The Foster Affair (And We Don't Mean Vince)

The New York Times gets it right in this editorial on the atrocious lying before the big Medicare vote last year:

If subverting informed decision-making were illegal, Thomas Scully, the Bush administration's former top Medicare official, would be in trouble. The Health and Human Services Department reported last week that before the vote on the huge Medicare reform bill last November, Mr. Scully threatened to fire the agency's chief actuary, Richard Foster, if he released estimates to Congress showing that the bill could cost as much as 50 percent more than the White House had let on.

But the report said that Mr. Scully had broken no law. Moreover, because he is no longer with Medicare — he now lobbies for drug companies — he faces no disciplinary action.

The Bush administration would no doubt love to have the issue end there. But Congress should not allow that. Ordinary citizens and their representatives have a right to be informed about public policy. The White House cannot continue to get away with treating Congress as some pesky organization with which it needn't share information.