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Obamacare’s Scorekeepers Deliver a Game-Changer
Washington Post ^ | Dana Milbank

Posted on 02/05/2014 12:40:54 PM PST by nickcarraway

For years, the White House has trotted out the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to show that Obamacare would cut health-care costs and reduce deficits:

Live by the sword, die by the sword, the Bible tells us. In Washington, it’s slightly different: Live by the CBO, die by the CBO.

The congressional number-crunchers, perhaps the capital’s closest thing to a neutral referee, came out with a new report Tuesday, and it wasn’t pretty for Obamacare. The CBO predicted the law would have a “substantially larger” impact on the labor market than it had previously expected: The law would reduce the workforce in 2021 by the equivalent of 2.3 million full-time workers, well more than the 800,000 originally anticipated. This will inevitably be a drag on economic growth, as more people decide government handouts are more attractive than working more and paying higher taxes.

This is grim news for the White House and for Democrats on the ballot in November. This independent arbiter, long embraced by the White House, has validated a core complaint of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) critics: that it will discourage work and become an ungainly entitlement. Disputing Republicans’ charges is much easier than refuting the federal government’s official scorekeepers.

White House officials rushed to dispute the referee’s call — arguing, somewhat contradictorily, that the finding was both flawed and really good news if interpreted properly.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 0carenightmare; cboobamacarereport; cboreport; demsobamacare; desparatespin; laborforce
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1 posted on 02/05/2014 12:40:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
>>>White House officials rushed to dispute the referee’s call — arguing, somewhat contradictorily, that the finding was both flawed and really good news if interpreted properly.Out of touch!
2 posted on 02/05/2014 12:43:47 PM PST by SIRTRIS
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To: nickcarraway

Even Milbank can’t go along with the WH spin.


3 posted on 02/05/2014 12:45:47 PM PST by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: nickcarraway
White House officials rushed to dispute the referee’s call — arguing, somewhat contradictorily, that the finding was both flawed and really good news if interpreted properly.

Wait - this is Dana Milbank? Somebody take his temperature...

4 posted on 02/05/2014 12:46:16 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: nickcarraway
arguing, somewhat contradictorily, that the finding was both flawed and really good news if interpreted properly.

Of course, the report just has to be wrong. But, just in case it isn't, it's actually good news, not bad news.

Only a leftist moonbat would be willing to swallow that big a load of horse manure (and many of them will, with smiles on their faces).

5 posted on 02/05/2014 12:46:35 PM PST by Bob
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To: nickcarraway

Am i a bad person for not having believed them in the first place?
Don’t they ‘score’ a bill based in large part on what the bill’s sponsors tell them?


6 posted on 02/05/2014 12:46:39 PM PST by wiggen (The teacher card. When the racism card just won't work.)
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To: nickcarraway

Good to see this coming from the Wa Po.


7 posted on 02/05/2014 12:48:24 PM PST by libstripper (Asv)
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To: nickcarraway

High coefficient of Bureaucratic Drag.


8 posted on 02/05/2014 12:50:07 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: nickcarraway

CBO is usually “conservative” in their estimates. IOW this disaster is going to be a whole lot worse


9 posted on 02/05/2014 12:51:56 PM PST by woofie
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To: nickcarraway

I wish people would stop saying “game-changer”. It reminds me too much of Obama’s campaign for the 2008 election.


10 posted on 02/05/2014 12:55:00 PM PST by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: nickcarraway

Good news - like the good news that there are 9 million less on the rolls, which allows the Obama Reich to claim 7% unemployment when it’s closer to 11%.


11 posted on 02/05/2014 12:55:45 PM PST by airborne (MY HEROES DON'T WEAR CAPES. MY HEROES WEAR DOG TAGS ! ! !)
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To: nickcarraway
Something tells me that Millbank just discovered that he's *not* exempt from OsamaObamaCare.
12 posted on 02/05/2014 12:56:19 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Osama Obama Care: A Religion That Will Have You On Your Knees!)
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To: Billthedrill
In geological terms, a mountain has just been dropped into the ocean. A tsunami is starting to build. As political hysteria grows among Democrats, and thanks to Harry Reid's tone-deaf response, I expect the first wave to crash on the shore in the form of Reid losing his position as Majority Leader.

The second wave will result in those Senate Democrats up for re-election this year bolting to vote for repeal.

13 posted on 02/05/2014 12:57:13 PM PST by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: nickcarraway

I’ve got five more years to get my youngest through college, then I might just “retire” early. I’m tired of working my butt off to see the “poor” enjoy the same standard of living I have to work for. I won’t be dependent on the government though as I have a 22 acre self sufficient, off-grid property (well, septic, wood heat, garden, livestock). I figure I can work a 15 hour per week job to qualify as “poor’ and then get all the government benefits, but the job will just be for a little extra spending money for staples I can’t provide myself. I should have some surplus (produce, eggs, wood, crafts) for a little off books sales/trading so I may end up better off than continuing to work full time. That’s the Obama economy.


14 posted on 02/05/2014 1:03:30 PM PST by Teotwawki (For a person to get a thing without paying for it, another must pay for it without getting it.)
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To: wiggen

Yes, you are, because it was only racism that led you to not believe them then... and now, for that matter.


15 posted on 02/05/2014 1:04:53 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: nickcarraway

Every Democrat running for the House or Senate this year and in ‘16 who thinks it is a great boon to workers to be unemployed should be fired by the voters. Then these unemployed officials can spend more time with their families.


16 posted on 02/05/2014 1:09:08 PM PST by txrefugee
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To: nickcarraway
as more people decide government handouts are more attractive than working more and paying higher taxes.

I just don't understand this. How can you eat and keep a roof over your head if you're able bodies but don't work?

17 posted on 02/05/2014 1:12:34 PM PST by Sirius Lee (All that is required for evil to advance is for government to do "something")
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To: nickcarraway

Nonpartisan is a misnomer.

A calculator is nonpartisan, but if I create fantasy numbers to input into it, you can’t claim that the answer provided has been laundered clean of bias.

The Demolshoviks gave the CBO total crap assumptions to work with. The only remarkable thing here is that the output still looks like crap.

Imagine how bad it really is.


18 posted on 02/05/2014 1:14:48 PM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: wiggen
Am i a bad person for not having believed them in the first place?

Not bad. Just racist /s

19 posted on 02/05/2014 1:16:23 PM PST by llevrok (F the government)
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To: nickcarraway

They (as in the enemy) cite the CBO all the time. So how, now, can they dispute it with out being hypocrites?

Oh, yeah. That word does not apply to “them”.


20 posted on 02/05/2014 1:21:48 PM PST by llevrok (F the government)
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