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Editorial: Reeks of a coverup

Monday, April 5, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

Last week Thomas Scully, the former administrator of the Medicare program, refused to appear before a House committee. It was Scully, you may recall, who allegedly threatened to fire Medicare's chief actuary last year if he told members of Congress the real cost of President Bush's prescription drug program before its approval. Only after the program's passage did the Bush administration acknowledge that the cost would be $534 billion over 10 years -- a huge increase over the White House's previous estimate that it would cost no more than $400 billion.

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, in a party-line vote on Thursday, defeated a Democratic proposal to subpoena Scully to appear and answer questions. If anything, it should be Republicans, especially conservatives who had been reluctant to vote for the program because they worried about its costs, who should be demanding a full investigation. The refusal by congressional Republicans to investigate this scandal smells like an election-year cover-up to protect the president.

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