And so as a result, the things in which we had great comparative advantage in years past are not the things that we typically do today. And that actually produces more efficiency in the economy and produces more efficient industries but there is clearly fallout that we need to plan for. And that fallout has been in the lives particularly of industrial workers in the United States. But it's also been occurring, for example in software designers and things of that sort as well because those things can be outsourced abroad. There's really nothing as such,

no policy that would be meaningful, I think, to affect that process. So we have to be, I think, really pretty clear about what we can do and we're scratching our heads a bit about what we actually can do on these issues. But what we probably can't do, and here I would agree with the president, is to basically become increasingly insular. We have to compete in a global economy. And we have to develop the human capital to be able to do that. And that probably means more investments in education, for example. Let's go to Bill in Houston. Let's me indicate to you. Hi, Bill. Okay, thank you very much. Can you hear me okay? Yes, sir, go ahead. Hello? Yes, Bill, we can hear you. Go ahead. Okay, let me ask you. This is an overall question, an overall picture. When you look at Katrina, the wiretapping,

how we were misintentionally misled into this war with Iraq, when you look at what's happening to the American dollar, how it may be, could depreciate as much as 30 percent? Why is it that both the Democrats and the Republicans do not question the basic premises as to what happened on 9 -11? That is virtually never questioned. And when you look at the overall picture, what has happened after 9 -11? Why is it that especially the Democrats never question the basic? I mean, what actually hit the Pentagon, for example? I mean, that's never questioned. There's no basis as to believing what the government is virtually

saying about it, and yet it's never questioned. Okay, all right, Bill, thank you for your call and for your question or your comment. Ricky, in Atlanta, listening to WCLK. Good evening, Ricky. Yes, ma 'am. Hey, go ahead. I just wanted to make a quick point. I know we run out of time, that Democrats and Republicans seem to me they won't work together on that, and then one group come up with a good idea. The other group will bash it. They won't, they won't even recognize it just because it's the other group's idea, and one other quick thing. The president, the vice president, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton, I'll show it up for Corretta Scott King's funeral. I questioned whether that was from, since he cared for the King's family, or was that a campaign deal when it was just trying to get the black votes?

Okay. Okay, thank you so much for your call and for your comment. Everything. Cedric in Houston, listening to KTSU. Hi, Cedric. How are you doing, ma 'am? I'm like a person that has gone from Houston and Atlanta. I started off in the entertainment industry. I'm now IT, and what I tell people here is, Bush and Clinton was working together. I'm sorry, say that again? I said Bush and Clinton was working together. When I said it back in the 90s, people thought I was crazy, but when I asked them saying people about that now, they believed me because everything is pre -planned. My dad, he's a preacher, and we first started talking a bit about Illuminati and all that. It took me three years to figure out what he was talking about, and that always my dad, because I was listening to him. Number two, people got to stay. You got to adapt to the changes in time. You really have to adapt, but you got to either set what's going on or you don't. All right, Cedric.

I got to let you go with that, because we're running very, very close to the end of the show. I wanted to ask our guests, who do you think, or if there's any group that you can pick or any represent, or anyone in Congress right now that is vulnerable or most vulnerable, who would you think that might be, or what several do you think that might be, Dr. Wolver? Well, I have heard that that Lieberman in Connecticut might be vulnerable in the Democratic primaries. He's been very supportive of the war, and he has been criticized for that in the state of Connecticut. It would depend on if a viable person with a lot of money was able to challenge him in the primaries in Connecticut. I think that another Democrat would probably and seat him there if that happened. Some other people that are vulnerable are

some of the Southern Republicans who maybe have not been able to adequately address why government aid and state aid was not more forthcoming and more organized with the Katrina disaster. I think that some people who are vulnerable might bring John McCain to their districts to speak if their Republicans they might try to get Barack Obama to their districts if they are Democrats, and try to bring some of the more popular new leaders in the Republican and Democratic party into their districts or into their campaign literature to help them get reelected in November. Professor Rockland? Well, I think the number one most vulnerable person right now is a member of the Republican leadership in the Senate, and that's Rick Santorum, the senator from Pennsylvania is

facing about a 13 to 15 percent deficit at the moment against his Democratic opponent. I would guess the Republicans in Ohio, and they have a Senate race going this year too, Mike DeWine is the incumbent, could be in a lot of trouble because the Republican governor in Ohio is running at about 18 percent approval, and they've clearly got a lot of ground to make up, and I think Tom Delay is probably possibly in some trouble in Texas and retaining his seat. All right, Professor Bert Rockman, Dr. Laura Wolver, thank you so much for being with us this evening and providing some insight into these midterm elections. I'm Carmen Burns, and you're listening to PowerPoint. PowerPoint is funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Legacy Foundation. This is PowerPoint, a production of WCLK

FM, a broadcast service of Clark Atlanta University.