GAO Says HHS Broke Laws With Medicare Videos By Amy Goldstein Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 20, 2004; Page A01 The Bush administration violated two federal laws through part of its publicity campaign to promote changes in Medicare intended to help older Americans afford prescription drugs, the investigative arm of Congress said yesterday. The General Accounting Office concluded that the Department of Health and Human Services illegally spent federal money on what amounted to covert propaganda by producing videos about the Medicare changes that were made to look like news reports. Portions of the videos, which have been aired by 40 television stations around the country, do not make it clear that the announcers were paid by HHS and were not real reporters. The finding adds fuel to partisan criticism of the new law, which creates drug coverage and a larger role for private health companies in Medicare, in the biggest expansion yet of the program that provides health insurance to 40 million elderly and disabled people. For months, Democrats have been assailing the substance of the law, saying it provides too little help to Medicare patients and too much money to pharmaceutical and managed-care companies. And now that it is beginning to take effect, Democratic lawmakers complain about the way the administration is promoting it. They have also accused President Bush's aides of concealing the true cost of the legislation while it was being debated last year. In this instance, however, the GAO's legal opinion was not prompted by Democratic complaints. GAO officials said yesterday that they had decided on their own to examine the legality of the videos, after receiving the tapes this spring from HHS as part of a separate review of advertisements the administration had produced about the Medicare law. The 16-page legal opinion says that HHS's "video news releases" violated a statute that forbids the use of federal money for propaganda, as well as the Antideficiency Act, which covers the unauthorized use of federal funds. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41077-2004May19.html
When the executive branch sets an example by breaking the laws what will our children think? The leaders of our government are supposed to be mean of character who show what good leadership is about, yet now our families are subjected to crimes, and we have yet to see anyone punished for them. I hope our next president can restore some integrity to the White House.
And FWIW, My parents are on Medicare, spend lots on drugs, yet this new plan MAY COST THEM, AND MOST OTHER SENIORS MORE MONEY, and yet ... IT WILL ALSO COST OUR GOVERNMENT MORE MONEY. note to self...buy pharmaceutical company stock while the Republicans are in office... I don't see how a Party that rightly argues for lower taxes, forces us to pay more for goods and services, effectively cancelling out some tax savings.
