Republicans have been
dissatisfied with the CBO for quite a while, both because it keeps reporting a rosy Obamacare picture, and because when it makes its projections on the costs and benefits of legislation, it refuses to bolster their arguments that tax cuts for the rich and for corporations don't add to the deficit and create so much economic growth that the revenue decreases are offset. They want to force the CBO to use "dynamic scoring" for their economic projections, special math that Republicans have been touting since the bad old days of "trickle down."
One of the biggest proponents of dynamic scoring, tax-cut and anti-government guru Grover Norquist, has been pushing Republicans to oust current CBO director Doug Elmendorf, and put a lackey who will do their bidding in place. Now it looks like Republicans are going to do Grover's bidding.
(Bloomberg) -- Incoming Republican leaders in Congress won’t reappoint Doug Elmendorf to another term as head of the Congressional Budget Office, according to a party aide briefed on the decision. […]
Even as Democrats lost their Senate majority in the November election, some economists who side with Republicans said that Elmendorf should keep his job.
“His background insulates his rulings and the congressional Republicans who choose to reappoint him from accusations of bias,” wrote Keith Hennessey, who served as President George W. Bush’s final director of the National Economic Council and is now a lecturer at Stanford University’s business school.
Republican lawmakers who have questioned the office’s analysis were unmoved. They agreed with calls from incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price for a new director who might introduce so-called dynamic scoring to CBO analysis.
Consider this a full embrace of "truthiness" by Republicans. Now their legislation will be analyzed with a dash of
"fairy dust" that will give them the results they demand.