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March 12, 2004
Bush Threatened to Fire Official for Telling 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://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in570166.shtml

2. "Medicare drug plan balloons", Washington Times, 01/29/2004.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...5021-1957r.htm

3. "Bush administration ordered Medicare plan cost estimates
withheld", Knight Ridder, 03/11/2004.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwash...printstory.jsp

4. Open Secrets.Org.

http://www.opensecrets.org/industrie...ps.asp?Ind=H04


5. "E-mail from Richard S. Foster, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services", Knight Ridder, 03/11/2004.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8170927.htm