January 30, 2004
You have to wonder how high Dubya can count.
Given the magnitude of the mistake his administration made when calculating the cost of the prescription drug benefits added to Medicare last year, we really have to wonder. At the time the bill was passed, the White House and Republicans in Congress put a US $395 billion price tag on the new program.
Guess what? The Washington Post reports that the real price of the prescription drug benefits will be US $534 billion — one-third more then Dubya claimed just two months ago. As you'd guess, critics on both ends of the political spectrum are not amused by the administration's bad bookkeeping.
But here's the real clincher, as far as this magpie is concerned:
Administration officials would not explain the reason for the discrepancy.
Given the creative permutations of Dubya's story on Iraq's WMDs, we bet that the explanation for the $139 billion mistake on the new Medicare benefit will be a real doozy.
Posted by Magpie at January 30, 2004 03:39 AM | TrackBackYour humble reader thinks that this is another example of Bush lying, now to GOP Congressional leadership. NYT story reports that some Republicans are becoming genuinely concerned that the WH plan to halve the deficit by 2005 will only reduce spending by 3%. I'm not certain if deficit projections have been revised to factor in this new $130 expenditure (over 10 years).
Posted by: James R MacLean on January 30, 2004 02:32 PMYes, a staggering miscalculation isn't it? Reminds me of another estimate that went awry: the cost to the taxpayer of Halliburton's contract in Iraq: which of course has more than tripled without a peep from the media.
Why are these people allowed to get away with this kind of thing?
Simple, they control all three branches of the government. Checks and balances have broken down and we are living in the dreaded one-party state after all. Orwell was off by only 16 years. Not bad!
Posted by: michael the wanderer on January 31, 2004 05:49 PM