Sources within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tell The American Spectator that the White House had a crucial report on government-run health care more than a week before Congress passed the legislation, yet withheld the report for political reasons.

The report, released by HHS, revealed that the legislative proposal would increase costs — in direct contradiction to claims by Democrats in the White House and Congress. The report was only released to the public recently, yet The Prowler has sources telling him/her that the Obama Administration had it before Congress even voted.

The economic report released last week by Health and Human Services, which indicated that President Barack Obama’s health care “reform” law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers, had been submitted to the office of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius more than a week before the Congressional votes on the bill, according to career HHS sources, who added that Sebelius’s staff refused to review the document before the vote was taken.

“The reason we were given was that they did not want to influence the vote,” says an HHS source. “Which is actually the point of having a review like this, you would think.”…

“We know a copy was sent to the White House via their legislative affairs staff,” says the HHS staffer, “and there were a number of meetings here almost right after the analysis was submitted to the secretary’s office. Everyone went into lockdown, and people here were too scared to go public with the report.”

If true, the Obama Administration withheld an official federal report on a legislative proposal for political reasons. The report may well have lead moderate Democrats to think twice about voting for such costly legislation, and in fact the legislation itself may have died on the floor.

That would be incredibly sleezy and violate the president’s pledges on transparency. You can’t withhold a report on legislative costs, one that contradicts your claims, until after the legislation has passed and then purport to be transparent.

Will Congress investigate? Unlikely. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi aren’t going to permit an investigation into whether Barack Obama’s administration hid information from Congress for manipulative reasons. It’s just not going to happen.

Via Hot Air.