Bush administration ordered Medicare plan cost estimates withheld

[Gunit_Sangh]

Just saw this over at Josh Marshal's talkingpointsmemo.com ..

it is DYN-O-MITE

By Tony Pugh

Knight Ridder Newspapers


WASHINGTON - The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan.

When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that.

Withholding the higher cost projections was important because the White House was facing a revolt from 13 conservative House Republicans who'd vowed to vote against the Medicare drug bill if it cost more than $400 billion.


rest of article
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8164060.htm

[Jacobin]

1. But they don't lie and cheat......so Kerry better stop saying that

[jayfish]

5. You Know What The Problem Is?

Dems, who are in the public eye, are so damn ineffectual at making that argument. Instead of pointing out facts like this, they stammer incessantly to the point of nearly backtracking. I just don't get it. The facts are everywhere and they just cant' quite put them together.

Jay

[blm]

2. HAHAHAAHA...I just sent this to my local paper.

I hope you all do the same.

[xray s]

3. Those lying bastards!

Out! Get out of our government!

Jackals and swine! The whole damn lot!

[Lindsay]

4. Jeez, it just never stops with these guys!

Thugs and criminals, the lot of them.

[UpInArms]

6. nice line here

Scully said Liz Fowler, the chief health lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, could confirm the actuary's independence. Fowler didn't.

"He's a liar," she said of Scully.

[displacedvermoter]

7. I'm becoming fightened, as there seems to be no limit to what

they will do to get their "due"! And they lie so blatantly, it is almost funny.

But it makes you wonder if they would stop at anything, anything at all? It doesn't seem tin hat to be concerned about anything in the interests of distraction.

[BadGimp]

8. if the Clinton WH had tried this..

The GOP mob would have circled the wagons and drove him from office.

The * administration is so gosh darned dishonest it is staggering.

I really wanted to cuss but wtf..

[fearnobush]

11. Down with Fear Channel, support the efforts of

Howard Stern. You don't have to like him, but man, he has been so outspoken against the Bush criminal wacho religious fear machine. He is using most of his show on calling out to all Americans to get him out of office now. I hear the Repukes at work now agreeing with him.

[fearnobush]

9. Ohh, you mean they really do Lie? Oh my God.

You mean John Kerry was right? Damn straight he was. Kerry calls for the criminals in the White house!!!!

[remfan]

10. They held this 15 minute vote open for 3 hours, too

Fucking ignorant lock-step-don't-give-a-shit-about-policy assholes.

[snippy]

21. And attempted to bribe Smith for his vote.

[enough]

12. Fantastic story.

It's so clear, so simple, everyone can understand it, everyone can remember when it was going on.

And it plays so perfectly in to Kerry's crooked liars theme. Such beautiful parallels with Iraq-scam. Great idea to send it to local media. No need to whip up the outrage, that will come naturally.

[yardwork]

13. This is appalling.

Why isn't this on the front page of every newspaper?

Why have we waited so long for somebody to call these people out on their lying?

[bagnana]

14. crooked liars

the most crooked bunch of lying liars ever to occupy the White House.

[moondust]

15. Crooked f'ing liars indeed!!

Somebody show this to Tom "Buggered" Delay (and give him the finger).

[I AM SPARTACUS]

16. bump

[stevedeshazer]

17. Bush administration coerced into lying

That should be the headline!

<Snip from the article:>

Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which produced the $551 billion estimate, told colleagues last June that he would be fired if he revealed numbers relating to the higher estimate to lawmakers.

"This whole episode which has now gone on for three weeks has been pretty nightmarish," Foster wrote in an e-mail to some of his colleagues June 26, just before the first congressional vote on the drug bill. "I'm perhaps no longer in grave danger of being fired, but there remains a strong likelihood that I will have to resign in protest of the withholding of important technical information from key policy makers for political reasons."

