Former Reagan/H.W. Bush official Bruce Bartlett reminds us that in 2003 Newt Gingrich wrote this in the Wall Street Journal about the Medicare prescription bill:
Every conservative member of Congress should vote for this Medicare bill. It is the ... largest and most positive change in direction for the health system in 60 years for people over 65....
Although some conservatives may complain about the cost of the drug benefit, this benefit was designed within the framework of the budget resolution.
Or, as Bruce Bartlett also reminds us, "according to the latest Medicare trustees report (p. 146), the unfunded liability of Medicare Part D is $16.1 trillion."
Then again, for contemporary conservatives that's something of a mere rounding error when compared to their eternal plutocratic tax cuts and their endless, unfunded wars.