Lies, Damn Lies And Bush's Medicare Statistics

[cal04]

(Think Progress)
Today, President Bush repeated a highly misleading claim about the Medicare prescription drug program: “Twenty-six million seniors so far have taken a look and said, I think it’s worthwhile to sign up.”

This figure is meant to convince the public that tens of millions of seniors have chosen to enroll in the prescription drug program. But as the Boston Globe reported a month ago, the “actual number of voluntary enrollees is much smaller, about 5 million.” The rest either were automatically enrolled or already had drug coverage from their former company’s health plan.

Ron Pollack of Families USA explained:
For an administration that frequently provides inaccurate information, the use of the 25 million enrollment figure breaks new ground in misleading propaganda. The only real number that is worth focusing on is the approximately 4 million to 5 million who now have prescription drug coverage who did not have it prior to the start of the program. Unfortunately, the administration is trying to mask that failure with an exaggerated number that has nothing to do with new people who gained coverage.

The facts haven’t gotten in the way of the White House spin, however. Below are the many times the administration has used the inflated number:

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http://www.thinkprogress.org/

[MadMaddie]

1. And they keep going in front of the American people

and repeat their lies!!