Medicare Part D — delivering prescription drugs to seniors — has been a success since President Bush introduced it. And the Obama administration plans to threaten that achievement.

President Barack Obama and key congressional Democrats want a better deal on prescription drugs sold to seniors. But if they get it, seniors will pay billions of dollars more for their medicines.

Reform of Medicare is inevitable given the current debt limit debate. Democrats introduced a plan to reduce spending on Medicare Part D based on the presumption that manufacturers make extraordinary profits from the government. This means premiums for seniors and government spending on Medicare will likely increase, offsetting any savings.

Rep. Paul Ryan claims that huge savings under Medicare's Part D prescription drug program proves that competition will work for the full program. His critics argue that the savings have nothing to do with competition. As happens so often in Washington, both sides are focusing on the wrong issue.

Many on the political left decry the disappearance of defined-benefit pension plans from the private sector and strive mightily to maintain them for public-sector employees. The people who put defined-benefit plans and policies in place assumed there would always be someone able to pay for them.

The cost of developing drugs is rising at an unsustainable pace, new company formation in the biotech sector has dwindled, and healthcare costs continue to rise. We must craft policies that provide the proper incentives for new technology while making sure that we are getting more value for programs like Medicare.

An expert panel will discuss the impact of proposals to restructure FEHBP and what they imply for both the survival of the program and the broader health system under the president’s health care reform.

It's highly unusual in a presidential debate for two Republican candidates -- the two leading in current national polls -- to heap praise on a liberal Democratic senator. But in the Fox News debate in Sioux City Thursday night both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney had very good words to say for Oregon's Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden.