The signup period for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit began last week, and the angst that senior citizens expressed last month when promotions and mailings began only intensified. The problem is that this is a massive and untried entitlement the government wants to enroll 30 million Americans 65 and older being run through the private sector, with all the competition, advertising and perplexing array of prices and products.

Medicare itself needs to become a more active and consumer-friendly player in this, as a bulk purchaser of drugs to keep prices down and as a source of advice as families navigate the choices. It's important to try to cut through the confusion, and to relax any deadlines that could heighten public tension.

Medicare as a whole needs reform, not just the drug plan. The current confusion is yet another sign of Medicare's larger crisis.

- The Democrat & Chronicle, Rochester

Congress took steps recently to make New York state even less competitive in the business world. The House and Senate rejected amendments designed to make a minimum wage increase nationwide, instead of solely statewide. As a result, the national minimum wage remains at $5.15 an hour, while New York's state minimum wage standard rises from $6 an hour now to $6.75 next year.

There is a valid debate over whether raising wages helps the poor or costs them jobs when businesses have to meet rising costs by trimming their work force. That is at the heart of the Democrat-Republican difference. But try telling that to a minimum-wage worker trying to survive.

Minimum wage standards should be regulated nationally. Some states want to be more sympathetic to those in poverty but are in effect hurting themselves - proof again that no good deed goes unpunished.

- The Buffalo News