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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (36042)	3/22/2004 11:22:01 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793687

Bush's Medicare dream turning into a nightmare BY WILLIAM DOUGLAS DETROIT FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF March 22, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Enactment of a sweeping Medicare overhaul law last year was supposed to be the crowning achievement of President George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" as he readied himself for re-election. But less than four months after he signed it into law on Dec. 8, Bush's Medicare reform dream has turned into a nightmare and a potential drag on his bid for re-election. The biggest expansion of the government social service net in a generation now is drawing fire on several fronts: The Health and Human Services general inspector's office is investigating a claim by the government's top expert on Medicare costs that the administration concealed from Congress the true cost of the program. The House Ethics Committee plans to investigate whether threats and bribes were used to pass the bill in the House. The General Accounting Office (GAO) is investigating whether the Bush administration spent millions of taxpayer dollars on TV ads touting the Medicare reform law that look suspiciously like Bush campaign commercials. The Medicare law will provide about 40 million seniors with a prescription drug card beginning this year that could net savings of 15 percent to 25 percent. Beginning in 2006, seniors will be able to enroll in a Medicare drug plan or join a private health insurance plan offering drug coverage. But the law's afterglow faded fast once lawmakers learned it could cost at least $100 billion more than the $395 billion over 10 years that the White House claimed. That revelation in late January riled budget hawks who had said they wouldn't vote for a measure that cost more than $400 billion. Lawmakers got steamed again this month when the nation's top Medicare actuary, Richard Foster, told the Free Press Washington bureau that he had projected the higher cost long before Congress voted. Foster said his boss, former Medicare administrator Thomas Scully, threatened to fire him if he gave the real numbers to Congress. House Democrats, led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee, are threatening a lawsuit to force Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to turn over all of Foster's undisclosed estimates. Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist, called the Medicare issue "much ado about nothing" on Friday. Democrats say they hope to get answers Wednesday during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing. Unusual vote Many lawmakers also felt abused when they said GOP leaders pushed the bill through the House on Nov. 22 by keeping the vote open for nearly three hours -- usually votes are allowed only 15 minutes -- and by twisting members' arms until they supported it. The House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation into allegations by Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., that "bribes and special deals were offered" to induce him to vote for the bill. Smith, who voted against the bill, initially said that unidentified Republican power brokers offered "extensive financial support and endorsements for my son, Brad, who is running for my seat. They also made threats of working against Brad if I voted no." Smith later backed off his bribery claim, but the Ethics Committee is proceeding anyway. Ads investigated In addition, the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, is examining whether Health and Human Services TV ads touting the new law -- with prominent pictures of Bush -- constitute illegal political propaganda. The GAO already has concluded that the ads contain "notable omissions and errors," but its preliminary judgment was that they are legal. Meanwhile, a Gallup poll in January showed public dissatisfactionwith the program. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said the prescription drug benefit didn't go far enough; 27 percent said it was about right while 9 percent said it went too far. Cover-up alleged The mushrooming controversy is spurring cries of cover-up from Democrats. "There is no place for silencing the truth," said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. "I believe the American people deserve real answers on why this administration is keeping public officials quiet and keeping facts from the American people." By last week's end, congressional Republicans were rallying behind Bush and dismissing the allegations as a Democratic scheme to discredit a GOP triumph. Independent analysts, including conservatives, weren't so sanguine. "This bill will not go down in the annals of good government," said Robert Moffitt, the director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation. "Now it's a political problem."