] The government's top expert on Medicare costs was told
] not to tell key lawmakers about cost estimates that could
] have torpedoed the White House-backed Medicare
] prescription-drug plan.
]
] Richard Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers for
] Medicare and Medicaid Services, told colleagues last June
] that he would be fired if he revealed a number higher
] than some lawmakers said they would approve.
]
] When the House of Representatives passed the
] controversial benefit by five votes in 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 analysts in the
] Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded
] that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion
] more than that.

[ So, they lied. Again. And not in a pseudo-mistruth, beating-around-the-bush kind of way. In an outright, unprincipled, we-need-this-political-victory-at-all-costs kind of way. The bill passed by 5 votes. More than 5 people would have jumped ship had they known the number was closer to $500 B than $400 B. It's stunning how much total bullshit this administration is willing to shovel.
Also, on the heels of all this indignation over Kerry calling them a bunch of liars, this couldn't be better timing. See, dammit, you *are* liars. Bush's people lied, conspired to get a bill passed under false cost estimates, all while the main administrator was interviewing for private sector jobs (which he eventually got, jumping the HHS ship). Completely outrageous. -k]