21 May 2004

Democrats Demand Payback of Illegal Medicare Videos

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - U.S. Senate and House Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation to require the Bush administration to repay the estimated $43,000 cost of "video news releases" that the General Accounting Office says violated a federal law against the use of government funds for "publicity or propaganda." But Administration officials insist that there was nothing inappropriate about the videos and they intend to take no action in light of the finding.

"Republicans should not be robbing Medicare to pay for political ads," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who sought the original GAO investigation of the administration's public relations campaign about the Medicare law signed last December, on Thursday introduced a bill to require the President's reelection campaign to pay the money back. "These funds were meant to help our seniors, not the President's reelection campaign," said Lautenberg.

At a hearing Thursday on the Medicare discount drug cards, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said he would introduce a companion bill in that chamber.

Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Pete Stark, D-Calif., called for the more than 40 television stations that ran the video spots featuring government-paid announcers posing as journalists to air corrections.

On Wednesday the agency said that by not clearly identifying the government as the source of the prepackaged news spots, those portions of the videos "violated the publicity or propaganda prohibition" of the agency's annual spending bill, as well as the "Antideficiency Act," because money was spent in excess of the amount appropriated by Congress.

In its 16-page ruling, the GAO, among other things, brushed off protestations by Medicare officials that video news releases that fail to clearly identify the source of the information are commonly distributed. "Our analysis of the proper use of appropriated funds is not based upon the norms in the public relations and media industry," wrote GAO General Counsel Anthony Gamboa.

Bill Pierce, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the agency disagrees with the GAO finding, and noted that it is not, in any case, binding on the Department. He said that if anyone erred in running the videos without noting they were produced by the government, it was the television stations themselves. "They knew who it was from," he said.

Pierce also criticized Democrats who are trumpeting the ruling, to the detriment of efforts to educate Medicare beneficiaries about the new law. "We continue to provide benefits to people who need help. Democrats continue to play politics," he said.

© Reuters 2004. All rights reserved.
By Julie Rovner

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