Newt Gingrich Totally Loses It, Says The CBO Is ‘Disgusting’ And Should Be ‘Abolished’

One of Donald Trump’s most shameless supporters, Newt Gingrich, took to Fox News on Monday evening to bash the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for its new report that 24 million Americans would lose health insurance over the next four years

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“They should abolish the Congressional Budget Office. It is corrupt. It is dishonest,” Gingrich said. “It was totally wrong on Obamacare by huge, huge margins. I don’t trust a single word they have published, and I don’t believe them.”

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Gingrich’s tantrum continued: “It is totally dishonest, disgustingly wrong, and the whole thing should be abolished.”

The thrice-married former House Speaker even went a step further and said the CBO should be privatized.

“They should replace [the CBO] by putting out to bid and having three to five professional firms score these things,” Gingrich said.

First of all, the head of the CBO is a Republican who was appointed by Trump. It may have been fun to play the “liberal conspiracy” card when Barack Obama was president – though it still wasn’t true then – but Republicans are in charge now. They can’t keep attacking agencies in the government that they’re in charge of.

Secondly, as unhinged as Gingrich was, everything he said is consistent with what the childish president says when faced with any fact that conflicts with his preferred narrative. If something doesn’t align with Trump’s tinfoil hat worldview, he simply shoots the messenger, as Gingrich did on Monday.

This was also true during the campaign when Trump and Republicans would attack the Bureau of Labor Statistics because their monthly reports consistently showed unemployment falling and jobs growing. Now, the administration is a-okay with positive jobs reports because they’re in the White House.

The same is happening today with the Congressional Budget Office. The president doesn’t like a particular report, so he and his supporters are lashing out and calling the nonpartisan organization that released it “corrupt” and saying it should be destroyed.

Worry not, though. There will come a time over the course of the next four years when the CBO releases a report that the administration likes, and the CBO will quickly become “the greatest, most fair organization the government has ever seen.”

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.