Mitt Romney claims he is the candidate most like President George Bush. Both men have a Harvard MBA. Bush sat out the Vietnam War in the Air National Guard, while Romney didn’t serve in the military at all.
Like Bush, Romney wants to bring his businessman’s acumen to the White House. Like Bush, Romney wants to help American businesses—even if it is at a cost to working people. One of Bush’s strokes of genius was his Medicare drug plan. The plan had some minor inconveniences for seniors, like the donut hole. If seniors don’t take care of themselves and became really sick, they have to foot the entire cost of their prescriptions once the cost reached a certain point. That would be an incentive to seniors to take better care of themselves.
The drug plan was a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. The government would not negotiate with drug companies to hold down the price of drugs under plan because that would be an interference with private enterprise. At the same time the Bush administration put a stop to sneaky seniors who were getting their prescriptions filled in Canada. After all, the FDA couldn’t guarantee the safety of those Canadian drugs.
At the same time the government under George Bush made it easier for pharmaceutical companies to buy stuff from China, a place known for the safety of its products. Well, there was that little thing about cancer patients who became paralyzed after taking drugs for leukemia manufactured by Shanghai Hualian. But no one is perfect, and business is business.
Mitt Romney insists he will provide the same kind of pro-business government that we have seen in the present administration.
In other news, President Bush is proposing major cuts in the Medicare program.
Meanwhile drug company Wyeth reported that during the fourth quarter of last year, earnings rose 17 percent, from $855 million to $1.02 billion.
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