uops! they did it again

[Don't panic]

in a surprising turn of events, it appears the bush administration was not truthful in some of their pre-electoral assessments...

Originally Posted by NYT

New White House Estimate Lifts Drug Benefit Cost to $720 Billion

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 - The Bush administration offered a new estimate of the cost of the Medicare drug benefit on Tuesday, saying it would cost $720 billion in the next 10 years.
That is much more than the $400 billion Congress assumed when it passed legislation creating the benefit in late 2003.

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/09/na...9medicare.html

it gets better everyday...

[mactastic]

Hey! Cut that out!

[Don't panic]

Originally Posted by mactastic

Hey! Cut that out!

beat you by two minutes

[Thomas Veil]

Originally Posted by Don't panic

...it appears the bush administration was not truthful...

Shocked...shocked I am!

[Dont Hurt Me]

They do seem to have a habit of spinning numbers. They lied to Congress but Congress is made of liars so in the end...........what happens? the u.s. taxpayer gets a little more shafted. Republicans and Democrats go to bed with a smile on their face.

[blackfox]

Originally Posted by Dont Hurt Me

They do seem to have a habit of spinning numbers. They lied to Congress but Congress is made of liars so in the end...........what happens? the u.s. taxpayer gets a little more shafted. Republicans and Democrats go to bed with a smile on their face.

What does that mean? Just write the whole thing off because politicians are "crooked" and "beholden to special interests"?

While that may be true in a general sense, it conveniently lets the GOP and particularily the WH off-the-hook as far as accountability.

Sure, the Democrats may have voted for it (some), but when there is a problem like rising health care costs, which affects many people who vote, it would be political suicide to go against a heavily-marketed (and inaccurate) "Reform" of the problem.

Even though some Democrats wrote part of the bill, by the time it made it through the GOP Congress, it was basically their creation and was signed off on by Bush. The numbers were (purposefully) wrong to facillitate it's passage for political capital (and probably the old-fashioned kind). The responsibility for that lies firmly with the WH and the Congressional Leadership. Right?

[IJ Reilly]

Democrats IIRC at least attempted to amend the bill to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies. That effort was killed. I wonder how much money that little change would have saved the taxpayers?

Republicans have a tough time admitting it, but their party has become past-masters at manufacturing legislative gimmies for corporations, and that's one of the reasons our federal budget is so out of control.

[maya]

The USofA just seems to love the colour RED when it comes to numbers.



note: people are now kicking themselves silly.

[mischief]

Originally Posted by maya

The USofA just seems to love the colour RED when it comes to numbers.



note: people are now kicking themselves silly.

Yep, If all you listen to is spin (which seems to be most Americans) We're a nation of "Red"-necks, "White" nonvoters and "Blue"-blooded fops.

[IJ Reilly]

So hard to choose.

Okay, I'll go with "fop." I already carry a lace hanky up my shirt sleeve.