[aquart]

32. The Bush administration was forced to lie?

I'm sorry, but there seems to be an English language breakdown on this thread and, while I, as we all do, normally let it pass, I've had enough. (I let "drove" instead of "was driven" pass but this.....?) When meaning becomes totally screwed up due to slovenly writing, we risk our cause itself.

Sorry to be so anal, but really.

[stevedeshazer]

35. sorry to trigger your syntax gene

Up too late last night, I guess.

[MaineDem]

18. Kick for the morning crowd (nt)

[underpants]

19. Why I think a person might characterize them as LIARS and CROOKS

But maybe that is just me.

[snippy]

20. More crimes and more lies to add to the list.

Kerry needs someone to publish a short list of republican crimes and lies. Even though it could number into the hundreds or even thousands, it should not be too long or it would be overwhelming. The list also should not focus on Iraq. One or two references would be enough. Maybe it could be a weekly or monthly top ten list of republican crimes and lies. The two best things about issuing such a list are that it would keep Bush on the defensive and he or his minions will LIE AGAIN in Bush's defense which would allow Kerry to update the list.

[Occulus]

33. Oh come on.

"Kerry needs someone to publish a short list of republican crimes and lies."

You and I both know there's no such animal. Any list like that would be long out of necessity, because one lie connects to another and that one branches into three or four more, each of which has multiple child lies like some nightmarish hydra. :)

[snippy]

39. It has to be short and sweet.

Otherwise the media would ignore it and many people would be confused by it. Consequently, the vast majority of lies would have to be omitted. Very simple lies should be included, like "Bush volunteered to go to Viet Nam." An alternative would be to use ridicule to emphasize Bush's compulsive and incessant lying.

Everyone except Bush himself knows where he was during his Alabama National Guard service which was after he volunteered to go to Viet Nam but before he created 2,000,0000 new jobs and the Bush administration did not reveal the identity of a CIA operative but the White House is cooperating with the 9/11 commission since democrats support terrorism and are not good Americans just as the Jews were not good Germans and government spending has gone down if you do not count the increased government spending which has resulted in 2,500,000 million new jobs being created but the boxes from China were labeled "Made in USA" even though the $400 billion decorative medicare turkey was not labeled $525 billion and Bush's plane to Baghdad was spotted because before Saddam bought the uranium and became an urgent but not imminent threat Bush had no plans on his desk to invade Iraq since the aircraft carrier was too far offshore for the Navy to make a large enough banner to describe the WMD we have found in Iraq some of which could hit the US and some of which Saddam was giving to Osama for following Saddam's plans and using Iraqi hijackers on 9/11 but everyone got a tax cut which has resulted in 3,000,000 new jobs being created and allowed Iraqi oil revenue to pay for the cost of the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion by a small number of troops who would be greeted with floral program related activities because Bush and Rice did not ignore the August 6, 2001 intelligence briefing warning of the upcoming 9/11 attacks and that is why Bush who is responsible for good economic numbers but not bad economic numbers wrote the poem that he did not write blaming Laura for dropping the dog.

[joanski01]

40. Now that's really good

and all true, too. Love it!

[54anickel]

22. This section seems to point to their usual MO

At a Ways and Means Committee hearing last month, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson all but repudiated Scully's tactics.

"I may have been derelict in allowing my administrator, Tom Scully, to have more control over it than I should have. ... And maybe he micromanaged the actuary and the actuary services too much. ... I can assure you that from now (on), the remaining days that I am secretary you will have as much access as you want to anybody or anything in the department. All you have to do is call me."

Admit to an "innocent" mistake and promise it will never happen again after you've been caught

Democrats asked Thompson on Feb. 3 and March 3 for a complete record of Foster's estimates. They've yet to get it.

Stonewall

Said HHS spokesman Bill Pierce: "We respond to all inquiries in time and we will do the same" with these.

Explain that what looks like stonewalling is your normal method of operation - leaving the door open to not providing the info until after Nov. This line reads like "F-off, we'll get it to you when we're damned good and ready."

