Senate

McConnell: CBO analysis for House bill will repeat ‘things we already know’

by Jordain Carney - 05/24/17 11:32 AM ET

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pre-butting an analysis of the House’s ObamaCare repeal and replacement bill that is expected to be released later Wednesday.

“We expect the Congressional Budget Office to release an updated score on the bill the House passed later today. It’s a technical, procedural step,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.

He added that the CBO analysis will repeat “things we already know, like that fewer people will buy a product they don’t want when the government stops forcing them to.”

The CBO’s analysis of the House-passed American Health Care Act is expected sometime on Wednesday. The House passed its legislation roughly three weeks ago, before the office released an analysis of the version of the bill lawmakers voted on.

{mosads}McConnell stressed on Wednesday that Republicans are committed to replacing ObamaCare, which he compared to a collapsing bridge.

“ObamaCare wasn’t built on a sturdy foundation, nor were its policies truly built to last. Just like the bridge, it may have looked really good from the outside. We all remember the lofty claims our Democratic colleagues made about the law,” he said.

He added that “whatever the CBO says about the House bill, the status quo under ObamaCare is completely unacceptable and totally unsustainable.”

McConnell hasn’t publicly announced when he wants to try to move the Senate’s legislation, but GOP senators are under pressure to vote before the August recess.

Republicans have a narrow path to passing repeal legislation in the Senate. They have 52 seats and need at least 50 senators, as well as Vice President Mike Pence, to get a bill through the upper chamber.

The CBO analysis is expected to detail the cost and if, or how many, people would become uninsured under the House bill. The score could jolt the debate in the Senate, where Republicans are trying to find a deal on their own legislation.

An analysis of an earlier version of the bill sparked a fresh wave of concern among Senate Republicans, who stressed that they would overhaul the House bill once it reached the upper chamber.

The CBO score of the earlier version of the House repeal and replace plan estimated that the number of uninsured people would grow by 14 million in 2018, with that number rising to 24 million in a decade.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that the new analysis would “raise a lot of new questions” and blasted House Republicans for voting without a score for the bill.

“It’s like test-driving a brand-new car three weeks after you already signed on the dotted line and paid the dealer in full,” he said.

Tags Chuck Schumer Mike Pence Mitch McConnell