The Smell of a Real Scandal

[NNN0LHI]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4571136/

The run-up to the Iraq war was more hype than lie. Medicare is a clearer example of dishonesty and corruption at high levels

March 29 issue - The democrats are over the top. Last week the democratic National Committee was once again trying to close the propaganda gap with the GOP, which has a much surer instinct for the jugular. The DNC risked a lawsuit from Burger King with what the party calls its daily "Home of the Whopper" blast e-mail. This time the supposed Republican "lie" was that certain items for sale on the Bush for President Web site were partly manufactured in Burma, despite an import ban against that despotic country. Now, it's fine to point this out, but the Democrats are in danger of losing perspective on mendacity in the Bush administration, crying wolf so often that voters stop noticing the real abuses. That's what was wrong with John Kerry's off-mike comments about the Republicans' being a bunch of liars and crooks. To be believable, he has to go to real cases with real culprits, like the Big Medicare Con now coming to light.

The whole world knows we "got taken for a ride," as the president of Poland says, on Iraq. But because Bush & Co. were as shocked as anyone at the absence of WMD, that's more in the category of grotesque hype than outright lie. The Medicare story is a clearer example of dishonesty and, yes, corruption at high levels. As former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill's statements make clear, the lying about budget numbers began early in the administration, when the White House falsely claimed that the government could not use the surplus to further draw down the debt. It continued after 9/11, when an assistant Treasury secretary complained that the administration was squandering the national consensus by insisting on tax-cut projections that weren't real. But the most shocking deception took place in the run-up to the signing of the Medicare prescription-drug benefit on Christmas Eve.

Recall how that bill squeaked through Congress only after some heads were cracked. A retiring Republican from Michigan, Rep. Nick Smith, even charges that supporters of the bill offered him a bribe in the form of financial support for the political campaign of his son. The bill was priced at the time at $400 billion over 10 years. After the deed was done (the specifics of which amounted to a huge giveaway to the pharmaceutical and health-care industries), it came out that the real cost will be at least $551.5 billion—a difference of $150-plus billion that will translate into trillions over time. Now we learn that the Bush administration knew the truth beforehand and squelched it. Rick Foster, the chief actuary for Medicare, says he was told he would be fired if he passed along the higher estimates to Congress. "I'll fire him so fast his head will spin," Thomas Scully, then head of Medicare, said last June, according to an aide who has now gone public.

I knew Tom Scully a bit when he worked for Bush's father during the early 1990s. He is a whip-smart health-policy expert and Bush-family loyalist. He denies making the firing comment or saying that Foster was guilty of "insubordination" for wanting to tell Congress the truth. But Scully, who (natch) now works as a highly paid lobbyist on health issues, is stuck with the fact that Foster made clear efforts to be honest about the cost of this monstrosity.

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[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Sorry, this is bunk.

What the Democrats are doing is throwing out for the public to view, all that is is wrong and all that has substance; and you don't lose credibility doing that.

The Republicans, in the 1990s, with Ted Olson's legal advice, threw everything even if it had no substance, i.e. Vince Foster suicide tied to the Clintons. And yet, even though the information was far-fetched and debunked, the Republican-voters bought it.

I think it would be a mistake for the Dems to limit themselves to one corrupt Republican activity, because that would be putting all your eggs in one basket and there isn't just one kind of voter out there. If you show them the real picture of Republicans -- give them all the facts about all their corrupt activities, then streamline them together by showing that this is the way that Republicans do business, then you may succeed in waking up the sleeping giant.

[acmavm]

2. I say throw it all out there, show them for what a bunch of crooks and

liars they are. It will all stick. Bitching about clothing manufactured and purchased by the bush* campaign from a country that we have a bush* mandated trade embargo against will help with the undecided union voters.

But I do find it interesting that even the mere mention of corruption in the bush* administration if finding its way into the media.

[Buns_of_Fire]

11. It's hard to tell now what will ultimately resonate with the electorate

But I agree: Throw it ALL out there. And whatever sticks, throw MORE of it. :evilgrin:

[boobooday]

3. We are always told to hold back

Don't go too far criticizing the Republicans! Oh no!

Meanwhile, nothing is too low, too untrue, too audacious for them.

We need to point out EVERY lie, relentlessly. Even with that, we won't be able to keep up with their crazy lie machine.

Although I do agree that this Medicare thing is a big one, and should be emphasized because senior citizens need to hear how they've been betrayed.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[NNN0LHI]

4. And senior citizens actually vote too. Thats kind of important I think? nt

[imax2268]

5. expose them...

nt

[Hotler]

6. Shout it from the mountain tops.

n/t

[rock]

7. "Bush & Co. were as shocked as anyone at the absence of WMD"

It's strange that poor judgement is a good defense for incompetence.

[Malva Zebrina]

9. that line caught my eye also

excuses for Bush, I think

If Alter buys that, he is naive

[54anickel]

8. WTF This article seems to excuse the lies of this misadmin is its own

twisted little way. A reader can't tell if he's coming or going. Who's lying about what, is it hype or a lie, who's telling the truth, what is the truth? I would come away with the notion that they all lie, and end up voting for the candidate with the best "marketing of image". You know who that will probably be.....

But because Bush & Co. were as shocked as anyone at the absence of WMD, that's more in the category of grotesque hype than outright lie.

snip>
You might think this is standard operating procedure in Washington. It is not. Every White House sends the press secretary out to spin the numbers that emerge on a weekly or monthly basis from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other agencies. But applying political pressure to cook the numbers themselves is a true scandal.

snip>
The challenge for the Democrats is to resist the temptation to make their own phony claims, or to hype the usual petty distortions of politics into "lies." The truth is damaging enough.

[MidwestMomma]

10. Why doesn't the MEDIA expose the lies?

It's unbelievable to me that we have reached the point in this country where it's up to the 'political opposition' to expose corruption in our government.

When I grew up, that was the job of the news media. The job of a reporter was to hunt down leads and expose the wrongs. Not wait and be fed the lead story for the day by this Party or that.

For a media outlet to sit and whine that the Democrats aren't doing a good job in exposing Bush shows how screwed up this country is.

All I can say is :wtf: