This one is a few days old, but last week the Bush administration lowered by 500,000 its rah-rah-Medicare-Part‑D estimate of the number of seniors with drug coverage. Seems they double-counted half a million veterans who had enrolled in a private Part D drug plan. Oops.

Two observations.

First, given the administration’s track record, journalists should just start using disclaimers like, “Remember, these Medicare figures were provided by the Bush Administration. Wink, wink.”

Second, I’m not a big fan of either Part D or the Veterans Health Administration. But left-wingers love the latter and hate the former. I wonder how they explain veterans leaving their preferred model for the one entitlement program they detest.