Should-Read: Michael Strain: Stop Bashing the CBO, Republicans

Should-Read: Michael Strain: Stop Bashing the CBO, Republicans: “A word to the wise from a fellow conservative: Expert analysis isn’t your problem; bad legislation is… https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-01/stop-bashing-the-cbo-republicans

…The nonpartisan agency… was the subject of a bizarre attack ad by the White House…. This is all ridiculous. It is normal (if less than utopian) for politicians to exaggerate the benefits and understate the costs of policies they support. Part of the CBO’s job is to lay out those costs and benefits in an objective, impartial manner. It is therefore par for the course—and often healthy—for CBO analysis to be criticized. What is not normal is the attempt to discredit the agency itself. The current campaign to do so has been motivated by the CBO’s estimates of the effects of various Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare….

Experts can be wrong. I often find myself thinking a particular CBO analysis is a little off base…. There is often significant uncertainty in analysis as ambitious as that frequently produced by the CBO. And it would be good for the CBO to be more transparent about its analysis and with its models. But… CBO consistently produces the most useful, most impartial, highest-quality nonpartisan analysis of public policy issues and proposals. Questioning the CBO’s integrity and professionalism is absurd. It’s time to stop attacking the umpire, and refocus on throwing strikes.