Budget referee may call foul on Obamacare repeal

[March 4th]

Source: Politico

By Rachana Pradhan
03/10/17 05:09 AM EST



The fate of Obamacare may lie in the hands of a number-crunching Republican appointee whose bottom line might single-handedly blow up the GOP quest to repeal and replace it.

Congressional Budget Office Director Keith Hall was handpicked two years ago by top Republicans in Congress -- including now Health and Human Service Secretary Tom Price -- to lead a nonpartisan office that will soon release its estimate of how many Americans the Republican health care bill will cover and whether it shrinks or balloons the federal deficit.

With the House repeal bill under attack by Republican moderates worrying about coverage and conservatives fuming about entitlements and spending, the CBO assessment will matter. It’s widely expected early next week.

Hall, in the post for two years, has already signaled that his office won't soft-pedal the coverage assessments. If a health plan doesn't have comprehensive benefits, it won't count as coverage. Fearing a bad CBO "score," Republicans facing backlash in their drive to gut Obamacare are turning the budget agency and its team of professional economic analysts into a punching bag as they try to discredit it.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/obamacare-repeal-congressional-budget-office-keith-hall-235903

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Weren't careful what you wished for, GOPhuckyourselves?

[HAB911]

1. This guy thinks it is on purpose: Trumpcare Is Not Real

No one is this stupid. Donald Trump weighed in on the unfolding train wreck and possibly gave away the game:

In an Oval Office meeting featuring several leaders of conservative groups already lining up against the House Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, President Donald Trump revealed his plan in the event the GOP effort fails: Allow Obamcare to fail and let Democrats take the blame, sources at the gathering told CNN.

In light of the preposterous nature of the bill, I submit that letting Obamacare "fail" was always the plan and the AHCA is a ruse designed to make it look like Republicans were actually interested in fixing America's healthcare system. Of course, in this context, "fail" means "do everything possible to sabotage the ACA and then act shocked when it breaks," but let's not quibble over semantics.

Breaking the legs of Obamacare without providing an actual replacement serves several functions. First, it allows Republicans to kill the law without taking responsibility for killing it. Sure, they'll be standing over the fresh corpse with the bloody knife in their hand but the press has been a very reliable accomplice when it comes to ignoring the GOP's culpability for the law's problems.

http://thedailybanter.com/2017/03/trumpcare-is-not-real/

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. This:

" the press has been a very reliable accomplice when it comes to ignoring the GOP's culpability" ...for almost anything concerning Trump.

[Dustlawyer]

17. The 6 major media corporations are basically owned by the corporate plutocrats who

gave Trump all of the free airtime during the campaign. They wanted this to happen because they want the billionaire giveaways that the Trump administration is handing out.

Our government is controlled by these same plutocrats and corporations through the campaign finance system that allows for legal bribery. Until and unless we all join together and focus our pressure to eliminate their ability to buy the likes of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and all of the rest of the amoral corrupt politicians who do the bidding of the Special Interests, we will be subject to watching our rights and our money go away!

The media oligarchy needs to be busted up on anti-trust grounds along with the Wall Street banks. We first have to take back control over the WH, Senate, and the House and have our own politicians willing to do this. The Trump administration and the Republicans will give Americans ample reasons to vote Democratic the next two elections. We need to focus on each and every race like never before!!!

[pangaia]

8. Break it and let it fail...

"Of course, in this context, "fail" means "do everything possible to sabotage the ACA and then act shocked when it breaks," but let's not quibble over semantics."

This is exactly what Reagan started doing with the public educational system. And we now have the results.

[LongTomH]

15. You break it, you own it, MoFos!!!!!

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Republicans only listen to ideologues

they're not going to listen to this guy. Accountants? Watchdog??? LOL

Deregulation is all that matters to them. They will devalue CBO until the
public hates it and him.

[joshdawg]

5. Couldn't have said it better.

republicans listen to the CBO only when it suits their agenda.

[watoos]

4. There is 1 problem with Trump's plan

Obamacare will not fail. The notion pushed by Ryan and others that Obamacare is imploding is pure nonsense, pure propaganda.

[pangaia]

10. Repubs can force it to fail...

[TomCADem]

6. The CBO Head Was Handpicked By GOP Leadership

If anything, the CBO will give the GOP Bill the benefit of the doubt.

[ehrnst]

9. The CBO is more independent that you may think

The excuse that the GOP gave for their "error" on the ACA was the same - Obama appointee.

I can assure you the CBO takes its job and its independence very seriously.

Gingrich wouldn't be calling for it to be gutted, if it could easily be manipulated.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/gingrich-calls-for-killing-cbo-so-trump-can-cook-the-books.html

[Grins]

7. Don't be so hard on Hall.

He may be a surprise. From the CBO earlier this week:

"The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that its projections for the federal government's spending on the Affordable Care Act's coverage provisions in 2019 are now a third lower than what they were when the law was passed in 2010. (Edit: And by "a third" they mean by $66 Billion.)

Hall cited a number of reasons for why the law is costing the federal government less than originally expected. One is that less people are using the individual market than anticipated, lowering the feds' spending on things like the subsidies for insurance premiums. Additionally, Medicare and Medicaid's costs are coming in under expectations, as are the costs of private insurance - a slowdown in health care costs Hall speculated could have been driven by the recession."

[griloco]

13. It's true and hard to believe

But some Republicans actually put America first.

[Roy Rolling]

11. This is a gigantic tax cut ...

...masquerading as a healthcare bill.

[dalton99a]

12. Exactly.

And those tax cuts will fuck up our healthcare system.

[Fred Sanders]

14. Ryan's cynical plan to transfer 1.4 trillion in healthcare savings under the ACA to use for

tax cuts for the rich may go unnoticed by the lazy media, but not by the accountants of the CBO.

Ryan will have a big sad!

[hollowdweller]

16. You can govern like this in the short run

But in the long run you cannot govern based only on faith that what you are doing is right, ignoring the actual forecasts and results.

We need look no farther than Reagan, who ran on fiscal responsibility but tripled the deficit, or Bush whose tax cuts did not generate revenue, and whose faith about WMD did not match up with the facts, or deregulation which brought us the financial crisis.

Right now the stock market is going great guns because they think in the short run they will "Shit and Git" some money, but in the long run we are going to weaken our country with the cuts and then the bubble will burst and we will be back again where we always are when the GOP is in power.

The big question is will the Dems develop a narrative that brings the failure of faith over facts and the fiscal irresponsibility of the GOP to light?