Bush Lied To GOP - Medicare Drug Bill $530 Billion, Not $400 Billion

NYTimes - The bill passed narrowly in the House after Republican leaders gave assurances that the cost would not exceed $400 billion.

The Congressional Budget Office said in November and again this week that the cost was about $400 billion for the 10-year period 2004 to 2013, the amount originally proposed by Mr. Bush. But White House officials said Thursday that the president's budget would put the cost at $530 billion to $540 billion.

At the same time, the officials said that the overall budget deficit for the current fiscal year would exceed $500 billion. The deficit for fiscal 2003 was $375 billion, a record amount.

Mr. Bush says his budget request, to be unveiled on Monday, will cut the deficit in half within five years, by promoting economic growth and keeping spending under control.

The Medicare law, which Mr. Bush signed on Dec. 8, will offer drug benefits to 41 million elderly and disabled people. It will also give insurance companies and private health plans a huge new role in the Medicare program.

"The news on the Republican Medicare bill gets better and better for drug company profits and H.M.O.'s, and worse and worse for seniors and the Medicare program," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Administration officials said they had not concealed information about the cost of the new drug benefit. But in their zeal to secure passage of the legislation last fall, they played down concerns about the cost.

From the Washington Post - The White House has concluded that adding prescription drug benefits to Medicare will cost one-third more than the $400 billion advertised by Congress and the administration when President Bush signed the bill into law less than two months ago, federal sources said yesterday.

"I'm not sure I've ever heard of such a big discrepancy . . . weeks after legislation is passed," said Gail R. Wilensky, a Republican health economist who ran the Medicare program in the first Bush administration. "If people thought they were voting for a $400 billion budget, it's distressing."

Yesterday, both sides were furious.

"Not any senior has seen any assistance, yet we've just slugged the taxpayers for another $140 billion," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who fought unsuccessfully for provisions designed to reduce drug prices.

"All of us were afraid it was going to be greater than the estimate," said Rep. Mac Collins (R-Ga.), who said that he and other conservatives had felt pressured to support the bill, knowing that Bush was eager to sign it.