Paul Ryan Throws Trump-Like Tantrum Over The CBO’s New Score Of GOP Health Plan

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan lashed out at the Congressional Budget Office on Thursday, calling the latest score of the Senate health care plan “bogus” and making the claim that millions of Americans actually prefer to be uninsured.

Ryan attacked the CBO’s finding, saying, “I really don’t see that as a credible number.”

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Ryan said:

I think that’s kind of a bogus number. What they’re basically saying is people will choose not to buy something that they don’t want to buy if they don’t have to buy it. The government’s forcing people to buy something they don’t want, and so if we stop forcing people to do something they don’t want to do, they won’t do it. … If states won’t expand Medicaid in the future, then that person who was in that state that might have gone on Medicaid won’t go on it. So I really don’t see that as a credible number.

Instead of acknowledging that the American people simply don’t want what the GOP is selling them on health care, Ryan is attacking the nonpartisan CBO and trying to convince the country that all 22 million people who would lose insurance under Trumpcare would be happy.

What Ryan didn’t mention is that only a small fraction of those who have received coverage under the Affordable Care Act don’t want it. Millions of Americans – particularly those on Medicaid, which Ryan dismissed in his comments – see the law as a literal lifesaver.

Not to mention the fact that every organization or expert with any knowledge of the U.S. healthcare system opposes the Republican plan to dismantle the current law.

If this is the strategy the GOP continues to use on health care – bashing the referee instead of abandoning their disastrous and deadly health care legislation – then they will continue to fail on this issue and show themselves as a party that doesn’t know how to responsibly govern.

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.