GOP Attacks Nonpartisan CBO in Anticipation of Learning Millions Will Lose Coverage

In the days following a Brookings analysis showing 15 million people will lose coverage with the GOP ‘Pay More for Less' repeal bill, House Republican leaders and the White House have launched a wildly off-base campaign to discredit the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office – whose Director was even hand-picked and appointed by a Republican Speaker.

FROM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS:

OMB Director Mick Mulvaney (and former GOP Representative from South Carolina):

"The CBO said -- if the CBO was right about Obamacare to begin with, there would be eight million more people on Obamacare today than there actually are. So I love the folks at the CBO. They work really hard. They do, but sometimes we ask them to do stuff they're not capable of doing, and estimating the impact of a bill of this size probably isn't the -- isn't the best use of their time."

HHS Secretary Tom Price (and former GOP Representative from Georgia):

"CBO has been very adept in not providing appropriate coverage statistics."

White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn:

"We will see what the score is. In fact in the past, the CBO score has really been meaningless."

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer:

"If you're looking to the CBO for accuracy, you're looking in the wrong place."

AND CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP:

Speaker Paul Ryan:

"The one thing I'm certain will happen is CBO will say: 'Well, gosh. Not as many people will get coverage…You know why? Because this isn't a government mandate… there's no way you can compete with on paper a government mandate with coverage."

House Whip Steve Scalise:

"We're not going to wait on some unelected bureaucrats to provide relief from Obamacare."

Senator Tom Cotton:

"The director of the CBO is not Moses…He doesn't come down from the mountaintops with stone tablets…They can make mistakes."

Senator Tim Scott:

He called the CBO "consistently inconsistent," and said he did not "put that much weight on a CBO score."

Congressman Dave Brat:

"CBO has scored everything wrong forever, so they're a minor concern."

Congressman Larry Buschon:

"The CBO score is a red herring…"

The truth? CBO is a nonpartisan agency designed to help Congress and the American people understand the impacts of legislation. Their cost estimates matter.

From TPM:

"The office is genuinely nonpartisan and seeks to make sure its estimates are grounded in research literature," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who led the agency under President George W. Bush, worked on Mitt Romney's 2008 campaign and now leads the conservative American Action Forum. "Both Republicans and Democrats have led the office, and the work is always of the same high quality."

"They're the ultimate budget wonks," added Stan Collender, a former top staffer on the House and Senate budget committees who worked for both Republicans and Democrats. "They produce the closest thing you're going to get to facts in Washington. The Office of Management and Budget is good, but it's in their interest to protect the White House. The CBO is only there to get the numbers right."

The concerted attacks on the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office only demonstrate how terrible Republicans anticipate the reduced coverage and higher costs of their bill will be. It's time for Republicans to face the music – attacking the Congressional Budget Office is hypocritical and wrong.  Americans deserve to know what's in the #PayMoreForLess health care repeal bill.

HEADLINES

• Washington Post– Millions might lose health coverage? Not to hear Republican leaders tell it.
• Roll Call – CBO Score Will Ring in Another Round of House Fight
• Reuters– Agency's Analysis of Republican Health Bill May Sharpen Resistance to Measure
• AP –  Republicans set low expectations for health bill cost study
• NBC News – This Federal Agency Could Blow Up the Health Care Debate
• TPM–  No, The CBO Was Not ‘Way, Way Off' On Scoring Obamacare

• CNN – GOP tries to discredit agency reviewing its health care bill
• TPM – Trump Admin Keeps Up Attacks On CBO Before It Scores ACA Repeal Bill
• Huffington Post – White House Preemptively Attacks Congressional Budget Office On Obamacare Bill
• Washington Post – Republicans are trying to destroy the very idea of neutral judgment
• New York Times – White House Casts Pre-emptive Doubt on Congressional Budget Office
• Los Angeles Times – Republicans brace for downbeat CBO analysis of health bill
• Washington Post Editorial – The GOP's mind-blowing hypocrisy on the CBO
• Salon – Republicans trash Congressional Budget Office before American Health Care Act is scored