I mentioned yesterday that the House Ways and Means Committee had convened a hearing on the cover-up surrounding the actual cost of Bush’s Medicare plan. Dems were hoping to hear testimony from Doug Badger, Bush’s senior health policy adviser whom Medicare actuary Richard Foster believes was in on the fix, and Tom Scully, the official who ordered Foster to keep the truth under wraps.
Not surprisingly, neither of them accepted the committee’s invitation. In response, Dems played the only card they had left. They insisted that the committee subpoena both officials so Congress could get a full report on what happened and why. But in order to do so, a majority of committee members would have to approve.
Dems needed 4 Republicans to join them. They got zero.
House Republicans today shut down an inquiry by Democrats into whether the Bush administration acted illegally or inappropriately last year when it withheld from Congress its estimates of the cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill. Democratic lawmakers had requested civil and criminal probes of allegations that the then-Medicare administrator threatened to fire his top actuary if he shared certain analyses with lawmakers.
[…]
But today’s conclusion of a Ways and Means Committee hearing all but ensured that two individuals central to the controversy — then-Medicare administrator Thomas A. Scully and White House aide Doug Badger — will not testify before Congress.
Perhaps it was naïve to believe that even a few House Republicans would want to hold the Bush administration responsible for a costly cover-up. The committee has effectively told the White House, “Go ahead and withhold information from us; we don’t really mind.”
Thomas said that while he was willing to use “whatever tools are necessary to get to the bottom of a violation of law,” he was not willing to issue subpoenas to Badger and Scully “to satisfy someone’s whim or curiosity.”
Curiosity? We already know that the true costs of the Medicare plan were covered up. The Medicare actuary believes Bush’s top health care advisor was involved in deceiving lawmakers and the public and Democrats believe it’s worth asking him for his perspective — under oath. Curiosity and whimsical interests have nothing to do with it.
I should note, however, that Scully may yet appear before the committee if the GOP will allow Dems to revisit the issue. Scully declined to appear yesterday but wrote to the committee saying he had just returned from two weeks of traveling. Presumably, once the jetlag wears off, Scully could speak to the committee about why he threatened Foster with dismissal and whether anyone was pressuring him from the White House.
The bigger challenge may be getting the committee to hold another hearing. I suspect Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), the committee’s hyper-partisan chairman, will expect yesterday’s mild hearing to placate the Dems and will therefore resist further discussion of the controversy. We’ll see.