{"id":3809,"date":"2011-01-07T10:49:09","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T18:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3809"},"modified":"2011-01-07T10:49:09","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T18:49:09","slug":"who-cares-what-the-cbo-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/07\/who-cares-what-the-cbo-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Cares What the CBO Says?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, I posted Republicans Kill the CBO<\/a>.  Yesterday, Republicans put it into practice by ignoring the CBO estimate on the cost of repealing health care reform.  In the process, they violate their own CUTGO rule.  In addition, Republicans are proving that rules, even their own rules, are something for someone else to follow, but not applicable to them.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"gop-lies\"The nonpartisan budget scorekeepers in Congress said on Thursday that the Republican plan to repeal President Obama\u2019s health care law would add $230 billion to federal budget deficits over the next decade<\/strong>, intensifying the first legislative fight of the new session and highlighting the challenge Republicans face in pursuing their agenda. <\/p>\n

The new House speaker, John A. Boehner, flatly rejected the report<\/strong>, saying it was based largely on chicanery by Democrats. <\/p>\n

Mr. Boehner\u2019s dismissal of the report<\/a> by the Congressional Budget Office, at his first formal news conference as speaker, was the latest salvo in the battle over the health care law. White House officials on Thursday said they were stepping up efforts to defend the law, with a new rapid-response operation to rebut Republican claims and to deploy supporters to talk about the benefits of the law. <\/p>\n

But Mr. Boehner\u2019s remarks held wider implications, effectively putting him on a war footing with the independent analysts whose calculations generally guide discussions about the projected cost or savings of any legislation. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cC.B.O. is entitled to their opinion,\u201d he said<\/strong>, but he said Democrats had manipulated the rules established for determining the cost of a program under the 1974 Budget Act. <\/p>\n

\u201cC.B.O. can only provide a score based on the assumptions that are given to them,\u201d Mr. Boehner said. \u201cAnd if you go back and look at the health care bill and the assumptions that were given to them, you see all of the double-counting that went on.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the analysis released by the budget office on Thursday was based on the health care repeal bill that House Republicans introduced on Wednesday<\/strong>. And it highlighted the difficult position that Republicans are in as they try to address what they insist are the top two priorities of voters who elected them in November: cutting the deficit and undoing the health care law. <\/p>\n

According to the budget office, those goals are contradictory. <\/p>\n

The budget office estimated that the health care law, including education provisions, would reduce deficits over 10 years by $143 billion. Tax increases and cuts in projected Medicare spending would more than offset the cost of extending health insurance to millions of Americans. The budget office projected that the law would result in even bigger savings beyond 2019<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear to see that Boehner\u2019s argument is a lie.  Simply put, when facts stand in the way of screwing America on behalf of millionaires, billionaires and criminal corporations, the Republican position is \u201cDamn the facts,  Full speed backward!\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

For the rest of the Republican hypocrisy that is coming to light, I turn to Rachel Maddow\u2019s commentary and her interview with Rep. Peter Welch.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m so glad she\u2019s back!<\/font><\/p>\n

The next two years will require intense vigilance on our part to publicize the ongoing scandal of Republican governance.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, I posted Republicans Kill the CBO.  Yesterday, Republicans put it into practice by ignoring the CBO estimate on the cost of repealing health care reform.  In the process, they violate their own CUTGO rule.  In addition, Republicans are proving that rules, even their own rules, are something for someone else to follow, but […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}