Jeez, is there anything about the Bush Medicare scheme that isn’t illegal?
We already know that the administration appears to have broken the law by threatening HHS officials into silence about the real costs of the Medicare plan. Now we’ve learned that the propagandistic “video news releases,” prepared for TV stations to look like objective news, were also illegal.
The Bush administration violated two federal laws through part of its publicity campaign to promote changes in Medicare intended to help older Americans afford prescription drugs, the investigative arm of Congress said yesterday.
The General Accounting Office concluded that the Department of Health and Human Services illegally spent federal money on what amounted to covert propaganda by producing videos about the Medicare changes that were made to look like news reports. Portions of the videos, which have been aired by 40 television stations around the country, do not make it clear that the announcers were paid by HHS and were not real reporters.
This is definitely a good news-bad news situation. On the one hand, it’s further proof that the White House considers the truth and the law with equal indifference when it comes to advancing its political agenda.
On the other hand, the GAO can’t do anything about these transgressions — it lacks the authority to enforce the law. Ashcroft’s Justice Department could pursue this, but that’s highly unlikely.
Congressional Dems have a different idea. They want a refund.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who requested the initial GAO probe into the fliers, said he would introduce emergency legislation today requiring the Bush-Cheney campaign to return taxpayer dollars spent on the VNRs to Medicare.
“The Bush administration has illegally spent Medicare funds on covert political activities,” Lautenberg said. “The Bush-Cheney campaign should pay every dime they spent on these fake news stories back to our seniors. These funds were meant to help our seniors, not the president’s re-election campaign.”
This doesn’t sound unreasonable. If the Bush administration is using our money illegally for political propaganda, is it so much to ask that they pay us back? It’s not a lot of money; it’s the principle of the matter.
Other Dems were concerned that 40 TV stations nationwide aired this nonsense to unsuspecting viewers and would like to see broadcasters set the record straight.
Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, called on television stations that used the footage to retract their reports.
“TV news stations that aired the VNRs have a journalistic responsibility to set the record straight,” he said in a statement. “If the government is allowed to get away with disseminating this sort of propaganda, the democratic tradition of a free and independent media is threatened.”
Meanwhile, this development will continue to offer Dems rhetorical ammunition for congressional oversight of the administration’s handling of the Medicare debacle.
Keep in mind, last month House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) said he’d pursue this matter with hearings and subpoenas if it involved “a violation of law.” Since then, the CRS has said the administration broke the law in silencing officials and keeping the truth hidden, while the GAO has concluded the administration broke the law by misusing tax dollars for political propaganda.
So, where are those hearings and subpoenas, Rep. Thomas? We’re waiting.