Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Republicans for their efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare after the Congressional Budget Office said Monday it would lead to roughly 24 million more people being uninsured over a decade.
The CBO “score” – a much-anticipated analysis of the GOP measure’s impact on the deficit and number of uninsured Americans – should serve as a “looming stop sign” for the Republican efforts, Schumer said.
The New York Democrat said the analysis, which also forecast that the GOP plan would cut the deficit by $337 billion over 10 years, makes it clear that “TrumpCare” will cause “serious harm to millions of American families” with tens of millions of people losing their coverage and millions more, particularly seniors, being forced to pay more for health care.
“The CBO score shows just how empty the president’s promises, that everyone will be covered and costs will go down, have been,” Schumer said. “This should be a looming stop sign for the Republicans repeal effort.”
The CBO’s prediction of millions losing their insurance comes at a sensitive time for the GOP overhaul effort. The House Budget Committee plans to mark up the measure this week, and Republicans have pledged to pass it through the House and Senate by the April recess.
Even before the score was released, it was expected to spell bad news for GOP efforts, and Republicans, including the White House, over the past week tried to discredit the forecast.
But House GOP leaders have no intention of bashing the non-partisan CBO even after the less-than-flattering assessment of the GOP repeal and replace plan.
An aide earlier Monday told the Washington Examiner that attacking the CBO is not a wise political move. But other conservative lawmakers will undoubtedly remind Democrats and voters that previous CBO forecasts about the impact of Obamacare when it was first passed were inaccurate.
