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Report: Medicare Legislation Distorted Process of Lawmaking

Common Cause, the famed non-partisan public interest lobby, has issued a report claiming that the Medicare law passed in 2003 "has been a study in shutting out opposing voices and suppressing the flow of vital information." The report, called Democracy on Drugs, cites a series of incidents that "add up to a consistent effort by the Administration and Congressional leadership to bypass or undermine the rules and laws that are in place to ensure that our government works in an open and accountable manner."

Following are some of the key areas emphasized in the report:

  • Censoring C-SPAN: On the night that the final Medicare vote was set to take place — Nov. 22 — House Republican leaders still didn't have the votes needed for passage. So, rather than the normal 15 minutes for voting, they kept the vote open on the floor for three hours — the longest period in congressional history — as they tried to convince unwilling lawmakers to approve the bill. Not wanting the public to see their blatant arm twisting, House leaders ordered C-SPAN to direct its cameras to the Democratic side of the House floor, where they stayed through the night until the required votes were finally secured.
  • Charges of bribery: One Republican who decided to vote "no" on the bill was retiring Rep. Nick Smith of Michigan, whose son was planning to run for his seat. Smith said he received offers of extensive financial support for his son's campaign if he changed his vote, and threats of political retaliation against the son if he did not.
  • Withholding Information from Congress: HHS Chief Actuary Robert Foster charged that Medicare administrator Thomas Scully threatened to fire him if he revealed to Congress that the Medicare bill would actually cost more than the original $400 billion estimate. According to Foster, Scully knew that a revised estimate of $534 billion (over 10 years) would discourage some fiscally conservative members of Congress from voting for the bill — an Administration priority. Foster says he was repeatedly told not to respond to congressional requests regarding the Medicare bill.
  • Conference Committee Lockout: When the House and Senate each passed their own version of the Medicare bill, a 17-member conference committee was named to work out the differences. The committee included seven Democrats, but Republican leaders only allowed two to attend conference sessions — Sens. John Breaux (D-LA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) — because they found them most likely to back GOP priorities.
  • Scully Cashes In: Right after the law was passed, Medicare administrator Thomas Scully announced he was leaving government to join a high-paying law firm, Alston & Bird, that lobbies on behalf of drug companies and other healthcare clients. At the same time that Scully was helping to write the Medicare legislation and push it through Congress, he was able to obtain an unusual waiver from the government's ethics officer in order to negotiate his job deal. The Medicare law directly affects many of the industries represented by his new firm.
  • Tauzin Eyes PhRMA Job: Two months after Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) — Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee — helped negotiate the new Medicare law, The Washington Post reported that he was offered the top job at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry trade group. The job is said to pay $2 million a year. Common Cause questions whether Tauzin was "trying to please PhRMA" through his work on the drug provisions in the legislation, "and what PhRMA may have promised in return."
  • Drug Industry's Money: Fearing that Congress might let Medicare negotiate drug prices — a direct threat to industry profits — PhRMA and its drug-company members spent at lease $72 million lobbying for a "market-based" Medicare drug benefit in 2003 — $135,000 per member of Congress.
  • Propaganda Campaign: After the law was passed, the administration immediately launched a multi-million dollar campaign to promote the new prescription drug benefit. Ads that some said were blatantly political and misleading to the public were produced and distributed by a partisan Republican media company: National Media Inc. The administration also produced videos that were sent to television stations for airing. The videos appeared to be unbiased newscasts, complete with actors playing reporters. They did not identify the government as producer or author. The federal General Accounting Office (GAO) recently ruled that the Bush Administration broke the law by distributing the videos, were "misleading as to the source," and that the videos were "covert propaganda."

 

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