Final answer:
The President announced a new program to help seniors pay for prescription medicines, which was a significant expansion of the Medicare program aimed at reducing the cost burden on the elderly.
Step-by-step explanation:
The President announced a new program to help seniors pay for medicines. In 2003, Congress passed, and President George Bush signed into law, the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act, which was a substantial expansion of Medicare. This program specifically aimed at assisting the elderly with the cost of prescription drugs, recognizing that the lack of a prescription drug benefit had been particularly burdensome on this demographic. It included a prescription drug discount card program, which offered savings to Social Security recipients, and anticipated an increase in the federal government's expenditure from $40 billion in 2006 to an estimated $121 billion by 2016. Political support for this expansion was influenced by organizations like the American Association for Retired People (AARP), representing the interests of senior citizens.