Bush Threatened to Fire Official for Telling Truth

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 13:37:22 -0800
From: Shannon McElyea <shannon () swisscreek com>
Subject: FW: Bush Threatened to Fire Official for Telling Truth
To: Severo Ornstein <severo () poonhill com>, David Farber <dave () farber net>




BUSH THREATENED TO FIRE OFFICIAL FOR TELLING THE TRUTH

During this time of record deficits, President Bush promised the country
that his drug-industry backed Medicare bill would cost $395 billion. (1) But
just weeks after he signed the bill into law, his own budget office admitted
that the bill would actually cost well over $500 billion. (2) And today a
new report shows that the President knew that the bill cost more than he had
claimed, and yet he deliberately hid the information from the public until
the legislation was already signed into law.

As revealed in an exclusive Knight-Ridder report, the White House threatened
to fire its own top Medicare actuary "if he told lawmakers about a series of
Bush administration cost estimates" that priced the bill at more than $500
billion. (3) At the time, conservative Republicans had "vowed to vote
against the Medicare drug bill if it cost more than $400 billion."  This
means that the president deliberately misled members of his own party on
behalf of the pharmaceutical industry that pushed the bill and has been a
top contributor to his campaign. (4) As Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) said, "I
think a lot of people probably would have reconsidered" voting for the bill
had they not been deliberately misled by the White House.

At Knight-Ridder's website you can see the full text of the 6/26/03 email
that Medicare's top actuary Richard S. Foster sent to colleagues informing
them of the White House threat. (5)

Sources:
1.      "Federal Deficit Hits Record $374B", CBS News, 10/20/2003,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1946129&l=21882.
2.      "Medicare drug plan balloons", Washington Times, 01/29/2004,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1946129&l=21883.
3.      "Bush administration ordered Medicare plan cost estimates withheld",
Knight Ridder, 03/11/2004,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1946129&l=21884
es/printstory.jsp.
4.      Open Secrets.Org,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1946129&l=21885.
5.      "E-mail from Richard S. Foster, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services", Knight Ridder, 03/11/2004,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1946129&l=21886.

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