Fwd: [SSRI-Research] An Orwellian taint

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JustSayNo

Tue, 16 Mar 2004 12:37:04 -0500

[sSRI-Research] An Orwellian taint

 

An Orwellian taint is emerging in the Bush administration's big victory last

year in wringing the Medicare prescription drug subsidy from a balky Congress.

 

The Actuary and the Actor

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/opinion/16TUE2.html?th

 

Published: March 16, 2004

 

n Orwellian taint is emerging in the Bush administration's big victory last year

in wringing the Medicare prescription drug subsidy from a balky Congress. The

plan is being sold to the public through propagandistic ads disguised as TV news

reports, and it turns out the government's top Medicare actuary was muzzled by

superiors during the debate about the program's price tag.

 

Richard Foster, one of the government's foremost Medicare experts, says he was

ordered not to provide requested information to Congress last fall when doubts

were being raised about the drug benefit's cost. The administration denies this,

but a ranking former official has confirmed Mr. Foster's story. As the bill was

being considered, Mr. Foster privately cautioned that its cost could amount to

as much as $600 billion, while the White House publicly stuck to the

Congressional Budget Office figure of $400 billion over 10 years. The

administration eventually conceded a cost of $534 billion, but only after the

bill was safely signed into law.

 

With program in hand, the administration then attempted to rally support - and

take political credit - with government-produced TV ads masquerading as news

reports. Actors were hired by the Department of Health and Human Services to

pose as television journalists purveying faux upbeat " news " segments about the

expanded Medicare coverage. The hope is that TV stations will air them as their

own. In one version, anchors are offered a script in which they promise that

" reporter Karen Ryan " - an actress - will explain the details of the new drug

plan.

 

This sleight of hand only deepens doubts about White House credibility on a

complex issue. The public deserves straightforward information about the changes

in Medicare, and federal agencies should not be engaging in political spin. This

is no way to run a democracy nourished by information and taxpayers' money.