Nevertheless, there are questions we should all have:

1. What happened to the trust fund? At the close of fiscal 2003, September 30th, the Medicare Trust Fund held $276.1 billion, this is more than two-thirds of the reportedly $400 billion that's supposed to be involved with the new reform bill spread out over the next decade. Surely, this trust fund would go a long way towards costs for the modernization of Medicare if it were real. Why don't you ask your Representative and Senators why they aren't talking about the trust fund here? See what kind of gobbledygook answer you get.

Of course, we know that the trust fund holds nothing but enforceable special obligation nonmarketable bonds that are nothing more than demands on future taxes. Bonds that represent the amount stolen from American worker's payroll taxes plus interest added. So, we're left with two considerations:

Either the fact that the trust hasn't even been mentioned is nothing more than further proof of its meaninglessness or the crooks intend to use it but are keeping it secret. If the latter, then the real costs of the new bill is at least $676 billion. Perhaps, they are planning to draw down on this trust, double billing us for taxes already paid, just like they are currently doing with the Unemployment trust fund and someday plan to do with the Social Security trust currently standing at $1.5 trillion and 21 percent of the national debt.

2. What was the rush in passing this bill when it doesn't go into effect until 2006? The manner by which it was pushed to a vote smells to high heaven of the same sort of bully tactics involved with the Patriot Act that no one had a chance to read either.

3. Prescription drugs for the elderly are a problem only because the federal government steadfastly refuses to regulate the pharmaceutical industry. With more than 550 lobbyists in Washington, more than one for every member of Congress, the pharmaceutical industry has more control over Washington than does the public government is supposed to serve.

Don't you think it's just a little ironic that people can go to another country and buy prescription drugs manufactured in America cheaper than they can buy them at home? They're even cheaper in Mexico and probably other Latin American countries, but too many favor Canada because they can speak the language (so long as they stay out of the French sector) and probably don't trust the Latinos.

Previously, when I mentioned this last point in an article, I received an email from one of the advocates of the industry who told me it costs the pharmaceutical people a billion dollars in research and development to bring out a new product and another billion to get it approved.

Having spent many years as a research consultant in new product development for some of the largest corporations in America, I can tell you that this claim is ridiculous and nothing but an excuse to gouge the public. There is no one, with the possible exception of NASA that spends a thousand million in new product development. Not even the hard goods industry like General Motors where tooling and prototype costs are enormous.

At the other extreme, where you've got the cosmetic industry and companies like Johnson's Wax selling a promise or developing products made mostly of water and other cheap elements. Here, new product development is mostly a case of thousands of inexpensive experiments and relatively inexpensive ideas with most of the money going into promotions. And still it would never amount to a billion dollars.

If you believe that Americans must pay high prices for prescription drugs to support research and development (R&D), you are falling for a scam. And the only way they could spend a billion getting a new product approved would be by paying through the nose for their far too many lobbyists wining, dining, and lining the pockets of our public servants in Washington.

Wake up people, we're supposed to have laws protecting us from scams like this.