GOP wants to appoint its own "referee" in the CBO

[JimH52]

Why the House GOP wants a new accountant MSNBC

The fear for months has been that Republicans would dump Elmendorf and choose a new CBO chief that would, quite simply, tell far-right lawmakers what they want to hear. If Weigel’s reporting is accurate, that’s apparently the direction the new Congress intends to go.


Why should anyone care? Because congressional Republicans want to make it easier for themselves to manipulate arithmetic for ideological ends. To borrow a Greg Mankiwanalogy, the CBO is supposed to be the referee in these Capitol Hill fights, and Republicans seem a little too eager to handpick their own ref who’ll make the “right” calls.


And once the referee is aligned with the congressional majority, Republicans will eagerly push their legislative agenda, boasting about their amazing CBO scores. “What do you mean we’re cooking the books?” they’ll ask. “We have a favorable score from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office right here.”

Suddenly, all the GOP's proposals will look endearing....on paper. Facts sometimes get in the way of their Agenda.

 

[Care4all]

Remember, Republicans in congress threatened the CBO Actuary with his firing if he did not LIE TO CONGRESS and tell them the Medicare Pill bill was $400 billion less than what it actually projected out to......

And the cons complain about Democrats.....sheesh....

Now they are just trying to get someone partisan in to a SUPPOSED NON-PARTISAN position so that they can just force the LIES UPFRONT.

It's the only reason for doing this right now, the gosh darn only reason, is to fudge the numbers with known falsities.

 

[Tom Sweetnam]

Why the House GOP wants a new accountant MSNBC

The fear for months has been that Republicans would dump Elmendorf and choose a new CBO chief that would, quite simply, tell far-right lawmakers what they want to hear. If Weigel’s reporting is accurate, that’s apparently the direction the new Congress intends to go.


Why should anyone care? Because congressional Republicans want to make it easier for themselves to manipulate arithmetic for ideological ends. To borrow a Greg Mankiwanalogy, the CBO is supposed to be the referee in these Capitol Hill fights, and Republicans seem a little too eager to handpick their own ref who’ll make the “right” calls.


And once the referee is aligned with the congressional majority, Republicans will eagerly push their legislative agenda, boasting about their amazing CBO scores. “What do you mean we’re cooking the books?” they’ll ask. “We have a favorable score from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office right here.”

Suddenly, all the GOP's proposals will look endearing....on paper. Facts sometimes get in the way of their Agenda.

So you deny that our national debt is $18 trillion, and that more than half that debt was incurred by the little idiot whose arithmetic grades are a national secret?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

They won.

 

[The Rabbi]

Why the House GOP wants a new accountant MSNBC

The fear for months has been that Republicans would dump Elmendorf and choose a new CBO chief that would, quite simply, tell far-right lawmakers what they want to hear. If Weigel’s reporting is accurate, that’s apparently the direction the new Congress intends to go.


Why should anyone care? Because congressional Republicans want to make it easier for themselves to manipulate arithmetic for ideological ends. To borrow a Greg Mankiwanalogy, the CBO is supposed to be the referee in these Capitol Hill fights, and Republicans seem a little too eager to handpick their own ref who’ll make the “right” calls.


And once the referee is aligned with the congressional majority, Republicans will eagerly push their legislative agenda, boasting about their amazing CBO scores. “What do you mean we’re cooking the books?” they’ll ask. “We have a favorable score from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office right here.”

Suddenly, all the GOP's proposals will look endearing....on paper. Facts sometimes get in the way of their Agenda.

As usual you get about 5% of the story.
The real story is how the Democrats used the CBO to lie about Obamacare and create the fiction that the cost would be under $1T. Gruber admitted to it on the tapes. The GOP wants to introduce some honest accounting so Democrats can't game the system again.
Tell me why you are against this.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Gerrymandering, vote theft, voter suppression ...

Once again, the only way they can win is to cheat.

 

[American Horse]

Remember, Republicans in congress threatened the CBO Actuary with his firing if he did not LIE TO CONGRESS and tell them the Medicare Pill bill was $400 billion less than what it actually projected out to......

And the cons complain about Democrats.....sheesh....

Now they are just trying to get someone partisan in to a SUPPOSED NON-PARTISAN position so that they can just force the LIES UPFRONT.

It's the only reason for doing this right now, the gosh darn only reason, is to fudge the numbers with known falsities.

Yes Care, and Part D has consistently come on at 40% less cost than the CBO projected.

The CBO has never been a fair projector of costs, being as they are beasts of the bureaucracy the 4th branch of govt and a wholly owned subsidiary of the democrat party (the party of govt); and the CBO always relies solely on static scoring, refusing to take into account incentives and competitive forces in the free market system.

And that was what the republicans were trying to get them to take into account - that people consider the cost of a purchase when they are spending even a small amount of their own money.

And Care, prove that part about republicans threatening to fire now that you've made that claim

 

[The Rabbi]

Gerrymandering, vote theft, voter suppression ...

Once again, the only way they can win is to cheat.

Yeah keep telling yourself that. It has nothing--nothing--to do with the failed record of the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats.

