The Trump administration on Wednesday dismissed the importance of having the Congressional Budget Office “score” the Republican bill to repeal Obamacare, and said Congress’s budget referee has no “authority” when it comes to cost estimates after it badly miscalculating the effects of the 2010 health law.
“Let’s be honest, the irony of the score is that the CBO was way off the last time,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said. “I don’t think that we’re waiting to … that that’s a big issue to us right now.”
Democrats have criticized Republicans for pushing ahead with their repeal bill without a CBO score, which is expected next week. But Spicer said it’s safe to proceed, since CBO is likely to come up with cost estimates and other expectations about the GOP bill that aren’t accurate.
“Of course cost matters, but look at how off they were last time,” he said. “If you’re looking to the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place. They were way, way off last time in every aspect of how they scored and projected Obamacare.”
Critics of CBO have said CBO misread how much Medicaid would expand, and Spicer said CBO also overestimated the number of people who would sign up. He said CBO estimated close to 20 million people on Obamacare by this year, when it’s closer to 12 million.
“If you look at the number of people that they projected would be on Obamacare, they are off by millions,” he said. “It will be scored, but the idea that that’s any kind of authority based on the track record that occurred last time is a little far-fetched.”
