I mentioned last week that I thought the Dems on Capitol Hill were taking their collective eye off the ball a bit in expressing their pleasure with an HHS internal investigation into the Medicare cost cover-up. Dems were demanding Tommy Thompson launch a probe, Thompson did, and the Dems sounded happy.
This struck me as a flawed strategy. Thompson gets to look like he’s taking charge of the situation by asking Dara Corrigan, the acting principal deputy inspector general of HHS, to investigate, when in fact, the controversy is far broader.
I don’t know Corrigan, but having an HHS report about the way in which the agency withheld information from Congress and the public will be of limited utility and won’t get at the root of the controversy — the White House.
Dems got back on track, at least in my opinion, on Friday afternoon. The question isn’t whether Richard Foster was forced to keep quiet about the real costs of Bush’s Medicare plan. We know that already. The question isn’t whether Thomas Scully threatened Foster with dismissal if word got out. We know that already too.
The question is what role the White House had in pressuring HHS and keeping the truth hidden. Fortunately, that’s the question Dems are beginning to emphasize. As the Washington Post reported over the weekend:
House Democrats demanded yesterday that two senior White House officials explain whether they helped prepare — or knew of — predictions last year that the new Medicare prescription drug law would cost more than President Bush publicly said.
The Democrats, including the party’s senior members on four House committees, sent letters to Bush’s chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., and budget director, Joshua B. Bolten, asking them to disclose all of the cost information they had about preliminary and final versions of the Medicare legislation Congress passed last year. The letters also asked them to describe all their interactions about the issue with the government’s chief analyst of Medicare costs.
Now we’re talkin’. Foster has already said that he believes Doug Badger, Bush’s senior health policy adviser, was involved in keeping the true cost estimates hidden, pressuring Scully and misleading lawmakers on the Hill. In fact, Dem pressure seems to have Badger on the defensive.
Last evening, Badger said in an interview that he was aware during negotiations over the legislation of some requests from Congress for the actuary’s data. “I was also aware there were discussions between [legislative] staff and the actuary that I wasn’t aware of or apprised of,” he said.
Badger said that “to the best of my knowledge and recollection,” he had not taken part in any discussions of whether information should be shared.
As a rule, when someone starts using carefully-worded denials about “the best of my knowledge and recollection,” they’re sweating.
Indeed, the Dems’ letter to Card and Bolten noted that Badger’s denial doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
HHS “rarely acts on its own on issues of this magnitude, especially when they have major ramifications for the federal budget,” the letters state. “Rather, HHS coordinates its budget strategies and legislative estimates closely with the White House.”
The White House’s senior health policy adviser didn’t know the true costs of the administration’s health care plan? The same advisor allowed detailed negotiations between HHS and the White House’s legislative staff to continue without him knowing the details? It doesn’t sound kosher, does it?
You can also tell the White House is starting to sweat a little by how it’s responding (or, in this case, not responding) to reporters’ questions.
[White House press secretary Scott] McClellan would not, however, directly answer questions about whether anyone in the White House had checked to see if any of Bush’s aides were involved, or if administration officials believe they have an obligation to share such cost information with Congress.
In fact, the White House has already said it will deny Dem requests to see records relating to administration communication between the White House and HHS.
Stay tuned.