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Old 14-03-04, 03:27 PM   #1
JackSpratts
 
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Default Medicare official forced to withhold information from Congress over cost of Bush plan

Robert Pear

Democrats called Saturday for an investigation of charges that the Bush administration threatened to fire a top Medicare official if he gave data to Congress showing the high costs of hotly contested Medicare legislation.

The official, Richard S. Foster, chief actuary of the Medicare program, said he had been formally told not to provide the information to Congress. Moreover, he said, he was told that "the consequences of insubordination would be very severe."

Senior officials at the Medicare agency made it clear that "they would try and fire me" for responding directly to inquiries from Congress, Mr. Foster said in an interview on Saturday.

Mr. Foster said he had received that message from Thomas A. Scully, who was then administrator of the Medicare program. Mr. Scully denies threatening Mr. Foster but confirms having told him to withhold certain information from Congress.

A White House spokesman, Trent D. Duffy, declined to comment on Mr. Foster's statements. Mr. Duffy said he did not know if anyone had threatened to dismiss Mr. Foster.

The Senate and the House approved different Medicare bills on June 27, after being assured that the cost would not exceed $400 billion over 10 years, the amount proposed by President Bush.

Mr. Foster said he prepared "dozens and dozens of analyses and estimates" of the cost of the legislation last year. "All our estimates showed that the cost of the drug benefit, through 2013, would be in the range of $500 billion to $600 billion," he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/politics/14MEDI.html
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Old 14-03-04, 06:09 PM   #2
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No big suprise about the cost overrun there, the man (bush) is spending our money like the proverbial drunken sailor, all for the sake of sticking it to the Dem's. The only reason to retain him is that there is no one else who has the balls to stand up to this nations enemies.
There is only one consolation, the Dem's would be even worse than Bush when it comes to money, and would be so weak on defense that it leaves me cold.


The Times is a bastion of the Left, I am not suprised they would run that story though I would take it with a grain of salt till it can be proven from another source or two. Foster may have a real case here however, I hope not, but would not be too suprised.
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Old 14-03-04, 10:49 PM   #3
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Quote:
The Times is a bastion of the Left
wow jack, so far you've started 4 threads in a row..all citing a link to an article from the ny times. do you ever read any other sources?

ny times overload!
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Old 17-03-04, 12:22 PM   #4
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Inquiry Ordered on Medicare Official's Charge
Robert Pear and Sheryl Gay Stolberg

Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of health and human services, ordered an internal investigation on Tuesday into accusations that the Bush administration had threatened to fire a top Medicare official if he gave data to Congress showing the high cost of the legislation that created prescription drug benefits for the elderly.

"There seems to be a cloud over this department because of this," Mr. Thompson said. "We have nothing to hide. So I want to make darn sure that everything comes out."

Mr. Thompson commented amid growing concern over statements by the chief actuary of the Medicare program, Richard S. Foster, who says he was told to withhold estimates of the cost of the legislation. Mr. Foster has said Thomas A. Scully, who was administrator of the program, threatened to dismiss him in June if he provided the information to Congress.

On Tuesday, Mr. Thompson told Dara Corrigan, the acting principal deputy inspector general of the department, to investigate.

Democrats have expressed outrage about the actuary's accusations. On Tuesday, two prominent Republican senators, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, demanded that the administration explain what it knew about the Medicare numbers.

"This is very troubling and disturbing," Ms. Snowe, a strong supporter of the new law, said. "You undermine the credibility and integrity of the legislative process any time you deliberately withhold information from Congress. You hamstring our ability to do the best job we can."

The senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, said he and his aides knew in June that Mr. Foster was "under severe pressure" to withhold information from Congress. The Democrats remained silent, Mr. Rangel said, because of fear that Mr. Foster would lose his post.

Mr. Thompson said the inspector general's office would investigate two questions, whether cost estimates were improperly withheld and whether Mr. Scully threatened Mr. Foster.

