The new CBO report is an update of an earlier analysis it performed on legislation from nearly two years ago. Republicans pushed HR3762 in 2015 as a vehicle to force President Barack Obama into a veto of a repeal of Obamacare. The sponsors wrote the bill with caution about the consensus limits to the process of budget reconciliation, the only method available for avoiding a filibuster in the Senate.
Republicans plan to repeal most of the rest of Obamacare (except perhaps the Medicare reforms) through other means. There is still significant strategizing as to whether they can repeal more through budget reconciliation than first assumed when writing HR3762 as well. …
Why did CBO score an old bill that only covered part of the process, rather than wait a few weeks to see what Republicans plan to offer? The CBO report states that it was “prepared at the request of the Senate Minority Leader, the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, and the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.” All four are Senate Democrats, led my Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), an adamant opponent of Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare. The report gives opponents of the incoming administration some significant talking points about legislation that has long since expired but still has usefulness in driving public opinion.
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