WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3), a member of the House Budget Committee, today reacted to news that the Medicare drug program touted by the Administration may rise to as much as $1.2 trillion in the next ten years by saying the White House could not be trusted on recent estimates for the FY 2006 budget and the president’s Social Security proposal. When lobbying for the Medicare bill during his 2003 State of the Union speech, President Bush pledged to keep the total cost of the drug benefit to $400 billion over 10 years. But shortly after the bill narrowly passed Congress, the White House revised its projection to $534 billion.

“The fact that the Administration’s Medicare drug program will cost nearly three times what they projected only a year ago, proves once again that this White House will say and do anything to justify its own political goals, even if it means driving us deeper into debt,” said DeLauro. “Given that Medicare’s chief actuary was threatened with dismissal for raising similar concerns, this most recent news is hardly surprising. But even so, that doesn’t make it acceptable.”

Last March, Richard S. Foster, Medicare's chief actuary for nearly ten years, said Administration officials threatened to fire him before the bill’s final passage if he disclosed findings that the drug proposal would cost well in excess of the White House’s public cost estimate.

“This news is only the latest in the Administration’s strategy to undermine trust in Medicare, one of the most successful, reliable, programs in the history of the country,” said DeLauro. “If they had really wanted to keep costs down, they would have legalized reimportation of prescription drugs from countries like Canada and given the secretary of Health and Human Services the authority to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. Instead, the White House chose to mislead the public.”

The cost for prescription drugs has been rising far faster than inflation, and is one of the drivers behind the new Medicare costs.