CBO speaks, and it's worse than expected

The Congressional Budget Office says the Republicans' Health Care plan would increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 24 million and reduce the deficit by $337 billion by the year 2026.  In contrast, Obamacare has increased coverage by 20 million and it still projects a reduction in the deficit by as much as $137 to $353 billion by 2025.

So, not only do these figures argue overwhelmingly for Obamaccare, they make a mockery of the president's boast two months ago that "we're going to have insurance for everybody" that will be much less expensive and much better."

Trouble for Republicans:   Two of their committees have already endorsed this bill and recommended the House pass it.    What now?  Maybe the only thing they can do is try to discredit the CBO, which they already began in anticipation of bad news.

Unless you prioritize conservative ideology above human lives, as Paul Ryan obviously does.  It is dishonest to claim, as Ryan does, that Obamacare is crashing in a death spiral.   That simply isn't true.  But here's what baffles me about Ryan's response.   He actually finds this report "encouraging."   To him, the most important thing about the Republicans' plan is that it gets rid of the individual mandate to buy insurance and let's people be free to choose whether to buy insurance.   So the large number of people who don't have insurance proves to Ryan that his plan has worked.

Yeah, I follow that reasoning;   but he's assuming that all those 24 million people won't have insurance because they don't want to have it.   What a twisted, blind-to-reality point of view.   Tell that to someone whose spouse just died for lack of health care, or to the parent whose teenage son is paraplegic from a diving accident -- with no insurance.   I thought Ryan was the sane one among GOP leaders.   Maybe sane, but certainly lacking compassion.

Ralph

The post below is also new.   Be sure to read to the end for another Rachel Maddow scoop.