CBO Hypocrisy Alert: Budget Ranking Member Paul Ryan Then, Speaker Paul Ryan Now

This is what Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan said in June 2009 to the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) prior to the transparent debate on the Affordable Care Act:

Before Congress changes health care as the American people know it, we must know the likely consequences of the House Democrat legislation, including the number of people who would lose access to their current insurance, the number of jobs lost due to business taxes, the number of uninsured people who would obtain coverage, and the extent of the cannibalization of employer coverage due to Medicaid expansion.

Today, Speaker Ryan and Republicans are hiding the CBO analysis from the public and not taking the same action on the Republican health care bill.  In fact, they keep dodging questions related to the CBO and anyone that asks about costs, the lack of Republican transparency and possibility of millions of Americans losing their quality coverage.

The hypocrisy is striking, and America is taking notice.

Bloomberg: "During the Obama years…Republicans…demanded that everything be scored by the CBO before any action was taken." 

NBC News:  "…Just how much will this cost taxpayers?  Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, could offer no hard numbers for the GOP bill when asked Tuesday on TODAY."

VOX: "Walden didn't promise the score would come before his committee votes."

USA Today Editorial: "In contrast, Obamacare was the subject of lengthy public hearings and private negotiations during the winter, spring and summer of 2009. The first House committee action came that July, after the CBO came out with its estimates of the cost and the number of people who'd gain insurance."

As House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi rightly noted in a letter to Speaker Ryan:

Members must not be asked to vote on this legislation before the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation have answered the following questions about your legislation in 2018 and 2019, over the 10-year budget window, and in the decade after: How will this bill measure up to the Affordable Care Act and current Medicaid law on coverage, quality, and cost?  And how will it impact Medicare solvency?