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Democrats told to evade details of CBO scoring.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  March 19th, 2010 at 01:17 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Explicitly.  From a Thursday memo on the subject:

We cannot emphasize enough: do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of CBO scores and textual narrative.  Instead, focus only on the deficit reductions and number of Americans covered.

Emphasis theirs, not mine.  Also:

The inclusion of a full SGR ['sustainable growth rate' - ML] repeal would undermine reform’s budget neutrality.  So, again, do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of CBO scores and textual narrative.  Instead, focus only on the deficit reductions and number of Americans covered.

As most health staff knows, Leadership and the White House are working with the AMA to rally physicians support for a full SGR repeal later this spring.  However, both health and communications staff should understand we do not want that policy discussion discussed at this time…

I’d ask what they were so afraid of, but I already know the answer – and so do you.

Moe Lane

PS: Obviously, there’s no need to accommodate them in their desire to avoid this issue.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • Sundayjack

    . . . that someone who has the grapes to write a memo like THAT, also gets the benefit of having their name redacted. Whoever it is deserves to be on the front page of whatever UK paper will carry it (knowing, of course, that US papers will not).

  • RealQuiet

    The information that the Dems sent to the CBO were cooked and patently falsified is what this looks like.

  • bobojake
  • willbone87

    Another union goodie that was inserted in the recon bill.

    Language found on page 83 (lines 1-5) mean that the multi-employer plans will have the Cadillac excise tax level at the family threshold for families AND individuals. If true, how nice for those single union members.

    ??(ii) MULTIEMPLOYER PLAN COV-
    ERAGE.?Any coverage provided under a
    multiemployer plan (as defined in section
    414(f)) shall be treated as coverage other
    than self-only coverage.??,

  • Castor

    GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT

  • horizon3

    The CBO only scores what the cheaters give them, GIGO garbage in garbage out.
    In order to maintain their bi-partisan reputation it’s the only way they can work it.
    The thing the Dems really don’t want folks to know is that this is a “preliminary estimate” can you say SWAG, they have not had time to do a full analysis, and wont as long as the Dems keep changing the bill by adding vote buying bribes.

    http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=508

  • WarEagle01

    and will cost trillions. And they are telling their people to lie. They really do hold average American in complete contempt. The vileness of these people is just beyond the pale.

  • RichGoldMD

    The lefty-blogs are reporting that this is a bogus memo. Any truth to it?

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Whether it is actually bogus is something that the Democrats don’t quite want to assert. It’s actually been kind of fun watching them run around denying that they ever would meddle with the doc fix, too.

    I figure that I’ll wait to see if somebody fesses up.

  • davidabippus

    Responding to an inquiry from Rep. Paul Ryan, the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that when you remove certain accounting gimmicks from the Democrats’ health care legislation, it actually increases the deficit.

    Democrats have touted a CBO report that found that their health care bill would reduce the deficit by $138 billion from 2010 to 2019. But that number assumes that hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare cuts would be used to pay for the new health care entitlement. In a letter to Ryan, the CBO estimates that if the Medicare cuts were used to help shore up the effectively bankrupt Medicare trust fund instead, then the Democrats health care bill would run $260 billion in deficits over the next decade.

    In an earlier version of the House bill, Democrats included a measure to avoid scheduled cuts in doctors’ payments under Medicare. They removed the measure when they couldn’t get the numbers to add up, but they have continued to pass temporary delays of the cuts and have vowed to tackle the issue separately from the current health care bill. In the letter, CBO projects that if the so-called “doc fix” were added to the legislation, it would produce deficits of $59 billion from 2010 to 2019.

    Earlier CBO estimates also asume that future lawmakers would actually enact some of the unpopular measures, such as the Medicare cuts and the “Cadillac tax.” These are crucial to Democrats’ claims that the bill will reduce deficits even more — by $1.2 trillion — in the second decade. But in the letter, the CBO says that without the changes, deficits would actually increase — by a quarter of a percent of GDP, or $600 billion — in the second decade.

    Liberals have tried to portrat any criticism of the Democrats’ deficit reduction claims as an attack on the integrity of the CBO itself. But as this letter demonstrates, this isn’t about attacking the CBO. It’s just simply acknowledging that CBO analysis can vary greatly based on the questions you ask them. And clearly, Democrats kept tweaking the language until they were able to get the CBO score they wanted.

  • http://slcliberty.blogivists.com randy streu

    These two things are what matters — and THESE are facts no matter WHERE the memo came from:

    “Leadership and the White House are working with the AMA to rally physicians support for a full SGR repeal later this spring.”

    “The inclusion of a full SGR ['sustainable growth rate' - ML] repeal would undermine reform?s budget neutrality.”

    http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20100302/NEWS/303029952#