CBO vs. Reality, Disgusting Low

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author:   The CBO vs. Reality -  Late yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its "score," or report on the House leadership's bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. The results were mixed. But the headlines today highlight the report's determination that the GOP bill would likely result in millions of uninsured individuals.

Most Americans don't know and don't care what the CBO is. The only thing that matters at this stage is the narrative, and the Republican Party is in danger of losing control of the narrative due to united Democrat opposition and a hostile media.

Every Republican today should point out two things:

First, the CBO's record on budget projections is terrible. It is like climatologists who claim to know the mean temperature in 2075.

One of major drivers of America's drift toward socialism is that every new entitlement program costs vastly more than projected. So if the Congressional BUDGET Office can't get budget estimates right, why would anyone trust it to predict insurance enrollment?

In fact, when Obamacare was debated, the CBO made a number of projections that turned out be wildly off base. For example, the CBO estimated that 22 million people would gain coverage through Obamacare's individual exchange markets. In reality, just over 10 million people bought their coverage through the Obamacare exchanges. That's more than just a rounding error.

The CBO also estimated that by 2016, 201 million people would have private health insurance. But the actual number was 177 million -- off by 24 million people. So when the CBO says the GOP bill will cause 24 million to lose insurance, take it with a big grain of salt.

The second point that needs to be emphasized is something that the CBO doesn't necessarily measure. One of the biggest problems with Obamacare has been rising deductibles.

While some people may have gotten insurance, thanks to the subsidies, the deductibles are so high that some families were paying thousands and thousands of dollars out-of-pocket before Obamacare even kicked in. In other words, they had insurance, but they didn't have healthcare.

One final point: For the vast majority of people, cost is more important than coverage. The left likes to make a big deal about "universal coverage." Thus, all of today's negative headlines focusing on the number of potentially uninsured individuals.

But polling finds that 62% of voters feel controlling healthcare costs is more important than ensuring coverage (34%).

A Disgusting Low -  Rapper Snoop Dogg has released a disgusting video in which he pretends to assassinate President Trump. Incredibly, there was no shortage of cultural leftists willing to go on the air this morning to defend this garbage.

Just imagine if Charlie Daniels produced a music video in which he shot Barack Obama. The media would be melting down. Daniels' career would be over.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that this is just about Donald Trump. There were assassination fantasies about Ronald Reagan. In fact, some schoolchildren cheered when news broke that Reagan had been shot.

A movie was made about the assassination of George W. Bush. There was even a book titled, "The Assassination of George W. Bush: A Love Story."

Sadly, so few elected Democrats are willing to condemn this disrespectful and outrageous video, even knowing full well that it will be consumed by impressionable children.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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