CBO Reconciliation Score Delayed
[Guest post by DRJ]
The CBO score of the Reconciliation Bill has been delayed at least a day for an interesting reason:
“House Democratic leaders on Wednesday night said the long-awaited Congressional Budget Office score of the reconciliation bill will not come out until Thursday, forcing an acknowledgement that a Saturday healthcare vote is likely off the table.
***
Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.), leaving that same meeting, said that the delay is the result of numerous technical issues involved, and stressed that, despite any rumors to the contrary, the delays are not the result of policy problems.“My understanding is this has been much more technical than substantive,” Andrews said. “It’s not like what tax has to go or what spending has to go.”
Andrews did say, though, that the CBO is also taking extra time to protect the legislation from invariable legal challenges to the reconciliation process, if not the eventual law itself.
“The reason it’s taking so long, in part, is that we want to be sure that we have a score that’s solid as a rock for procedural purposes and potentially litigation purposes down the road,” Andrews said. “We all assume that the same forces that fought this so vociferously in the Congress will fight it in the courts, and we want to be prepared for that.”
Protecting bills from legal attack isn’t the CBO’s job. From the CBO’s website:
“CBO’s mandate is to provide the Congress with:
* Objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on the wide array of programs covered by the federal budget and
* The information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process.”
So much for that non-partisan CBO budget analysis.
— DRJ
/Gibbs on
“This delay is both unanticipated and unexpected.”
/Gibbs off
😀
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/17/2010 @ 8:12 pmCreditability totally destroyed by one statement.
Scrapiron (1bd075) — 3/17/2010 @ 8:13 pmWell, granted, their goal seems to be to help the bill survive challenges instead of just spit out a number, but I can understand their reasoning that if it’s going to fail in a lawsuit, it better not fail because the CBO analysis is inaccurate.
But that’s sounding a lot like puffery, which Domino’s Pizza helpfully defines as bullshit. I don’t think the CBO’s estimate will be any more accurate than it tends to be. Whatever number they spit out will be 2/3rds or less of the actual cost. Far be it from me to let them try to get it right, though.
I can imagine some ginormous and ridiculous bill with Landrieu et al payoff provisions is pretty complicated arithmetic.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 3/17/2010 @ 8:26 pmThey’re hoping to find a vacumn leak, since the numbers suck so bad.
AD - RtR/OS! (bdaa22) — 3/17/2010 @ 8:40 pmNot buying Andrews’ statement. More likely, the “technical” issue with the so-called reconciliation portions of the bill-in-waiting is the initial cost report from CBO, and Dems are changing the cost/expense parameters to and get the CBO number below $1 trillion and to find budget reductions, which are essential to reconciliation.
kyle (f0256d) — 3/17/2010 @ 9:04 pmOr to put in in Joe Wilsonese: “Andrews, you lie.”
If the CBO had some of those AGW alarmist “scientist” types on staff, cranking the analysis of the Democrat bill out the door would be a piece of cake.
daleyrocks (718861) — 3/17/2010 @ 9:06 pmkyle,
That makes sense, although I think that’s also consistent with what Andrews said. It’s not going to withstand a legal challenge if the numbers show a negative impact on the budget.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/17/2010 @ 9:20 pmAlternatively, they need to come up with some better excuses.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/17/2010 @ 9:21 pm“We all assume that the same forces that fought this so vociferously in the Congress will fight it in the courts…”
Some would add “…or in the streets.”
Kevin Murphy (3c3db0) — 3/17/2010 @ 9:51 pmHey DRJ and others, a lot of folks are saying that the GOP is hypocritical, given that the GOP has done “deem and pass” too.
I have a response here, in case you want to find out why the hypocrisy charge is baloney.
Andrew (537738) — 3/17/2010 @ 9:57 pmDRJ wanted better excuses….
you got’em!
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/17/2010 @ 10:33 pmNah – it’s just delayed until the CBO comes up with a number Her Majesty Madame Speaker can accept …
Alasdair (205079) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:27 pmSomeone in the CBO was probably about to leak that their report contained serious legal misgivings with all the crap the Democrats have done.
skwiself (b69230) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:33 pmQuestion: is delaying the truth MORE truthful? or LESS?
Icy Texan (89b4d9) — 3/18/2010 @ 2:32 amSo we can see the bill?
Procedure is the Constitution, the constitution IS PROCEDURE.
WE HAVE MOVED FROM BILLS THAT AREN’T READ, TO PASSING BILLS THAT AREN’T VOTED ON.
Two-bit tin pot tyranny ahead.
bill-tb (541ea9) — 3/18/2010 @ 6:22 amThe number that comes out of the CBO is about as useful as the underlying assumptions that the congresscritters give them, which form the basis of the analysis. In the prior instances, it was garbage in garbage out, as they assumed all sorts of things that will never happen.
JD (c13155) — 3/18/2010 @ 6:27 amAt this point, I suspect they are trying to find the right combination of assumptions that will lead to the outcome that they desire. It is kind of funny that the congresscritter claims that the CBO is working to protect the congresscritters from a lawsuit. Did they go to the CBO and say “hey, could you guys protect us from ourselves”?
JD (c13155) — 3/18/2010 @ 6:28 am[…] abortion legislation Half-Baked Sourdough: Practicing To Do Evil Patterico’s Pontifications: CBO Reconciliation Score Delayed and Losing the House Over Health Care and Pelosi: I Like This Unconstitutional Sleight of Hand for […]
Upside-Down World: Pres. Obama Appears on FOX News to Push for His Health Care Monstrosity « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 3/18/2010 @ 6:51 amTelling that the CBO “final” number came in below $1 Trillion at $940 Billion. They made certain that the final number cannot be rounded up to $1 Trillion too.
I am simply part of the unwashed masses with a not-to-be-taken-seriously degree from a state college. That said, it seems logical to me that with all the problems and opportunities to be addressed after (if) the bill passes the $940 billion will be addressed also as unrealistically low. Voila, $1 Trillion in the rear-view mirror.
vet66 (bb232f) — 3/18/2010 @ 10:47 amYeah, the CBO is so “non-partisan” that they gave the Speaker an “unofficial” number to announce on TV but won’t give an “official” number until after the vote …
SPQR (26be8b) — 3/18/2010 @ 11:17 am