It’s been heartening to see congressional Dems having a field day, hammering the Bush administration for deceiving Congress over the cost of the president’s Medicare scheme.
Democratic lawmakers seized on news yesterday that the Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost much more than first projected, blasting the Bush administration and saying it cannot be trusted to acknowledge the likely costs of its priorities, including revisions to Social Security.
In hearings, speeches and interviews, Democrats said the sharply higher Medicare cost estimate is a matter of credibility, not bookkeeping quibbles, and they wielded it as a new weapon in their bid to prevent President Bush from converting a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to personal accounts. Some House and Senate Democrats called for a congressional investigation into the hard-fought 2003 Medicare prescription drug battle, in which an administration official said he was pressured to keep long-term cost estimates hidden from lawmakers.
There are some hard-hitting public remarks from Dems out there, all of which serve as a reminder that Dems are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.
But one of the more curious comments I saw came from Sen. Judd Gregg.
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said Wednesday that he wants White House Budget Director Joshua Bolten to tell Congress “what the real numbers are,” and pronounced himself “very suspect of this program as to its cost.” Buttonholed later in a Senate hallway, Gregg said that while he’d like to hold hearings on the drug benefit, “I’m a lone voice on that issue.”
Actually, the point is that Gregg isn’t “a lone voice” at all. Dems are practically begging for Congress to show some semblance of administration oversight. The fact that the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee agrees is very encouraging.
But that’s the strangest thing about Gregg’s remark. If he wants hearings, he should pick up his gavel and call some.
It doesn’t make any sense for him to say he’s alone in wanting hearings — we know Dems, both on the committee and off, agree. What Gregg means, of course, is that other Republicans don’t agree on the merit of hearings and won’t let him move forward with the idea.
As such, this is something akin to gut-check time for Gregg, and for that matter, Congress. The White House clearly lied to lawmakers about the Medicare plan. Of this, there is no longer any doubt. Last year, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) told House Dems he’d hold hearings on the problem if Dems could prove laws were broken as part of the fiasco. Dems obliged, pointed to literal criminality, but Thomas reneged on the deal.
Now we’re back at the same point again. Gregg is new to the job of Senate Budget Committee chairman, so he may not realize his authority here. So, Sen. Gregg, here’s a reminder: if you want hearings on how much Bush is prepared to spend on his Medicare scheme, and every Dem on the committee agrees with you, you don’t need anyone else’s permission.
If Gregg really wants accurate numbers, administration accountability, and an honest federal budget, he can start using some of his new-found power. If not, Gregg and other Republicans who are feigning outrage should stop pretending they care.