There is an emerging argument by Democrats against repeal of Obamacare… deficit reduction.
As reported by The Hill:
A leading liberal lawmaker said Tuesday Democrats could be open to compromising with Republicans on a “fix” of healthcare reform — but only if congressional budget scorekeepers back off their opinion that the bill cuts the deficit.
Rep. Robert Andrews’s comments on Fox News come as Democrats have been accusing Republicans of being hypocritical for pushing repeal even though it would violate their campaign pledge to tackle the deficit.
“If [Republicans] would make the repeal of the law contingent upon the Congressional Budget Office certifying that it wouldn’t increase the deficit to repeal it,” Andrews (D-N.J.) said, “maybe that is something we could compromise on.”
I saw part of the Andrews’ interview, and it was clear that he was playing games based upon the previous CBO scoring of Obamacare.
As posted here repeatedly, the CBO score was contrived by completely unrealistic assumptions built into the bill which the CBO was required to follow in its scoring. One of those assumptions, that the so-called Doc Fix would not happen, already has been broken.
But, Andrews makes a good point which Republicans should keep in mind. Many Democrats who are loath to defend the merits of Obamacare will grab the mantle of fiscal responsibility and claim they are against repeal because of the deficit.
So among other things, Republicans would be wise not only to attack Obamacare on the merits, but also communicate why the prior CBO scoring was unrealistic.
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