Mike Castle, circa 2004:
I supported the Medicare Prescription Drug bill because it was a historic opportunity, since the inception of the program in 1965, to add a pharmaceutical discount benefit to the program. While I realize the law is not perfect, it is certainly a step in the right direction, as the costs of prescription drug continuing to rise at alarming rates. This law is quite generous to low income beneficiaries and beneficiaries who have catastrophic prescription costs.
Mike Castle, circa 2009:
I voted no on HR 3200 because the first order of health care reform must be to lower costs for everyone– the cost of treatment, the cost of insurance and the cost of subsidies from the federal government. We shouldn’t seek to add new financial commitments to federal and state coffers without first determining which parts of the current system are working, and then making the tough choices to reform the parts that are not working. The sustainability of Medicare and Medicaid, two major government run health programs, are in jeopardy because their growth rate automatically increases based on population and inflation. This rate of increase over the past several decades has been so accelerated that their very existence is threatened if we continue do nothing.
Shorter Mike Castle: I voted against the deficit-neutral Democratic Health Care Plan because the Republican Medicare Plan that I supported was bankrupting the federal government.
Mike Castle voted for every deficit-busting scheme cooked up by the Bush Administration, including all the Bush Tax Cuts (a giveaway to billionaires that did virtually nothing to create jobs) and all the Bush Iraq War Requests (giving endless billions to contractors openly engaged in defrauding the Pentagon and placing our troops at risk). Then he suddenly remembers the deficit when Democrats try to pass bills creating jobs and expanding affordable health care. You can count on Castle to hedge his bets by complaining, but when you count the votes, Mike Castle will do whatever the GOP tells him to.