Bush vows to preserve drug benefit

WASHINGTON -- Seeking to avoid a distracting fight over Medicare while he tries to focus his political ammunition on Social Security, President Bush yesterday promised to veto any attempt to scale back the Medicare prescription drug program before it goes into effect next year.

Bush's fellow Republicans have been threatening to cut the benefit out of fear of its growing cost. Though White House budget chief Joshua Bolten on Wednesday told lawmakers that the administration would be willing to work with Congress on cost-control measures, Bush sought to shut the door on such talk yesterday.

''I signed Medicare reform proudly, and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors and to take away their prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto," Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for new Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. ''For decades we promised America's seniors that we can do better, and we finally did. Now we must keep our word."

On Tuesday, the White House revealed that the medication benefit is expected to cost at least $724 billion over the next 10 years, even though Congress approved it in 2003 expecting the cost to be $400 billion. Republicans in the House and Senate responded by saying they would try to reduce spending through options such as limiting enrollment, reducing the number of available drugs, or raising copayments.

Despite Bush's threat, some Republicans said they would move forward with proposals to limit costs. Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said Bush's calls for fiscal responsibility demand that the prescription drug benefit be subject to scrutiny.

''I can't imagine that he would veto something and cause us to spend more money, not less," said Flake, who is pushing a measure that would make the benefit available only to low-income seniors. ''I just don't think that the president wants his first veto to be on a bill that makes the Congress finally fiscally responsible."

Bush rarely issues veto threats and has not vetoed a bill, preferring to work with the Republican leaders to craft bills that he can support. Yesterday's statement reflects the seriousness with which the White House views GOP criticism of the Medicare drug benefit -- one of the president's signature accomplishments -- as well as his desire to keep Congress's focus on remaking Social Security.

''He's the one setting the timetable, and he's saying it's not now on Medicare," said Michael Franc, a vice president of the conservative Heritage Foundation. ''Congress and the administration can only handle one transcendent issue at a time."

The president is facing skepticism in his own party over his proposal to privatize part of Social Security. Some fiscal conservatives have questioned the wisdom of adding another $750 billion in borrowing over five years, and leading Republicans such as House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles E. Grassley have warned that the public is not clamoring for major changes to Social Security.

Bush's travels around the country have not convinced any Democrats to sign on to his plans, and he's having trouble holding on to Republicans. On Thursday, a key House Republican introduced his own Social Security bill, proposing to create personal accounts while still guaranteeing full benefits. The president wants personal accounts that would be paired with a cut in benefits for younger workers.

''Politically, it's the most saleable," Representative E. Clay Shaw Jr., Republican of Florida, said of his own proposal. Shaw was chairman of the House's subcommittee on Social Security until this year, when term limits forced him to step down.

The president is also facing a public that appears to be growing more skeptical of his leadership. In an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released yesterday, just 38 percent of respondents said they believe the country is headed in the right direction, down from 44 percent in last month's poll, and 54 percent said they disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job, up from 49 percent in January.

Democratic leaders yesterday said Bush's veto threat was designed to stop efforts to control costs by allowing the importation of medicine from Canada, or by allowing Medicare administrators to negotiate better prices with drug companies.

''This is an attempt by the president to stop the bipartisan groundswell for drug reimportation and price negotiation, and just the latest example of the Republican Party putting special interests ahead of the American people," said Senate minority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada.

Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.