ABC Nightline 3/25: How the Medicare bill became law ... a horror story

[Bozita]

This looks like a good night for tuning in after the Daily Show.


Nightline Daily E-Mail
March 25, 2004


TONIGHT'S FOCUS: It was meant to be a victory that could be savored all the way through the election. When the President signed the Medicare bill into law last December it was a landmark event. This bill had managed to achieve what Seniors had been clamoring for for years - prescription drug coverage. That's definitely something to crow about. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the bill becoming law.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Accusations of bribery, lying, intimidation, political shenanigans&it has become quite a Washington drama. Yesterday, a bureaucrat who you probably wouldn't normally hear about testified on Capitol Hill. Richard Foster is the chief actuary of the Medicare program and he says that his boss threatened to fire him if he publicized his estimates of how much the Medicare bill would actually cost. His boss happens to be a political appointee. The bill that passed had a cost estimate of around $400 billion. Foster's estimate - $534 billion - became public a month after signing of the bill. Needless to say, people are furious, including Republicans who now say if they knew then what they know now, they would not have voted for the bill.

Then there is that story of the endless vote in the House - a fifteen-minute roll call that stayed open for 3 hours. A lot of arm-twisting that night, including allegations that retiring Congressman Nick Smith (R-Michigan) was told that if he voted for the bill his son would get $100,000 worth of help for his upcoming Congressional race. Smith voted against the bill but there is another investigation about this allegation.

Now there are some people who roll their eyes at the thought of the congressional process. But this is a dramatic one. People are really emotional about it, as you will see in tonight's show. ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper reports and Chris Bury anchors the broadcast. We hope you will join us.

Madhulika Sikka and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington D.C. bureau

[swag]

1. I hope they have that creep Novelli from AARP

AARP's legislative division has some of the best, smartest, most dedicated people I've ever worked with. Then the whole place got highjacked by Novelli and we got the Bush Medicare fraud.

[skeptic9]

11. kick

[girl gone mad]

2. I'll never forget that night..

staying up late on DU, watching CSPAN. We were celebrating because it was clear we had the votes, but they refused to drop the gavel. They had to hold it open for several hours in order to cajole the votes they needed. It was unprecedented and so clearly unethical.

[Bozita]

3. Watch Repugs display their good Christian family values and ethics

Makes you wonder how they'd behave without those principles, doesn't it?

[Bozita]

4. 15 minutes

[Bozita]

5. Damn, this is ugly ... gonna be worse after the break

[Guaranteed]

6. Great piece...

Going over all the Republican dirty tricks, pilin' em up

[Elwood P Dowd]

7. Damn, I missed it.

What did they say? I will never forget staying up all night posting here and watching C-SPAN. The repukes love to put their nasty crap up for vote late on Friday night.

[Bozita]

8. The WKZO radio host was fired ... for talking politics with Smith (R-MI)

There was a thread on this yesterday here at DU.

[Bozita]

10. Wrong, it was at Slate and NPR ... but he's still fired

sorry.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2097717/
.
Kalamazoo Kapitulation!
A talk-radio host who helped expose the Medicare bribe loses his job.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, March 23, 2004, at 4:00 PM PT

Listen to this story on NPR's Day to Day.

Shaking off its hangover from the nasty partisan scandalmongering of the late 1990s, the House ethics committee has finally begun an investigation into Rep. Nick Smith's allegation that a member of the House leadership tried to bribe him into supporting the Medicare drug bill. According to Roll Call, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the matter, too. But a Kalamazoo talk-radio host whose scoop made it impossible to sweep Smith's allegations under the rug is out of a job.

Kevin Vandenbroek, formerly of WKZO radio, should have gotten a raise for his contribution to the Smith story, which was picked up by Slate and subsequently by just about every other national publication covering the Medicare bribe. Instead, Vandenbroek was fired last month, apparently for political reasons.

more...

[enki23]

9. when it rains it pours

and right now it's a goddamned flood.

i know nearly half of all americans are stupid assholes. (kinda like everywhere else in the world) but even stupid assholes can understand slapstick.