The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is led by a team that his hand-picked by Congressional Republicans – but that hasn’t stopped the CBO from releasing their brutally honest findings on multiple versions of the Republican health care plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The White House – eager to avoid another loss on health care – is bashing the CBO, arguing that the office uses “faulty assumptions and bad numbers” to make its case.
The CBO is of course one of many non-partisan offices that has become increasingly partisan in the age of Trump – largely through no fault of their own in this case.
An animated video from the official White House account, titled, “Faulty Numbers = Faulty Results,” ironically relies on some faulty reasoning.
The ad does not mention what the CBO even said about the current health care bill, or even its previous iterations. Instead – perhaps unsurprisingly – it bashes the CBO’s old report on Obamacare.
“Congressional Budget Office’s math does not add up. CBO inaccurately estimates health coverage,” the ad reads. But instead of defending the CBO’s estimate for the current Republican plan, the ad then reads, “CBO inaccurately estimated 25 million would be covered under Obamacare this year. Today, just 10.3 million are covered in Obamacare exchanges. Off by over 14 million.”
“CBO falsely assumes Obamacare will cover 18 million next year, starting with faulty baseline estimates,” the ad reads. “It does not batter who does the math, faulty numbers = faulty results.”
FactCheck.org looked back at the Trump White House’s attacks on the CBO’s Obamacare estimates and concluded that “The CBO actually nailed the overeall impact of the law on the uninsured pretty closely. It predicted a big drop in the percentage of people under age 65 who would lack insurance, and that turned out to be the case. CBO projected that in 2016 that nonelderly rate would fall to 11 percent, and the latest figure put the actual rate at 10.3 percent.”
The CBO’s Obamacare estimates were not admittedly not perfect – but far from the level of “faulty” and “inaccurate” the Trump White House claims.
“It’s true (as Trump administration officials have repeatedly pointed out) that CBO greatly overestimated the number who would get government-subsidized coverage through the new insurance exchanges,” FactCheck.org found. “But at the same time, CBO underestimated the number who would get coverage through expanding Medicaid.” Not to mention the Trump team’s argument does not account for the continued stonewalling of Obamacare expansion in many Republican-led states.
But maybe the Trump White House didn’t have enough time to more accurately research the CBO’s Obamacare score. Afterall, they didn’t even have the time to spellcheck their first version of the ad.
The CBO is of course one of many non-partisan offices that has become increasingly partisan in the age of Trump – largely through no fault of their own in this case.
Official White House Account Says ‘It Doesn’t Matter Who Does The Math’
The Speaker of the House and the Senate’s president pro tem appoint the CBO director to a four-year term. Since the CBO Director often does not always hail from the party in control of Congress – that’s why, until recently, the CBO was regarded as an honest, non-partisan office. No longer.An animated video from the official White House account, titled, “Faulty Numbers = Faulty Results,” ironically relies on some faulty reasoning.
The ad does not mention what the CBO even said about the current health care bill, or even its previous iterations. Instead – perhaps unsurprisingly – it bashes the CBO’s old report on Obamacare.
“Congressional Budget Office’s math does not add up. CBO inaccurately estimates health coverage,” the ad reads. But instead of defending the CBO’s estimate for the current Republican plan, the ad then reads, “CBO inaccurately estimated 25 million would be covered under Obamacare this year. Today, just 10.3 million are covered in Obamacare exchanges. Off by over 14 million.”
“CBO falsely assumes Obamacare will cover 18 million next year, starting with faulty baseline estimates,” the ad reads. “It does not batter who does the math, faulty numbers = faulty results.”
What the White House Leaves Out
You may notice there are some pretty important points missing from the argument presented in this ad.FactCheck.org looked back at the Trump White House’s attacks on the CBO’s Obamacare estimates and concluded that “The CBO actually nailed the overeall impact of the law on the uninsured pretty closely. It predicted a big drop in the percentage of people under age 65 who would lack insurance, and that turned out to be the case. CBO projected that in 2016 that nonelderly rate would fall to 11 percent, and the latest figure put the actual rate at 10.3 percent.”
The CBO’s Obamacare estimates were not admittedly not perfect – but far from the level of “faulty” and “inaccurate” the Trump White House claims.
“It’s true (as Trump administration officials have repeatedly pointed out) that CBO greatly overestimated the number who would get government-subsidized coverage through the new insurance exchanges,” FactCheck.org found. “But at the same time, CBO underestimated the number who would get coverage through expanding Medicaid.” Not to mention the Trump team’s argument does not account for the continued stonewalling of Obamacare expansion in many Republican-led states.
But maybe the Trump White House didn’t have enough time to more accurately research the CBO’s Obamacare score. Afterall, they didn’t even have the time to spellcheck their first version of the ad.
Today’s White House hit on the CBO’s accuracy spells inaccurately two different ways. pic.twitter.com/IrTjyM3RSb
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 12, 2017