120,000 Pennsylvania Senior Citizens Want Eachus To Answer

In 2006 The Pennsylvania Legislature Passed And Governor Ed Rendell Signed Legislation To Add 120,000 Seniors To The PACE Program Bringing The Number to 430,000 Enrolled.

Where Is The PACE Benefit You Promised Me in 2006? 315,000 seniors enrolled then, 315,000 enrolled NOW.

You Failed Us And We Want To Know Why??

Eachus's Office Space Doesn't Support Local Business

If you ride through downtown Hazleton you will notice the legislative and campaign offices of Todd Eachus in the same building. You will also see that Paul Kanjorski shares a campaign office with Eachus even though he continually bashes Hazleton which in essence attacks the morale of its residents. If you look closely at the picture you will see that no one is taking care of Kanjorski's signs. They are laying down out of view. Guess Kanjorski should take care of his own business before he slams others.

With the Kanjorski bashing one has to wonder why he located his campaign office in Hazleton. But this post is about Todd Eachus.

Eachus's legislative office used to be in the Broad Street Exchange located on the corner of Laurel and Broad Streets pictured below. The Broad Street Exchange was owned by the LOCAL non-profit entity, ARCH, until recently when it was turned over to Luzerne County.

He moved his legislative one block east into a building owned by Wills Development where one of the principals, William Joyce, is a financial supporter of his campaigns. Contract Number HDC01030309 has a term of February 03, 2009 to November 30, 2010 in the amount of $35,280.00. Williams Joyce is listed as a prinicipal in Wills Development Company, business entity 2939614, according to records on file at the Corporation Bureau of Pennsylvania. The address of the corporation is 9 North Main Street, Pittston, Pa. not located in Eachus's district.

Not only did Mr. Eachus take care of one of his donors, who is not a registered voter in his district, he leases his office equipment from BMC Desks, Etc., Contract Number HDC01040809, business entity 2893275. Its corporate offices are located at 320 East Gibson Street, Scranton, Pa. again NOT part of his district.

Out of all of the cities, towns, boroughs, and townships in Mr. Eachus's district he couldn't find one local business person to support with his rent or office equipment rental. If that isn't political patronage, nothing is.

Eachus's political flyers placate the voters by saying he supports jobs in our area. He supports one thing, his own agenda for his own benefit. Ask 120,000 seniors who don't have the PACE benefit he promised them.

How Eachus and Rendell Failed Seniors In Pennsylvania

Here's a link to an article where Representative Eachus makes the claim that he is introducing legislation in 2005 to add 500,000 seniors to the PACE and PACENET programs. In that article Eachus massages the seniors and makes them believe he is going to add 500,000 seniors to PACE/PACENET through the inclusion of Medicare Part D legislation.

In 2006 the House passes legislation and Rendell makes the claim Pennsylvania will add 120,000 seniors to the program. Here is a sounbite from the House Democratic Caucus website touting the 120,000 additional seniors claim.

In 2009 Eachus and Rendell proffer to the seniors they wants to add 30,000 more.

In the end the mass inclusion of seniors into the PACE/PACENET progam never happened. According to this chart from the 2008 PACE annual report you will see that enrollment remained steady through 2008.

Three times seniors were promised a benefit that never materialized. While House Majority Leader Eachus and Governor Rendell were enjoying a robust prescription program seniors were forced to pay for their medications in the Medicare Part D donut hole when inclusion in the PACE/PACENET program would have prevented that added expense.

Is this political gamesmanship and should we allow this practice to be politics as usual? Why should we allow politicians to decieve the public?

Something has to change in Harrisburg. We know the legislature is not going to change unless the public is educated and forces them to. If the voters remove the incumbents who are abusing the system it will send a clear message that it is not politics as usual.

Rendell is laughing as Eachus looks on. Maybe the joke will be on them come November. Enough of their "crying wolf".

Eachus Largest Deficit Since The Great Depression Under His Watch

Why would Todd Eachus admit to creating the largest deficit since the Great Depression??

Eachus said he’s busy working to try to balance the state budget, which he said is “facing the largest deficit since the Great Depression” – $3.2 billion.

Todd Eachus takes credit for the Democrats reclaiming the House for the first time in twelve years back in 2006.

What is more amazing than all of his rhetoric is this statement found on his website.

Todd hit the ground running, fighting and winning to deliver meaningful legislation efforts that include:

•Guaranteeing affordable medicine to more than 120,000 seniors by expanding Pennsylvania’s prescription drug program.

