The Congressional Budget Office will release it's score of Trumpcare, House Speaker Paul Ryan's dystopian replacement plan for Obamacare, Monday or Tuesday of this week. So Ryan and popular voter loser Trump's team spent their Sunday doing their damnedest to pre-empt what will almost certainly be disastrous numbers for the plan—numbers that will likely say it will result in loss of coverage for millions of people and won't be paid for.
Ryan himself had the most dickish performance of the day insisting that "it's up to people" to determine how many don't have insurance after his little foray into policy-making. If enough people give up all the iPhones, maybe then they'll still be insured. And maybe the budget fairy will waver her want and suddenly reduce the nation's healthcare costs and insurance companies will grow hearts. "People are going to do what they want to do with their lives," he intoned, "because we believe in individual freedom in this country." Freedom to die uninsured.
His former House colleague Tom Price, now Trump's Health Secretary, added his own bit of absurd to the Sunday shows.
"Nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we're going through," Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
"What we want to do is to put in place a system that will allow for folks to select the coverage that they want," Price said—an answer Breitbart News labeled a possible "Lie of the year."
When you're panned by Breitbart, you know you're doing it wrong. The best line, however, has to come from Trump's Office of Management and Budget Director—former Freedom Caucus maniac—Mick Mulvaney. His talking points on the CBO were the most ridiculous of all: "estimating the impact of a bill of this size probably isn't the best use of their time." Yes, what you're thinking is exactly right: that is literally the CBO's job.
Finally, a couple of Senate maniacs got in on the fun. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) went on "Face the Nation" to pan the House bill and it's author. "You know what I hear from Paul Ryan? 'It's a binary choice, young man,'" he said. "But what does a binary choice mean? His way or the highway." And Tom Cotton (R-AR), not to be out-outraged by Paul, sounded like he thinks he's a serious actor in all this, with a warning for Ryan. "As it’s written today," he said on "This Week," "this bill in the House of Representatives cannot pass the Senate. And I believe it would have adverse consequences for millions of Americans. and it wouldn't deliver on our promises to reduce the cost of health insurance for Americans."
As it stands, the bill is slated to be in the Budget Committee on Wednesday, with every sign that Ryan still intends to jam it through as soon as possible.