White House Role Is Alleged (Blocking revelation Medicare Bill Costs)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6339-2004Mar18.html

Richard S. Foster, the government's chief analyst of Medicare costs who was threatened with firing last year if he disclosed too much information to Congress, said last night that he believes the White House participated in the decision to withhold analyses that Medicare legislation President Bush sought would be far more expensive than lawmakers knew.

Foster has said publicly in recent days that he was warned repeatedly by his former boss, Thomas A. Scully, the Medicare administrator for three years, that he would be dismissed if he replied directly to legislative requests for information about prescription drug bills pending in Congress. In an interview last night, Foster went further, saying that he understood Scully to be acting at times on White House instructions, probably coming from Bush's senior health policy adviser.

Foster said that he did not have concrete proof of a White House role, but that his inference was based on the nature of several conversations he had with Scully over data that Congress had asked for and that Foster wanted to release. "I just remember Tom being upset, saying he was caught in the middle. It was like he was getting dumped on," Foster said.

Foster added that he believed, but did not know for certain, that Scully had been referring to Doug Badger, the senior health policy analyst. He said that he concluded that Badger probably was involved because he was the White House official most steeped in the administration's negotiations with Congress over Medicare legislation enacted late last year and that Badger was intimately familiar with the analyses his office produced.

[hedda_foil]

1. Yes!

There is a God!

[ClintonTyree]

2. Of course the WH is involved...............

they've got their oily little fingerprints all over this. NOTHING gets past these guys without their OK. They knew that it would never pass if the actual numbers were revealed so they lied, YET AGAIN, to push forward their agenda. There isn't a doubt in my mind.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. This actuary, Mr. Foster, is a brave man --

[cybildisobedience]

6. I'm sure we'll be mourning his loss soon...

Just the way it seems to go with people who oppose the Bush administration.

[0007]

10. probably Cliff Baxer could have sent Kenneth Lay to prison

for a thousand years if he had lived.

It will be interesting to see where this one goes.

[underpants]

4. Any word on a firing?

OR are they just waiting for this to be forgotten?

[jayfish]

12. Whistle Blowers Protection Act?

I'd love to see them do it.

Jay

[hang a left]

5. scandal after scandal after scandal after scandal after scandal....

n/t

[davsand]

7. The bush* administration covered up???

Why, I am amazed that they'd lie about anything or do something so unethical...:puke:

Seems kinda funny to me--they've lied about everything under the sun except for sex. I guess you can get impeached over THAT.

Lying Bastards.


Laura

[Ravy]

9. I was thinking the other day...

... about the Watergate break in, and the cover up there.. and how it brought down the Nixon administration.

The Watergate break in really affected nothing of national importance-- it was the ethics and the cover up of it that everyone found so repugnant and vile.

How far have our expectations of ethics fallen since then? Repubs hacking into Democratic files in Congress. Halliburton keeping Cheney on the payroll.. the energy commission... the lies about WMD...SCOTUS deciding the presidency while their spouses are on the payroll of one of the litigants..the Medicare coverup...

I won't go further. Preaching to the choir they say. But I sure could.

[davsand]

13. The list is too long to write up.

Pathetic, isn't it? I said early on this administration would be remembered as THE most corrupt ever--I'm sorry to say I was right.

History will be most unkind to these guys, and it is a small consolation for all of us who are living thru it.


Laura

[0007]

11. probably Cliff Baxer could have sent Kenneth Lay

to prison for a thousand years if he had lived.

It will be interesting to see where this one goes.

[Bandit]

8. This is great because either way they are at fault

Either they withheld information from Congress or they are inept and negligent because they didn't ask for or know the cost analysis from the Government's Chief Analyst It brings up the question of just where they got their figures from and if they had any agency analyze them?

[JusticeForAll]

14. I just sent this article

I sent it to my parents and to all of my friends so that they can send it to their parents.

Too many of my friends' parents are still in Bush's corner. Time to educate them.

Note below. Feel free to use it yourself. Get the word out.

Dear Friends,

This is not a typical topic I'm used to sending emails for, but I have been hearing too many of my friends are worried that their parents will still be voting for Bush, no matter how regressive and destructive to our country he and his Administration have been. The recently passed Medicare legislation is going to be costly for older Americans, and our Congress was duped into passing it. Duped by none other than Bush administration officials. Our parents and their friends will be paying more for their prescription drugs than they ever have before.

I have copied the original link, an article excerpt, and a complete article for you to share whichever seems most appropriate with your families and their friends. Spread the news that Bush is in favor of taking more money out of your parents' pockets.

Thanks,

Jeff

[struggle4progress]

15. kick

:kick: