“It’s almost like it’s not a fair analysis,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney said Thursday, ahead of a CBO report that estimated the Senate GOP’s health care bill would leave 22 million more uninsured over a decade. | Getty Images Former CBO directors hit back at GOP criticism of agency

All eight former directors of the Congressional Budget Office fired back Friday at Republican attacks on the nonpartisan scorekeeping agency over its projections that Obamacare repeal would leave millions more uninsured.

In a letter to congressional leaders, the former chiefs wrote that the CBO has a long track record of producing high-quality and nonpartisan reports.


"We write to express our strong objection to recent attacks on the integrity and professionalism of the agency and on the agency’s role in the legislative process," wrote the ex-directors, who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations. "We urge you to maintain and respect the Congress’s decades-long reliance on CBO’s estimates in developing and scoring bills."

POLITICO Pulse newsletter Get the latest on the health care fight, every weekday morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The letter follows a slew of attacks from congressional Republicans and White House officials who accuse the agency of bias and flawed analyses and have in one case suggested Senate Republicans bypass CBO and rely on the Trump administration’s HHS to score an amendment to their health care bill.

“It’s almost like it’s not a fair analysis,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney said Thursday, ahead of a CBO report that estimated the Senate GOP’s health care bill would leave 22 million more uninsured over a decade.

Two other White House officials called CBO’s estimates “little more than fake news” in an op-ed taking issue with some of the agency’s assumptions in scoring the bill.

CBO’s former directors have bristled at suggestions the agency is fudging the numbers, pointing to its transparency in explaining its methods and emphasizing that CBO never claims to predict the future — but often produces the most accurate projections.

“Policy changes are often complex, the economy is dynamic and defies precise prediction, and many policies are modified over time,” the former CBO chiefs wrote. “However, such analysis does generate estimates that are more accurate, on average, than estimates or guesses by people who are not objective and not as well informed as CBO’s analysts.”

The defense comes just days after HHS published a report predicting Sen. Ted Cruz’s proposal to let insurers sell deregulated plans alongside Obamacare-compliant ones would drive down premiums. That study was roundly dismissed by budget and policy experts, who criticized HHS' work as flawed and misleading.

The Cruz amendment — which insurers warn is unworkable could destabilize the market — has not yet been analyzed by CBO.