[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 35 (Thursday, March 18, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1231-H1232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESERVE THE TRUTH

  (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

[[Page H1232]]

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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