During last year’s Medicare prescription drug coverage debate in Congress, the sticker price was a major issue, especially considering that our children and grandchildren are the ones who will pay for it. The administration pointed to estimates that it would cost no more than $400 billion over a decade. There’s now growing evidence that the administration hid something from Congress: they’d known for months that the legislation would cost at least $151 billion more.

According to Richard Foster, Medicare’s top financial analyst, then-Medicare Administrator, Tom Scully threatened to fire him if he shared true cost estimates with lawmakers. According to a June 20th email from a top Scully aide obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Foster was instructed to “Work up the numbers and share them with Scully and NO ONE ELSE.” If this directive wasn’t followed, “The consequences for insubordination would be extremely severe.” Mr. Foster has said that this made him very hesitant to share any of his information.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has tried to contain the fiasco by ordering an internal investigation. Thompson also distanced himself from Scully, who is now a Gucci-gulch lobbyist for the health care industry.

Hopefully, this investigation will uncover some critical details. First, there’s the question of what the total cost will be to subsidize prescription drugs for the elderly. Next, maybe we’ll find out if the White House’s multi-million dollar media campaign is about facts or propaganda. The General Accounting Office is also probing this one, to find out whether the White House’s TV “news releases” are in violation of a 1952 law that forbids government agencies from using taxpayer dollars for “publicity or propaganda” purposes.

Regardless of the answers we get, you’ve to be wondering if our nation would have this Prescription Drug “Benefit” if anyone but the White House had known about its real costs. We don’t doubt it for a second that this bill would have been legislative road kill. We haven’t forgotten that the legislation passed only after some extraordinary late-night arm-twisting in the House of Representatives last November, which was only made possible by keeping the vote open for more than 3 hours.

Real fiscal conservatives have been rightfully outraged over the cost of this bill. As Arizona Congressman, Jeff Flake has pointed out, “No one has a monopoly on the truth in a democracy and the administration has lost sight of that.”

No public relations campaign can camouflage that this is a bad law and that lies were used to sell it. Congress should act like a smart consumer and ask for a refund.