Sometimes lies are crimes and cost the liars money, us too.

From the New York Times Sept 7, 2004

The Bush administration illegally withheld data from Congress on the cost of the new Medicare law, and as a penalty, the former head of the Medicare agency, Thomas A. Scully, must repay seven months of his salary to the government, federal investigators said today.

The investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said that Mr. Scully had threatened to fire the chief Medicare actuary in violation of an explicit provision of federal appropriations law.

Accordingly, they said, federal money could not be used to pay Mr. Scully's salary after he began making the threats to the actuary in May 2003.

The conclusion was reached in a formal legal opinion by the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress formerly known as the General Accounting Office.

Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, one of 18 Democratic senators who had requested the legal opinion, reflected partisan reaction in his remarks about the finding. "The Bush administration went so far as to break the law in order to hide information about its flawed Medicare plan," he asserted today. "This was a corruption of the process at the highest levels."$534 billion over 10 years, as against $400 billion.

Lawmakers of both parties said the law would not have passed in its current form if Congress had known of the higher cost estimate, prepared by the chief actuary, Richard S. Foster, a career civil servant.

The finding is the latest development raising questions about the new law, which offers drug benefits to all 41 million Medicare recipients and provides private insurers with a huge new role in the program. The changes represent the biggest expansion of Medicare since its creation in 1965.


Another lie revealed..... this time the cost is money, the next, maybe jail time,,,

Joe