[enough]

23. FRONT PAGE Philadelphia Inquirer today!

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/8165172.htm

The entire story is there, word for word. Anyone else seeing this story in their local media?

[tlcandie]

24. And why didn't this dem say something at the time .. make a BIG stink?

From the linked article....


<snip>
Cybele Bjorklund, the Democratic staff director for the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, which worked on the drug benefit, said Thomas A. Scully - then the director of the Medicare office - told her he ordered Foster to withhold information and that Foster would be fired for insubordination if he disobeyed.
<snip>

[enough]

26. I've been wondering that too.

There were obviously a number of people who knew this was going on.

Worried for their jobs, I suppose.

[salin]

25. Throw this out as a response to: wingnuts - The dems always play

politics with ____ (list issue/program).

One more piece of evidence that this administration considers politics over good policy. In this case needing a "win" - with no concern for cost - but recognizing they wouldn't get their win if Congress saw the real cost because they are more fiscally conservative then Bushadeficit.

[TheWebHead]

27. Daschle is reading this story

on the Senate floor right now CSPAN2

[TacticalPeek]

28. Kewl.

Too bad there's no exciting pictures of crooked, intimidating liars, because then this might make the news.

:grr:

[Just Me]

29. So, is anyone telling those 13 Republicans about this additional act,...

,...of fabrication? Actually, I would call it fraud. I mean, isn't the intentional withholding of information in order to ensure something on a group's agenda an act of fraud? If so, I just wonder how long the list would be of fraudulent acts by this administration?

[emalejim9]

30. They are getting set up nicely....

In the next eight months, I believe Kerry's "crook" statement will be supported. Maybe all these years of saying little is part of the plan??? Now we can roll out all the questionable crap that has transpired in the last three years to support Kerry's statement.

[Bandit]

31. No Pattern of witholding information with these guys ~So Stop Saying That.

Thugs ~ No less.

[0007]

34. ......more ammunition for Kerry - I can't believe how much guts these

GOPers have.

[JetCityLiberal]

36. Seattle Times had it also, front page

Even the Seattle Times, which has given bush a lot of passes, had an article about this right on the front page.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/

Link to actual article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001877368_medicare120.html

This was a $100 Billion dollar lie. On a previous occasion the bush administration lied to Congress and it got us a pre-emptive war that has already cost tens of thousands of lives, over $100 Billion already, and a hatred around the world of the US I did not think was possible. :puke:

Link to "Cost of War" website:
http://costofwar.com/

Vote bush and his repugs out!

JetCityLiberal

[Rockholm]

37. Wanna Bet This Does NOT Make The Network Evening News?

[joanski01]

38. I watched Tom Daschle give

his Floor statement on this, this morning. He read much of the article aloud. He said that he thinks (not exact wording) that the Medicare bill should be recalled and that the House and Senate should vote on it again. He called for an investigation and said that he didn't know whether it was a criminal offense, but it was very unethical. He said "This is how our laws are made". We rely on these people to give us accurate information. Byron Dorgan was on the Floor as well, and he said he totally agreed with Daschle.

I am still flabbergasted over this. Unfarking unbelievable.

Daschle is supposed to be on Lou Dobbs tonight to talk about the importation of medications. Wonder if he'll talk about this. I hope somebody watches and reports.

[BigBigBear]

41. Lying to the voters and lying to Congress

After the first few times, it gets easier.

[ignatius]

42. Lying to the voters and Congess and intimidating employees.

This is so Enron-like. Give us the numbers we want or you're out of here.

That part should be played up as well..in these times of high unemployment I believe people can relate to the thuggery used and how the employees hands are tied..in order to survive and keep your job, you have to do their dirty work.

Despicable bunch of intimidating thugs..I pray daily that I will get to see them all in a court filled with angry taxpayers and judged by democratic judges.