Republicans Reckon With a Rushed Health-Care Vote
The Congressional Budget Office’s damning report on the party’s replacement for Obamacare stunned some GOP lawmakers. They shouldn’t have been surprised.
House Republicans can’t say they weren’t warned.
As party leaders their American Health Care Act earlier this month, they ignored —from Democrats, yes, but also from independent analysts and some in their own party—to wait for a final assessment from the Congressional Budget Office, a customary step before voting on any major legislation. The nonpartisan fiscal scorekeeper had run the numbers on two previous versions of the bill, but it had not had time to examine the impact of two late amendments. One would weaken Obamacare’s protections for people with preexisting conditions by allowing states to opt out of federal mandates, and the other sought to plug a hole that change
