The American People Deserve the Truth

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESERVE THE TRUTH -- (House of Representatives - March 18, 2004)

(Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, one of the reasons this current administration has run up the largest Federal deficit in the universe's history is it has not told the truth to the American people.

The most recent example of that is this story that has come out that the chief actuary for Medicare had numbers indicating that the President's Medicare bill would cost billions of dollars more money than the administration told the American people. Indeed, Richard Foster advised the administration that this bill would cost $534 billion, when the administration was telling the American people it would cost about $400 billion.

And the reason this individual was not able to blow the whistle at that time is they effectively said they would fire him if he told the truth to the American people.

In an e-mail disclosed yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, it was disclosed that this gentleman got an e-mail that said essentially, if you tell Congress or the American people the truth, quote, "The consequences for insubordination are extremely severe," closed quote. We know what that means.

This administration told the person he would be fired if he told the truth to the American people. Well, we disagree with Jack Nicholson: We can handle the truth, and we deserve it.

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