This afternoon, Congress Daily reported that the Congressional Budget Office had scored the House’s health-care overhaul bill–the so-called tri-committee bill–and determined it would cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years. That’s at least a couple hundred billion dollars more than Democrats really want to see, and they were no doubt alarmed when the information began to spread.
The only problem is, it there is no CBO score. A joint statement from the House Committees on Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor, clears the air none-too-subtly.
“This report is premature and entirely fabricated. In fact, none of the reporters working on this piece contacted our press offices to fact check their story. The three House committees are still working to develop legislation and have not yet received a score from CBO on the discussion draft. As the three chairmen have made clear, our health care reform legislation will be paid for and we’re still considering revenue options.”
The CBO confirms this account. But that, unsurprisingly, isn’t stopping Republicans from trying to make hay out of fiction. According to Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) “Today’s CBO announcement demonstrates the enormous cost that a new, government-run bureaucracy will create, and cutting Medicare funding by $500 billion to pay for a new, government program will limit treatment options for thousands of patients.”
Which might be perfectly fair if any of it were true.
