It’s hard to choose the best White House scandal that, in a just world, would be destroying the president’s credibility. There are just so darn many criminal or near-criminal controversies surrounding Bush right now.
The Medicare scandal is about to heat up again in a big way. We already know the administration lied to Congress and the public about the cost of the White House plan and we know that Bush officials are refusing to share cost estimates with lawmakers, despite previous promises to do so.
Now we’re learning that federal investigators believe the Bush administration broke the law by silencing those who knew the truth.
Nonpartisan congressional analysts said Bush administration officials appear to have violated federal law by barring Medicare’s chief actuary from sharing cost estimates with lawmakers debating prescription-drug legislation.
“Congress’s right to receive truthful information from federal agencies to assist in its legislative functions is clear and unassailable,” said the Congressional Research Service legal analysis, which cites both statutes and related Supreme Court decisions dating back almost a century. “Political gamesmanship must yield to the clear public interest of providing elected representatives in the Congress with accurate and truthful information upon which to effectively fashion the laws for the nation,” it said.
House Democrats seized on the nine-page memo yesterday to argue for subpoenas requiring testimony by former Medicare administrator Tom Scully and White House aide Douglas Badger regarding their knowledge of the alleged “gag order.”
This is huge — and it’s going to be awfully difficult for the Republicans to brush this one under the rug. The White House is already under one criminal investigation (for the Plame Game affair) and now federal investigators believe Bush officials broke other laws regarding the Medicare scam.
This is going to get a whole lot worse for the GOP and a whole lot better for the Dems.
A month ago, the House Ways and Means Committee convened a hearing on the administration’s cover-up and all the key players were invited to shed some light on the subject. Predictably, none of the administration officials showed up. Tom Scully, who ordered Medicare actuary Richard Foster to hide the truth, and Doug Badger, Bush’s senior health policy adviser whom Foster believes was in on the scheme, refused to cooperate.
Dems asked to subpoena the witnesses and demand the relevant documents from the White House, but House Republicans, who control the Ways and Means Committee, rejected the idea. Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) said at the time that this controversy didn’t point to any crimes, so he wasn’t prepared to pursue it.
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.”
Well guess what, Bill? Now we’re talking about a “violation of law.” Are you still prepared to use “whatever tools are necessary”?
This one’s tough to spin out of. The Bush administration broke the law, hid information, threatened public officials, and lied to Congress. And they got caught. How can House Republicans, who used to embrace a “law and order” philosophy, ignore this as meaningless trivia?
As for the source of this legal analysis, the GOP also can’t dismiss the non-partisan Congressional Research Service as biased. Indeed, the Bush administration has held out the CRS as a reliable source for objective information. As the WSJ reported:
The CRS is respected by the administration. In an April 16 letter to lawmakers, the Department of Health and Human Services cited its legal opinions to justify the administration stand on another matter related to Congress.
So, what’s the Republican defense for the administration’s criminal behavior? So far, there isn’t one. The New York Times ran a hilarious quote, though, from a desperate administration spin doctor who’s in over his head.
William A. Pierce, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Monday that the propriety of Mr. Scully’s action was being investigated by the agency’s inspector general. In any event, Mr. Pierce said, “we are looking to the future, not the past.”
Ah, yes, the “what’s done is done” defense. Sure, we broke the law and got caught, but let’s not look back at such pesky details. What’s important is ignoring our criminal behavior and not dwelling on the past.
These people have no shame. They will do anything — including breaking the law — to advance their agenda. Be afraid.