Sen. Roger Wicker said he has 'never been one who worried too much about scores because there are constraints that the bean counters have to operate under that don’t necessarily contort with reality.' | Getty GOP slams budget scorekeeper as repeal bill moves forward

Republicans have railed for seven years against the “budget gimmicks” and lack of transparency they say Democrats used to help pass Obamacare. But now as they start debate on their repeal bill, Republicans say the plan's price tag and estimates of how many people it will cover aren’t really important.

Anticipating that their plan will leave fewer Americans insured than Obamacare and potentially cost the federal government more, Republican leaders on Tuesday launched a preemptory strike against forthcoming predictions from Congress’s independent scorekeeper, the Congressional Budget Office.


“If you go back to what CBO predicted would be covered on the exchanges today [under the ACA] they’re only off by only a two-to-one ratio,” Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) told reporters. CBO said “21 million projected would be covered, but only 10 million people are covered.”

Republicans are going so far as releasing their own estimates. The Office of Management and Budget, part of the Trump White House, is expected to issue its own estimates of the plan, according to several Republican senators.

Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) mused to reporters that the only reason for an OMB estimate is to fudge the numbers for partisan purposes.

“If we start going down that path, now we’re going to say the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office doesn’t know what they’re doing and we’re going to rely on President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, which is totally political,” Pallone said. “Then we go down that road that, you know, we don’t have bipartisan, neutral scoring anymore, which is very sad.”

Republicans are making clear that they don’t have a ton of confidence in the agency’s estimates but acknowledge CBO scores are still the standard for congressional debates.

“The CBO score was wildly inaccurate [on the ACA] and we knew it was going to be, but those are the rules we have to go by,” said Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.).

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said he has “never been one who worried too much about scores because there are constraints that the bean counters have to operate under that don’t necessarily comport with reality.”

CBO estimates won’t be available when the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees begin debating the Obamacare repeal bill on Wednesday. The agency told Hill offices on Tuesday that their estimates are expected to be ready by early next week.

The predictions are all but certain to show that the Republican plan covers fewer Americans than Obamacare does. They also will project the all important cost of the bill — something that could fortify support or potentially help sink the plan.

HHS Secretary Tom Price told reporters on Tuesday that the “goal and desire” is to have a bill that doesn’t increase costs to the federal government.

Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) pledged that the bill would find $2 billion in deficit savings — requirements set up in the budget passed by Congress earlier this year to lay the groundwork for the Obamacare repeal effort.

“This has to balance in the window we’ve been given,” Brady said. “And we’ll ensure that it does.”

Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers from across the ideological spectrum have trashed the nonpartisan budget office, even before text of the repeal bill was released.

Asked if he has faith in CBO projections, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said, “I spent a few years in the insurance industry, so no,” adding that there are too many moving parts in the health care industry to get reliable numbers.

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“If you have sound economic logic in place than that’s more important,” House Freedom Caucus member Dave Brat (R-Va.) said. “CBO has scored everything wrong forever so they’re a minor concern.”

Before Obamacare was passed, the CBO projected it would reduce long-term budget deficits — an assessment the scorekeeping agency reaffirmed in 2014.

Democrats said Republicans should wait until full estimates should be made public before they start the debate over the legislation.

“It’s not unusual to not have a CBO score at this point and when we get it, it will reflect only this first step,” Brady said. “We have multiple steps going forward to complete the plan which will also lower the score and increase the coverage amounts. When we get the CBO plan, just understand that is just a small piece of the overall replacement plan.”

Republicans are paying for their bill in large part by cutting the Medicaid program and changing it from an open-ended entitlement program to a capped benefit — states will get a set amount of money, tied to the number of enrollees, to cover the cost of the program. In addition, Republicans are keeping the Obamacare taxes for one year so they can use that revenue to reduce the overall price of the bill.

"Do all those interlocking parts create numbers that add up? That’s the question," said Edwin Park, vice president of health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Republicans had considered capping the tax break employers get for providing health insurance to their employees — which would have helped raise money — but deleted that provision from the bill amid opposition from rank-and-file Republicans.

Former CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, who led the agency from 2009 to 2015, including during the passage of Obamacare, said the slow pace of repeal underscores how hard it is to pass policy that achieves GOP goals of lowering the cost of care to the government while covering a lot of people.

“What you’re seeing now is exactly why the Republicans have not produced an alternative to the Affordable Care Act in eight years of discussions,” Elmendorf said. “There is no alternative that satisfies all of their desires.”