House Speaker Paul Ryan passed one very low bar in responding to the very bad CBO score on Zombie Trumpcare: he didn't violently assault any reporters asking him about it. But Ryan being Ryan, he did violently assault the truth.
After the release of the score, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) responded saying,“This CBO report again confirms that the American Health Care Act achieves our mission: lowering premiums and lowering the deficit.”
Wait! Wasn't the mission supposed to be providing people "access" to health care? There goes Ryan's moving goal posts again. But let's look closely at that "lowering premiums" claim. Direct from the CBO report:
Community-rated premiums would rise over time, and people who are less healthy (including those with preexisting or newly acquired medical conditions) would ultimately be unable to purchase comprehensive nongroup health insurance at premiums comparable to those under current law, if they could purchase it at all—despite the additional funding that would be available under H.R. 1628 to help reduce premiums.
That some pretty darned selective reading of the report there, Mr. Ryan. Then there's this part:
Although the agencies expect that the legislation would increase the number of uninsured broadly, the increase would be disproportionately larger among older people with lower income—particularly people between 50 and 64 years old with income of less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
That's an understatement there from the CBO. When they say "disproportionate" they're talking about an 800 percent increase over what a 64-year-old with an income of $26,500 pays under Obamacare. Her annual premium now would be $1,700. Under Trumpcare? $13,600.
Yeah, that's not a lower premium, Mr. Ryan. While he'd like to erase older, poor Americans from the face of the earth, they still exist, and in fact are Republicans' most loyal voters. And they are getting royally screwed.
Make the 24 House Republicans who voted against their constituents for this bill pay. Please give $1 to each of our funds targeting the most vulnerable House Republicans.