Invitations are dependent on message discipline

There are some terrific analyses available of yesterday’s Trustees’ report on Social Security, but I wanted to bring attention to something more mundane: the press conference held to release the report. As it happens, two of the five trustees weren’t there, in large part because their conclusions were different from the administration’s line.

The two independent trustees overseeing Social Security and Medicare broke with the Bush administration’s trustees yesterday, saying Medicare’s financial problems far exceed Social Security’s and are in urgent need of attention.

Republican Thomas R. Saving and Democrat John L. Palmer said Social Security’s condition has changed little since they joined the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees in 2000. But in the trustees’ report released yesterday, they wrote that Medicare’s prospects have “deteriorated dramatically” with rising medical costs and the addition in 2003 of a prescription drug benefit.

“The financial outlook for Social Security has improved marginally since 2000,” wrote Saving and Palmer. “In sharp contrast, Medicare’s financial outlook has deteriorated dramatically over the past five years and is now much worse that Social Security’s.”

Saving and Palmer, however, apparently weren’t welcome at the press conference, which was run by Treasury Secretary John Snow, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, all of whom proceeded to ignore Medicare’s problems.

In the past, all of the trustees have been on hand to discuss the report, but in a remarkable coincidence, the two bi-partisan members who were appointed by Bill Clinton and who weren’t on message were the same two trustees who weren’t on hand for the report’s release.

Treasury spokesman Robert S. Nichols said any attendees of the trustees’ meeting that preceded the release were free to attend the news conference. Saving did attend that meeting.

But in an interview, Saving said the public trustees were purposely left out of the presentation.

“They didn’t particularly invite us,” he said. “They’re doing it differently, I guess. It’s not our call.”

In other words, it’s the umpteenth example of Bush administration officials isolating and alienating those whose message differs from their own. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.