When President Bush signed the Medicare drug benefit bill in December, he assured a skeptical Congress and the American people that it would cost $395 billion over 10 years. That was untrue. Just 30 days after passage, the White House conceded the true cost was estimated at $534 billion. The administration insisted it hadn't known.

That, too, was untrue. Robert Foster, the chief actuary for the program, says he provided the correct numbers to the administration well before the bill went to a vote, but was ordered to withhold the information from Congress or be fired.

This duplicity was based on political calculus. The White House felt it needed passage of this bill to bolster the president's re-election effort, but knew this was a close call. Republican legislators were just as worried as their Democratic counterparts over the costs -- even when falsely pegged at $395 billion. The bill passed only after an unprecedented parliamentary maneuver that kept the vote "open" for three hours. Had the true cost been known, passage was unlikely.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson says John Scully, the man who allegedly told Foster to withhold the information, was an out-of-control employee.

But this is just the latest in a series of disturbing revelations about the Medicare drug bill. Even before Congress voted, a legislator claimed he was offered a bribe to support it. Retiring Rep. Billy Tauzin, the Louisiana Republican who shepherded it through the House, is in negotiations for a top job with a lobbying group for drug companies.

Now, the Bush administration has produced a taxpayer-funded public-service announcement that is nothing more than a campaign ad. The General Accounting Office has said it will look into the legality of video "news" releases from the administration that include fake reporters and fawning seniors praising the bill.

As new information emerges about the Medicare bill and its passage, the Bush administration's credibility sinks ever lower