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Ryan Grim at Huffington Post managed to get some details out of Ben Nelson.
He confirmed that at least four items had been sent to the CBO for an estimate known as a score: an expansion of Medicaid; broadening Sen. Maria Cantwell’s (D-Wash.) Basic Health program to people within 300 percent of the federal poverty limit; the much-discussed national plans that would be run by the Office of Personnel Management; and allowing people 55-64 to buy into Medicare
What is interesting is that this runs counter to reporting yesterday that Jay Rockefeller was forced to drop his request to expand Medicaid. It is possible that Rockefeller is having the expansion scored anyway, so that he can take another stab at including if it comes back a proven cost reducer.
The CBO score on the expansion of Cantwell’s basic health program should be extremely interesting to me personally. I’ve read every single public CBO letter/report on health care reform, and, to my knowledge, the original Cantwell basic health program was never scored. My repeated requests to Cantwell’s office to find out if there is a CBO score for her provision have remained unanswered.
The most interesting part of Nelson’s statement is that he makes it clear that Reid did not send a single package to be scored. What was sent to the CBO were several variations on many ideas. It is clear that no deal has been reached. It looks like they only reached an agreement on the parameters for what could be used to possibly make a deal. It is always easier to reach agreement on vague ideas. Like with all things in this health care reform effort, it will all come down to details, details, and more details.
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The CBO. What exactly is it? Who runs it? How are they selected?
Always alleged to be “objective” in their assessments. Who defines objective? Based on what assummptions?
From Wiki:
The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate jointly appoint the CBO Director, after considering recommendations from the two budget committees.
george:
Sounds like an inside job to me. Why not have an agency that, in no way shape or form, is affliated with the government at all. Folks widely recongized as truly fair and balanced.
The current CBO head is Doug Elmendorf. From Wiki:
Elmendorf only stayed a year at the CBO as a principal analyst before heading to the Federal Reserve Board as an economist while Alan Greenspan headed it. In 1998, his travels through the financial departments of the federal government continued, as Elmedorf moved to the Council of Economic Advisers, working as a senior economist under Director Janet Yellen. After staying at the CEA for a year, Elmendorf then joined the Treasury Department as deputy assistant secretary for economic policy, working under Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. When George W. Bush took office, Elmendorf moved back to the Fed as a senior economist and in 2002
george:
Lots of familiar names and government offices, eh? The usual suspects in the crony capitalist edifice.
One assumption I’ve always embraced about Washington is that it is an adjunct of New York, of those who own and operate the global economy. So how do we know the CBO is above all the “politics” stuff? Maybe the score they come up with is double checked on, say, Wall Street. You know, one way or the other.
At least “vague parameters” doesn’t sound like something that would “ping-pong” very well.
The question of CBO neutrality has always bugged me. I was glad to see that one of the recent bills was also analyzed by a university, I think it was Harvard. If there’s any way to play the CBO scoring, you know someone is trying it. That bugs me about trying to rush something through this year, especially some new thing that hasn’t been well gone over.