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Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, doesn't know what all the fuss is about. The difference between the two estimates is only about 1 - 2% of the total Medicare and Medicaid budget, he says. Why doesn't he compare the difference with the total budget? Or the total deficit. He would get even smaller percentages.
When you think about the pressure applied by the administration to House representatives in the middle of the night in order to squeak through passage of the bill last fall, you begin to see what has happened here.
In the fall of last year, two estimates were available: $400 billion from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and $534 billion from actuaries at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. The CBO used more optimistic assumptions.
So the administration presented the lower estimate. The public had no inkling of the existence of a higher estimate.
John Rother, director of policy and strategy for AARP, who helped draft the legislation - and double crossed AARP members - says now about the higher cost estimate:
"It's not new, it's just now public."
Where was Rother at the time? Helping the administration with its bait-and-switch operation.
Fred Smith, president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an organization not known for lefty causes, says of the Medicare bill:
"Every pressure tactic known to mankind was used to get it through the House at $400 billion. At another $150 billion, it wouldn't have gone through."
It appears that both citizens on the left and on the right think that Bush is not honest. He told us when running for office, he would restore integrity to the office of president. Instead, it is difficult to take him at his word.
The president says that he did not know until 2 weeks ago about the higher cost estmate. This is followed by McClellan saying, "What's the difference?"
If this is integrity, save me from it.
