National Affairs: Pension Winds

Ulysses' ancient Odyssey with a bagful of spirited winds had something in common with the voyage that Arkansas' Wilbur Mills, chairman of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee, embarked on last week. With Mills's hand on the tiller, the House committee killed off by a vote of 17 to 8 (ten Republicans, seven Democrats v. eight Democrats) the Forand bill (TIME, April 4), which would provide old-age medical and surgical benefits to Social Security pensioners at a cost —to be paid for by increased Social Security taxes—estimated to run $2 billion in the first year and up to $7.5 billion by 1980.

But the Forand bill, hardy perennial introduced by Rhode Island's Aime Forand, 64, is piling up bagfuls of mail at the Capitol, so much in fact that the Eisenhower Administration is working up a substitute proposal. Conservative Democrat Mills fears the Senate will unleash the old-age medical-aid winds before session's end, is braced to stand against them when a Senate bill comes sailing back to the House for approval.