Posted on 03/08/2017 1:11:02 PM PST by ColdOne
The White House on Wednesday questioned the work of the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) ahead of its widely anticipated estimate for the GOP's bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
White House press Sean Spicer said the scorekeeper was “way off last time” in its cost estimate of the Affordable Care Act, arguing its numbers on the Republicans’ replacement should not be taken as the final word.
"If you're looking at the CBO for accuracy, you're looking in the wrong place,” Spicer said.
Spicer indicated the Trump White House plans to release its own estimate of the bill through the Office of Management and Budget.
The preemptive attacks on the budget office from Republicans are likely a sign that they expect the CBO will find that their plan will leave more Americans without health insurance and raise costs for the government.
Democrats, and some Republicans, have argued the House shouldn’t vote on the repeal and replace measure until the CBO releases its cost estimate.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Spicer didn’t “go after” anybody. He correctly pointed out that the CBO has a questionable accuracy record.
This is a good move. It keeps the door open to allow the Trump administration to oppose a GOP bill that they otherwise might have already endorsed.
We need to know the details of CBO scoring too.
For example, if I recall correctly, Obamacare got a “passing grade” from the CBO because it included 10 years of revenues/taxes, but only six years of expenses. So that for the 10 year period looked at, it was “revenue neutral”, with no increase in federal expenditures.
But that was a fraud; any accounting type out here, can tell us about the “matching” principle of accounting, in which your revenues and expenses for the same time periods need to be measured.
It was apples and oranges for Nancy Pelosi and her gang to have the CBO come back with an approval based on 10 years of revenue but only 6 years of expenses.
We always need to know the details of what they are looking at, in order to evaluate the claim.
We need to know the details of CBO scoring too.
For example, if I recall correctly, Obamacare got a “passing grade” from the CBO because it included 10 years of revenues/taxes, but only six years of expenses. So that for the 10 year period looked at, it was “revenue neutral”, with no increase in federal expenditures.
But that was a fraud; any accounting type out here, can tell us about the “matching” principle of accounting, in which your revenues and expenses for the same time periods need to be measured.
It was apples and oranges for Nancy Pelosi and her gang to have the CBO come back with an approval based on 10 years of revenue but only 6 years of expenses.
We always need to know the details of what they are looking at, in order to evaluate the claim.
Pence was just on Hannity, pitching the current bill as hard as he could. (And Hannity rolled over shamelessly.)
Way back in LBJ’s era, the CBO scored the Medicare outlay as 9 billion a year. It turned out to be 90 billion a year and it’s still going up. Their estimates NEVER have been correct, and they always err by underestimating the cost of entitlements. This one will be no different.
I don’t understand how, with a straight face, they can claim how much better this bill is because it has so fewer pages, when, what I saw, all it does is refer to the original bill to modify this and that. Like we are stupid? This means the current bill stays intact in all its ugly 2000+ pages as a reference and effectively we have just added 200 more pages to the original monstrosity.
It’s the subsidies AKA ‘tax credits’ along with the ‘you better be on Medicaid by x date’ jacking up the costs everywhere.
The solution is to expand HSAs without tying it to high deductible plans. This will require zero bureaucracy and actually keep the costs low for the consumer because it lowers AGI. Block grant Medicaid to the states and be done with it for now because those amounts will decrease after tax reform goes through.
I wonder if anyone in the GOP knows how to operate a calculator.
The CBO told the 0bama regime what it wanted to hear.
I feel sure Rand won’t.
It is worse than the original bill, if that is possible..it is.
Right! There have been too many instances of unelected bureaucrats “cooking the books” in order to make them conform to a particular partisan narrative.
Right! There have been too many instances of unelected bureaucrats “cooking the books” in order to make them conform to a particular partisan narrative.
STUPID TWEAKS AND YOU HAVE DUMBOCARE LITE. THIS IS NOT A REPEAL OR A FIX.
Romneycare all over again. Just as bad as Tennessee’s Tenncare which has been down sized 4 times as to costly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.