Republicans are trying to destroy the very idea of neutral judgment

By Paul Waldman at the Plumb Line, WP

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/03/09/republicans-are-trying-to-destroy-the-very-idea-of-neutral-judgment/?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.0c7460488e87

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But that’s not what Republicans are doing right now. Before the CBO even releases its score (which is expected to happen next week), they’ve launched a preemptive strike on the agency. “If you’re looking at the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place,” said Sean Spicer. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise called the CBO “unelected bureaucrats in Washington.”

“If you have sound economic logic in place then that’s more important” than what the CBO says, said Rep. Dave Brat. “CBO has scored everything wrong forever so they’re a minor concern.” In case you’re wondering, “sound economic logic” is code for free-market orthodoxy.


We should note that the CBO’s original assessment of the ACA was indeed off in some ways — but not just in ways that were too optimistic. It overestimated the number of people who would sign up for coverage on the ACA’s exchanges, in part because at the time it wasn’t clear how successful Republican efforts to sabotage the law would eventually be. But it underestimated the positive impact the law would have on the budget deficit.

So while the CBO is hardly perfect, there’s no reason to think that its score of the GOP health-care bill will be incorrectly pessimistic. The reason Republicans are launching this attack is that they’re sure the score will paint a bleak picture of their bill, and they want to inoculate themselves against it. Griping about a CBO score that puts your proposed legislation in a bad light is a long-standing and bipartisan tradition. But Republicans give the game away when they start complaining before the score is even released.

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