Todd I challenge you to produce facts from the Department of Aging to verify 120,000 seniors were added to the program since 2006 when there were 317,000 total at the time. Remember, you "guaranteed" 120,000 seniors would be added to the program.

Readers, call the Department of Aging for yourselves to find the answers.

Todd Eachus- You Must Be Stopped With These Outrageous Claims

Todd,

Here goes. Your latest press release on your website states "Eachus plan to expand senior prescription drug coverage introduced in House" .

Quote: "Eachus, who has been a major voice for seniors in the state House for more than 12 years, said his legislation (H.B. 1676) would enhance the quality of life for an additional 30,000 seniors in Pennsylvania who are struggling to make ends meet in today's difficult economy.

Let's review two significant events that I believe totally contradict your assertions.

1) Case in point- let's roll back the tape to your 1998 campaign advertisement-

Voice Over

"One elected official kept his promise- State Todd Eachus"

"He promised to restore PACE benefits to thousands of our senior citizens for lifessaving prescription drugs."

"Todd Eachus delivered. The House overwhelmingly adopted Todd Eachus's amendment to raise PACE income limits for seniors."

Marty Berger: "To get a Bill through the House is a rare accomplishment for a fresheman legislator. We thank Todd Eachus for his hard work."

Todd Eachus: "I fought hard for this legislation. With the huge budget surplus seniors should not lose their PACE benefits."

"Reelect State Representative Todd Eachus leading the fight for senior citizens."

Uhhh.. let's talk about Todd Eachus's work.

Here is a chart depicting the dismall results of Todd Eachus's legislation.


Ohh...but there is more...In 2006 Todd Eachus took ownership for passing legislation that was supposed to add 120,000 seniors to PACE bringing the figure 430,000.

Look at this press release as reported on the PRN Newswire.

"This plan allows Pennsylvanians to get the best features of both PACE/PACENET and Medicare's prescription drug plans," Governor Rendell said. "PACE opened for business on July 1, 1984, and passage of this historic legislation is a very fitting way to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of this life-sustaining program. I thank the Legislature for its support of this program, which is so vital for so many seniors."

PACE Plus Medicare combines the state's popular PACE/PACENET program with the new federal Medicare Part D prescription drug program to ensure that as many as 420,000 Pennsylvania seniors don't pay a dime more for their drugs than PACE/PACENET required them to pay. Under the bill, PACE/PACENET will "wrap around" the federal program and fill gaps in the coverage.

"By having the federal government share in the cost of providing prescription coverage to seniors, we will be able to save significant Lottery funds - nearly $170 million in the new fiscal year alone - to invest in other essential services for older Pennsylvanians," Governor Rendell added. "We expect that the savings will allow an additional 120,000 seniors to enjoy PACE Plus coverage."

In this press release from the governor's office dated February 3, 2006 it states "Expanding prescription drug coverage for Pennsylvania seniors was one of my first priorities when I became Governor, and we did that. Today, more than 303,000 Pennsylvania seniors have coverage for essential medications through PACE, an increase of nearly 50 percent over three short years. While people talked about a national prescription drug program in Washington, we acted in Pennsylvania, creating the largest state prescription drug plan for seniors in the nation.

“Because Pennsylvania will be sharing the cost of prescription drug coverage under the new federal plan, we will be able to cover an additional 120,000 seniors, bringing total enrollment under PACE Plus Medicare to nearly 430,000 seniors. We think we’ll be able to attract people who meet current income guidelines, but use few prescription drugs and never bothered to enroll. And we will be able to do that at about half the cost of what we had previously been spending, giving us the ability to plow an estimated $180 million in savings back into other services for Pennsylvania’s seniors.”

One press release states they will save $170 million, the other $180 million. By July, 2006 the number of seniors on PACE and PACENET climbed to 317,000 according to a Department of Aging press release but before the legislation was law.

Call the Bureau of Pharmaceutical Assistance at 717-787-7313. The current figure is around 314,000 enrollees. That means there were no net gains for the last two years despite the Commonwealth saving $340-360 million dollars.

You can listen to Todd Eachus talk about the Medicare Plus Pace legislation here from 7/7/2006. Questions remain about the money saved by the legislation and where it was spent.

How Eachus Dropped The Ball On Seniors

In an reader comment that appeared in the Standard Speaker's editorial section Conyngham Mayor Conrad Wittig comes to the defense of Todd Eachus. Eachus really has his writing machine working overtime these days.