 

[American Horse]

The reality is the CBO's head Doug Elmendorf's term will be up at the first of the year so he need not be fired; merely replaced by the majority of both houses, wholly within their pretogative.

The can replace him with a leader who understands and is willing to take into account the effects of private competition on legislative costs, the costs of regulation in legislation on the economy, and how government policies affect behavior.

The way the CBO calculates important fiscal legislation like taxes is such that taxpayers behave the same in tailoring their investments, earnings, and taxes whether their applicable marginal rate is 20% or 35%.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Gerrymandering, vote theft, voter suppression ...

Once again, the only way they can win is to cheat.

It's obvious, the Senate changed hands......because of gerrymandering. LOL!
Idjit.

 

[The Rabbi]

The reality is the CBO's head Doug Elmendorf's term will be up at the first of the year so he need not be fired; merely replaced by the majority of both houses, wholly within their pretogative.

The can replace him with a leader who understands and is willing to take into account the effects of private competition on legislative costs, the costs of regulation in legislation on the economy, and how government policies affect behavior.

The way the CBO calculates important fiscal legislation like taxes is such that taxpayers behave the same in tailoring their investments, earnings, and taxes whether their applicable marginal rate is 20% or 35%.

Elmendorf is actually a pretty good guy. But he was constrained by the rules to score Obamacare the way it was submitted. Something Democrats knew and took advantage of.
Fortunately the GOP wised up and they're going to change the rules so the Dems wont be able to lie quite so much.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

“Suddenly, all the GOP's proposals will look endearing....on paper. Facts sometimes get in the way of their Agenda.”

And conservative dogma.

There is no excuse for this whatsoever, no justification.

 

[Disir]

The GOP is as dishonest as they come. They lie through their teeth every damn time. This should come as no surprise.

 

[bripat9643]

Why the House GOP wants a new accountant MSNBC

The fear for months has been that Republicans would dump Elmendorf and choose a new CBO chief that would, quite simply, tell far-right lawmakers what they want to hear. If Weigel’s reporting is accurate, that’s apparently the direction the new Congress intends to go.


Why should anyone care? Because congressional Republicans want to make it easier for themselves to manipulate arithmetic for ideological ends. To borrow a Greg Mankiwanalogy, the CBO is supposed to be the referee in these Capitol Hill fights, and Republicans seem a little too eager to handpick their own ref who’ll make the “right” calls.


And once the referee is aligned with the congressional majority, Republicans will eagerly push their legislative agenda, boasting about their amazing CBO scores. “What do you mean we’re cooking the books?” they’ll ask. “We have a favorable score from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office right here.”

Suddenly, all the GOP's proposals will look endearing....on paper. Facts sometimes get in the way of their Agenda.

So you expect us to believe the a Democrat referee "wouldn't manipulate arithmetic for ideological ends?"

Are you joking?

 

[bripat9643]

Gerrymandering, vote theft, voter suppression ...

Once again, the only way they can win is to cheat.

You blame all the usual Democrat myths, in other words.

 

[Stephanie]

The GOP is as dishonest as they come. They lie through their teeth every damn time. This should come as no surprise.

but you don't have a problem with your own Democrat President lying to you.

snip:
Politifact awards ‘Lie of the Year’ to Obama

Politifact awards 8216 Lie of the Year 8217 to Obama - The Washington Post

 

[bripat9643]

The GOP is as dishonest as they come. They lie through their teeth every damn time. This should come as no surprise.

 

[Stephanie]

It's from PMSnbc folks

typical BS to get libs/Dem sheep foaming at the mouth

 

[JimH52]

Gerrymandering, vote theft, voter suppression ...

Once again, the only way they can win is to cheat.

Yeah keep telling yourself that. It has nothing--nothing--to do with the failed record of the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats.

Failed? The economy is humming, health care premiium increases are at a historic low, we are finally getting out of Bush's wars and gasoline is less than $3.00 a gallon. Yes, the failed policies are just terrible. And what do you want to do? You want to return to the bad old days of a repub in the White House? PLEASE.

 

[Greenbeard]

As usual you get about 5% of the story.
The real story is how the Democrats used the CBO to lie about Obamacare and create the fiction that the cost would be under $1T. Gruber admitted to it on the tapes. The GOP wants to introduce some honest accounting so Democrats can't game the system again.
Tell me why you are against this.

Spending numbers for FY2014 are now in, so it's not hard to compare with what the CBO projected back in 2010 when scoring the ACA.

Back in 2010, the CBO said exchange subsidies in FY14 would cost $20 billion.
Actual cost of exchange subsidies: $13 billion. (CBO overestimate of 54%.)

Back in 2010, the CBO said total Medicaid spending in FY2014 would be $331 billion.
Actual cost of Medicaid: $301 billion. (CBO overestimate of 10%.)

Back in 2010, they said the ACA would get Medicare spending down to $652 billion in FY14.
Actual cost of Medicare: around $600 billion. (CBO overestimate of 9%.)

Did the CBO game the system by systematically overestimating the costs of all the spending pieces in the ACA? Because the price tag they come up with in 2010 is turning out to have been too high.