Interesting to note that 16 days into the new Bush administration's prescription drug program the wheels are already so wobbly:

With tens of thousands of people unable to get medicines promised by Medicare, the Bush administration has told insurers that they must provide a 30-day supply of any drug that a beneficiary was previously taking, and it said that poor people must not be charged more than $5 for a covered drug. The actions came after several states declared public health emergencies, and many states announced that they would step in to pay for prescriptions that should have been covered by the federal Medicare program...

"The new federal program is too complicated for many people to understand, and the implementation of the new program by the federal government has been awful," said Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a Republican. On Saturday, he signed an emergency executive order making the state a "payer of last resort" for the out-of-pocket drug costs.

Good to see the 20 odd states step in but why is it so hard for conservatives to manage public funds and programs despite it not being their job - something that in Canada might cause Tories constitutional ailments rather than practical concern. Could it be an ideological thing? The deep-seated faith in the inefficiency of such programs drives them to create new and interesting ways to confirm it?

We may be about to find out more for ourselves if the polls and the latest news are any indication.