It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 
Thanks to today's Miami Herald, it has now been revealed that Bush Administration official and former health-industry lobbyist Thomas Scully forbade the top U.S. Medicare cost expert, Richard Foster, from telling legislators that the cost of Bush's Medicare bill would be over $100 Billion more than the Bush Administration was letting on. Scully told Foster he'd be fired if he told the Congress this fact. Scully's explanation for his action? Telling the Congress about the actual cost would have caused a political disruption in the passage of the bill.

When word leaked out that Foster had been told by the Bush Administration to clam up and not inform the Congress of the actual cost of the Medicare Bill, incensed members of Congress called Scully's supervisor in the Bush Administration, Tommy Thompson, to task. Thompson promised the following: "I can assure you that from now [on], the remaining days that I am secretary, you will have as much access as you want to anybody or anything in the department. All you have to do is call me."

So members of Congress asked Thompson to provide a copy of Richard Foster's cost estimates for Medicare. As the weeks passed, that information continued to be withheld. And Richard Foster's superiors continue to forbid him to be interviewed by news organizations picking up the story.

Posted by James Cook at 1:59 PM. # (permalink)




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