Mr. Foster conducted many analyses of the Medicare bill, estimating that the drug benefits would cost $500 billion to $600 billion over 10 years. If his figures had been known, some conservative Republicans might not have voted for the bill, and the measure might not have passed in the form that President Bush signed into law on Dec. 8.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, welcomed the review as a positive step. But he said it would not answer larger questions like, "What did the president know, when did he know it, and why did he and the senior members of his administration continue to claim that the legislation would cost $400 billion when their best estimate was that it would cost much more?"

Mr. Thompson suggested that the tempest over the actuary resulted from election year politics.

"There has been an intentional attempt to politicize this bill from Day I, and to demagogue it," he said.

Representative Nancy L. Johnson, Republican of Connecticut, a co-author of the legislation, said she knew about Mr. Foster's numbers last year. Mrs. Johnson said she thought his assumptions were flawed, so she did not place great reliance on them.

"At the time," she said, "they did not make a ripple."

Representative C. L. Otter, the Idaho Republican who voted for the bill after a last-minute appeal from Mr. Bush, said House Republican leaders had assured him in recent days that the $400 billion estimate remained valid.

Mr. Thompson said he never told Mr. Scully to withhold information from Congress. Indeed, he said, he assumed that the Medicare chief was sharing cost estimates with a small group of lawmakers who were negotiating the final legislation.

"Tom Scully was running this," Mr. Thompson said.

But Representative Pete Stark, Democrat of California, said Mr. Scully, who left the government in December, was a convenient scapegoat and "perfect fall guy."

Senator Hagel said he was very concerned about the possibility that cost figures had been intentionally suppressed.

Representative Gil Gutknecht, Republican of Minnesota, said the outcome of the Medicare debate would probably have been different had Congress known the actuary's estimates.

"They had to keep the vote open three hours to get this bill passed," Mr. Gutknecht said. "If members had known that there were already in hand estimates that were significantly higher than the one that was advertised, I think it would have been even harder to get the votes."

Representative Cal Dooley, the California Democrat who switched his vote to yes from no during the final roll call, said, "If a number of conservative Republicans had known that the bill had a $530 billion price tag, they would not have voted for it, and the bill would have failed."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/17/politics/17HEAL.html


For Scooby - http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...re-probe_x.htm

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Old 18-03-04, 04:50 PM   #5
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that Medicare drug bill is turning into a shitstorm, and nothing either side of the aisle oughta be bragging about...

this bill is a massive welfare bill for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries - it actually prohibits the government from negotiating lower drug prices and discourages importation of lower cost drugs, thereby protecting the profits of both industries. in addition, it's a massive entitlement program with no means testing whatsoever (note to the GOP: aren't you guys supposed to be against welfare and bigger government?)

it turns out the cost was deliberately understated. and if that were not enough, we now have charges of bribery and influence peddling in the course of the bill's passage. (note to the Dems: this "ethics truce" deal you guys cut with the GOP in 1997 stinks.)

this bill is a boondogle and a disgrace to both parties. there's no hope the GOP will gut it coz they wrote it and it's unlikely Kerry has the balls to stand up and call it what it is...what a shame
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Old 19-03-04, 08:29 PM   #6
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hmmm...could this bill be unraveling?

Quote:
But less than four months after he signed it into law on Dec. 8, Bush's Medicare-reform dream has turned into a nightmare and a potential drag on his bid for re-election.

-- The Bush administration deliberately didn't tell Congress that the measure could cost more than $100 billion more than advertised.

-- House Republican leaders abused House rules to push the measure to a narrow victory. There are also allegations of threats and bribes that are under investigation.

-- The Bush administration spent millions of taxpayer dollars on public service TV ads touting the Medicare reform law that look suspiciously like Bush campaign commercials. Those, too, are now under investigation.

-- Polls show that a majority of Americans don't like the Medicare reforms.

"It's something that's eating away at the credibility of the administration in an election year on a bill that he (Bush) thought was a building block for his re-election," said Stephen Hess, a political analyst for the Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank, and a former aide to President Eisenhower.
sidenote: an former aide to President Eisenhower? this guy must be about 94

let's hope this thing is dead on arrival
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