Joe Scarborough: Census Change Is ‘Clumsy Effort’ To ‘Cook’ Obamacare Books

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MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of revising Census Bureau questions concerning health insurance in order to mask the impact of Obamacare on the uninsured.

The entire “Morning Joe” panel followed along by mocking the revised survey, suggesting their own questions that might appear in the census.

“Is Obamacare great, or what?” Scarborough floated as a potential question.

“Would you prefer to have health insurance, or not have health insurance?” panelist and BBC correspondent Katty Kay proposed.

Scarborough then slammed the new survey changes.

“Listen, the White Houses on both sides do their best to cook the books,” he said. “This is a particularly clumsy effort.”

When the survey revisions were announced Tuesday, conservatives pounced on the changes, charging that it would make it difficult to measure the impact of the health care law. Scarborough echoed this on Wednesday.

“Conservatives blast it for good reasons. So did a lot of progressives who were just embarrassed by how ham-fisted the move was,” he said.

However, the administration defended the revisions, explaining that the changes go into effect starting in 2013 before the health care law was implemented. The Census will therefore be able to measure the impact of Obamacare between 2013 and 2014.

Watch the clip via Breitbart News:

[H/t Mediaite]

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Notable Replies

  1. It’s an odd position that Joe and others are forced to take. They don’t like the ACA because it doesn’t insure enough people. This position is carefully boxed in by pro-reform arguments.

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