What I found particularly interesting was this comment by the illustrious Mayor. Rep. Eachus has fought tirelessly for senior citizens, expanding the state's prescription drug program for seniors not once, but twice. If I was Rush Limbaugh I would be laughing hysterically on that statement.

Let's get to the facts. We will start with this chart from the Department of Aging.



Todd Eachus was elected to the House in 1996 according to his bio. From 1996 to 2002 look how the number of seniors on PACE/PACENET nosedives to 218,922. Robert Casey's terms as Governor and the Democrats witnessed the amount of older Pennsylvanians who received PACE or PACENET take a dramatic decline. It should be noted that there was a dramatic increase in recipients during Dick Thornburgh's tenure as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1984 through 1987. During Tom Ridge's term as governor there wasn't a dramatic loss of seniors on the program. Ridge actually increased the income limits during his term in July, 2001. One must keep in mind that it was a Repubican House that restored those seniors to the program. So much for the Democrats taking the credit for helping seniors in Pennsylvania.

Look at Chart No 2. Rendell did sign legislation to dramatically increase the number of seniors akcnowledging Eachus's role just to be fair. However, if you read the press release you will notice that the co-pay for brand drugs took a 50% jump from $6.00 to $9.00. You know what else took a 50% jump? Eachus's pension.



The increase of the number of seniors on PACE or PACENET increased to 291,241 by 2004 but a far cry from 477,772. Isn't it amazing how they can make you feel good about something that is really bad. Over 186,000 people lost PACE or PACENET through 2002 and they want you to rejoice over the fact that they added 69,679. They called it an expansion. I call it restoring, restoring those who were lost on the Democrat's watch.

Let's look at Chart No. 3.



Notice the income limits on the right hand column. Let's fast forward to 2009 and look at the PACE website. Here are the income limits. Eligibility is also determined by your previous calendar year’s income. For a single person, your total income must be $14,500 or less. For a married couple, your combined total income must be $17,700 or less. As you can see they are the exact same amount as in 2002. There is no Cost Of Living Adjustment(COLA)on income like the legislators have for their salary. That means as Social Security payments increase people automatically lose their benefit and there is nothing they can do about it.

If you look closely at the chart you will notice that income level eligibility only increased by $500.00 or 3.6 percent. The legislative salary in 2002 was 61889.00. Over at PAWatercooler.com there is a great post about the salary grab of 2008. Base salary in 2008 increased on December 1st to $78,315.00. There was a zero increase in eligibility for PACE/PACENET recipients. It boggles the mind how Eachus can claim he is the champion of seniors. Todd, it's called wagging the dog.

Mayor Wittig, or better to the person who authored the letter, show me the "expansion". Today the number of people on PACE/PACENET according to the Department of Aging is 304,725, not 330,000 that the second chart projected would make the program. The program severly retracted and never helped the number of seniors who were helped during Dick Thornburgh's reign as governor.

FACT, FACT, and FACT not the fiction Todd Eachus wants people to eat at his table of the not so plenty. His spin on events borders on incorrigible.

Finally look at the Governor's Report on State Performance 2007-2008. I point you to page 98. The average price of a PACE prescription went down from $44.42 in 2005-06 to $26.09 in 2007-08. The average price of a PACENET prescription went down from $38.20 in 2005-06 to $27.24 in 2007-08. Folks that is a 29-42% decrease in the cost to the state. What are they doing with the excess money? Raiding the Lottery Fund for the General Fund??? If you go back to Chart No.2 you will see that the amount of seniors on the program from 2004 to 2008 did not change dramatically.

TODD EACHUS's claims are bogus and it is time to call him out on it.

Broken Promises By Rendell And The Democrats

Rep. Todd Eachus from the 116th district likes when people tout him as the "PACE GUY".

The Pennsylvania Report claims Todd is the lawmaker who successfully led the charge for historic expansions of the state’s senior citizen prescription drug programs.

Let's look at the record. On July 7, 2006 Fast Eddy Rendell announced the new PACE Plus program which combined the popular PACE/PACENET program with federal Medicare Part D plans. His press release stated PACE/PACENET provides low-cost prescription coverage to nearly 317,000 older Pennsylvanians.

The Department of Aging issued its own release in February of that year where it stated that the legislation would raise the number of PACE/PACENET recipients to 430,000 from that present level of 317,000.

According to Caregiver magazine the PACE program still only serves 317,000 people. Broken promises by politicians who claim fame but have no game. Both are touting a new health insurance initiative for Pennsylvania. How about following through on your original promise first?