Got a complaint from HHS about my Medicare column. In the beginning I quote Tommy Thompson saying that he didn’t tell Congress of the higher estimates for the cost of the drug bill that were becoming evident even before its passage: “I did not tell them because it was not my responsibility.” That was only part of his quote. Here’s the whole thing: “Their staff knew. And a good share of the leadership in Congress knew. Their staff, I know, did. I did not tell them because it was not my responsibility.” I just quoted the end of Thompson’s statement because it seemed to me to exemplify the slipperiness of the administration on the cost question. But my version obscures the fact that some in Congress were made aware of the numbers (and also apparently chose not to talk about them out loud).