Two more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq. For
what? Yes, we need a national referendum on the
_resident's fitness to hold the office to which he was
not elected...CREDIBILITY, COMPETENCE, CHARACTER --
those are the issues in this struggle...The
_resident's Medifraud bill was passed amidst
revelations about dirty tricks and bribery on the
floor of the US Congress...Many weeks later it was
revealed that the _resident's math for the Medifraud
bill was phoney...Now it has been revealed that "all
the _resident's men" silenced their own top cost
analyst by threatening to fire him if he spoke out
about the wrongness of the Medifraud math...But
apparently this story is of NO INTEREST to SeeNotNews,
AnythingButSee, NotBeSeen...Over and over, day after day, our point is
made clearer and clearer: It's the Media, Stupid...
Tony Pugh, Knight Ridder, via The Miami Herald: Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle said Friday that
allegations of unfavorable cost estimates about the
Medicare prescription drug bill being withheld from
lawmakers justifies reopening the vote on the drug
benefit...Richard Foster, the chief actuary at the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said
Friday night that he received a handwritten note from
Scully, then the centers' administrator, in early June
ordering him to ignore information requests from
members of Congress who were drafting the drug bill.
Cleanse the White House of the Chickenhawk Cabal and
Its Corrupt Cronies, Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/8178816.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on Sat, Mar. 13, 2004
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
Daschle calls for revote on Medicare drug bill
The Senate minority leader says a new vote is needed
on the Medicare drug benefit bill after learning the
administration's top cost analyst may have been
ordered to provide skewed information to Congress.
BY TONY PUGH
tpugh@krwashington.com
WASHINGTON - Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said
Friday that allegations of unfavorable cost estimates
about the Medicare prescription drug bill being
withheld from lawmakers justifies reopening the vote
on the drug benefit.
The nation's top Medicare analyst confirmed Friday that his former boss, Thomas Scully, ordered him to withhold his estimates because they exceeded what Congress seemed willing to accept by more than $100 billion.
Richard Foster, the chief actuary at the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Friday night that
he received a handwritten note from Scully, then the
centers' administrator, in early June ordering him to
ignore information requests from members of Congress
who were drafting the drug bill.
Knight Ridder, The Herald's parent company, reported
the episode in an exclusive story published Friday,
but Foster's comments were his first on the matter.
At the time of the estimate, the House was sharply
divided on the proposed new Medicare drug benefit,
which the administration strongly backed. Ultimately,
the House passed the measure, 216-215, on June 27. In
November, House members endorsed a House-Senate
compromise version by a 220-215 vote. Approving the
version were 13 Republican fiscal conservatives who
had said they would vote against it if it cost more
than $400 billion for its first 10 years.
On Friday, leaders in the House and Senate called for
investigations into the alleged muzzling. Sen. Edward
Kennedy, D-Mass., wrote President Bush demanding to
know what cost estimates he used in pushing the new
drug benefit.
`DIRECT ORDER'
Scully's note, according to Foster, ``was a direct
order not to respond to certain requests and instead
to provide the responses to him and [to] warn about
the consequences of insubordination.''
The note was Scully's first threat in writing, Foster
said, and came after at least three less formal
threats. They ''came in different forms,'' he said.
'Sometimes he would make a comment that `I think I
need another chief actuary,' or 'If you want to work
for the Ways and Means Committee [which was drafting
the bill] I can arrange it.' It was that sort of
thing.''
Efforts to reach Scully at his office and home on
Friday were unsuccessful. In a recent interview, he
denied closing off Foster's lines of communication
with Congress. On only one occasion, Scully said, did
he block Foster's contact with lawmakers, in this case
Democrats, saying their motives were purely political.
Foster said Scully insisted upon a pattern of
withholding of information.
''Estimates that were supportive of the legislation
were generally released and estimates that could be
used to criticize the legislation were generally not
released,'' Foster said.
Foster said he believed higher-ranking members of the
administration than Scully knew of the higher cost
estimates that his office had computed.
''Did the president know? Did [Health and Human
Services] Secretary Tommy Thompson know? I don't
know,'' Foster said.
The White House press office didn't respond to
requests for comment.
HIGHER COST
Knight Ridder reported Friday that Foster's Office of
the Actuary suggested that the drug benefit would cost
at least $100 billion more than the $395 billion
estimated by the Congressional Budget Office, whose
job it is to project costs of legislation. One
projection prepared in early June by Foster's office
and obtained by Knight Ridder concluded that a Senate
version of the bill might cost as much as $551
billion.
When Bush signed the bill in December, the drug
benefit bore a $395 billion price tag. In January, the
president's budget director, Joshua Bolten, upped the
estimate by $139 billion.
Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader and
one of the few Republicans to address the controversy
Friday, noted that Foster's estimates were based on
different and more costly assumptions than those of
the Congressional Budget Office.
Frist's spokesman, Bob Stevenson, added: ``If an
individual's job was threatened and if they were
trying to shield information from Congress, that could
be an issue of concern.''
In a grim-faced floor speech Friday, Daschle, a South
Dakota Democrat, called for reopening the vote on the
drug benefit. He also called for an investigation into
the firing threat and assertions that the
administration had withheld its cost estimates from
Congress.
''Whether this is criminal or not is a matter we will
certainly want to clarify,'' Daschle said. ``But if
not criminal, it was certainly unethical. And I think
we need to know the facts.''