[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.
Explicitly. From a Thursday memo on the subject:
We cannot emphasize enough: do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of CBO scores and textual narrative. Instead, focus only on the deficit reductions and number of Americans covered.
Emphasis theirs, not mine. Also:
The inclusion of a full SGR [‘sustainable growth rate’ – ML] repeal would undermine reform’s budget neutrality. So, again, do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of CBO scores and textual narrative. Instead, focus only on the deficit reductions and number of Americans covered.
As most health staff knows, Leadership and the White House are working with the AMA to rally physicians support for a full SGR repeal later this spring. However, both health and communications staff should understand we do not want that policy discussion discussed at this time…
I’d ask what they were so afraid of, but I already know the answer – and so do you.
Moe Lane
PS: Obviously, there’s no need to accommodate them in their desire to avoid this issue.
Crossposted to RedState.
what is amazing is that the dems are promoting the cbo as the fair and accurate arbiters of finance.
if one takes a look at the ubiquitous debt graph, which provides the bush deficits, the obama wh deficit projections, and the cbo deficit projections, it is noteworthy that the cbo has projected about 2 trillion more in debt than the wh.
2019 is the stunner…
wh projects the deficit to run about 750 billion, while the cbo “scores” the debt to be over 1.2 trillion.
“Instead, focus only on the deficit reduction and the number of Americans covered.”
Nice. The ol’ we-save-money-covering-30-million-more-people arguement. That pretty much ought to silence those smarty pants who think you can’t get a negative number by adding two positives.
I beleive the CBO actually are the honest non-partisan accountants they are presented to be, when they scored the health care bill.
The problem is the traditional one, which also occurs with various computer projections, garbage in garbage out. Any numerical/computer model is only as good as the data and algorithms it is based on.
The CBO is required to generate their projections with the numbers and assumptions they are given. In this case, those assumptions suffer from numerous flaws.
The same problem is evident when examining the various climate change models.
Of course this does not stop leftists from claiming the mantle of scientific respectability, and claiming the right is denying “plain numerical facts”.
ya know, if that had been a Republican memo it woulda been on the front page of every major newspaper.