Republicans should really read the CBO report - by the WaPo Editorial Board

[DonViejo]

“IT’S JUST not believable,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Monday, after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected the GOP’s Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill would result in 24 million more Americans without coverage.

Here’s what is not believable: Mr. Price’s prediction that “our plan will cover more individuals at a lower cost and give them the choices that they want for the coverage,” a claim that expert after expert has deemed a fantasy.

Many Republicans are doing everything they can to discredit the nonpartisan CBO. But the office backed up its projections with solid and transparent economic analysis. Even as he criticized the report, Mr. Price admitted he had not read it. So what, other than wishful thinking, inspired his attacks? An expert score of his own? If he has one, his office would not share it with us when we asked Tuesday.

One major line of attack for Mr. Price and other Republicans is that Obamacare is so bad that almost anything else would be better. “Right now, current law, we’ve got individuals who have health coverage but no health care,” Mr. Price said. But the GOP bill would make this problem worse, allowing insurers to hike out-of-pocket costs. Meanwhile, the CBO discredited the argument that Obamacare is collapsing, concluding that the insurance market would be stable under current law.

The other major complaint is that the CBO scored only one of three stages of the GOP reform effort, not the whole picture. But a second stage — legislating further changes under normal parliamentary procedures in the Senate — would require 60 votes and is highly unlikely to happen. Another stage — Mr. Price promulgating rules changes from his perch at HHS — has yet to be fleshed out. If House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and the Trump administration want to hang the defense of their plan on yet-to-be-revealed policy changes, they should reveal the full package before proceeding further. In the event, it is unlikely that further deregulation would improve the health-care prospect for most Americans. In fact, Mr. Price’s rules changes would likely make it easier for insurers to sell plans that catered to young, healthy and wealthy people and left older, sicker and poorer folks struggling to obtain decent coverage they can afford.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-should-read-the-cbo-report/2017/03/14/b7bc1c1c-08f8-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html?utm_term=.f54e9ece80e6&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

[underpants]

1. They live in a fantasy world of their own dogma reinforced by their own media

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. It's fantasy of a different kind, not yet revealed by the press, IMO.

It's the Neo-Conservative Dogma that they're following, not so much the Ayn Rand nonsense. The Dogma includes De-population of the nation and the globe to conserve natural resources-- for the wealthy.

De-population can occur through a number of means, some intentional, some serendipitous. They include War, Famine/Massive Starvation, Disease epidemics, natural disasters, etc. These are tools that De-populate. It looks as if the GOP is following the Dogma and desires fewer people, not more. And that means earlier deaths (for the common citizen) and consequently, more needless suffering. Their health care plan is consistent with this Dogma as it WILL cause early deaths, preceded by more needless suffering.

If you're asking how our own citizens can be so heartless and cruel to advocate for these policies, how they don't really value the sanctity of human life, you're asking a good question. But that's what their health care plan embodies.

Price and Ryan and the other salesmen for their health care plan are painting their very best lipstick on this enormous pig, but if you wipe away the gloss and gravitas and you scrape it all away, you get to the core motivation for imposing this plan on all of the nation:

De-population.