From the House Republicans' American Health Care Act (AHCA) to the Senate Republicans' Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has shown itself to be a thorn in the side of all Republicans. As the conservative lawmakers have tried to get votes for both of their failed health care bills in Congress, the CBO has been there to score those bills for lawmakers to know what the economic impact would be should they become laws. In fact, with a recent effort by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to add an amendment to the "zombie" bill (a bill Republicans kept bringing back), Republicans initially approached the CBO for a score on that amendment in time for July 17, but it ended up being postponed.

Trump hates congressional accountability

After a pep talk from the White House this Wednesday, Senate Republicans will try once again to bring back their effort to repeal and replace Obamacare -- otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- by holding a vote next week, even after it was thought that the effort to try was thought dead. But it should be pointed out that the Trump administration already hates CBO scoring for obvious reasons, to say nothing about how frustrated he already is with the drag of the congressional processes is. Proof of this is when one recalls how the White House forced House Republicans to pass the AHCA without the score in early May.

This, in turn, ended up creating problems for Senate Republicans who needed the same requirement for their bill own BCRA, which is what the AHCA became when the conservatives in the Senate decided it wasn't good enough to pass on its own.

Recent reports on not being able to get enough support to pass the BCRA continues to leave the future of the bill in question as Trump said just a few days after it "died" that Senate Republicans should keep trying. The White House continued to try and get involved in Senate legislation by first suggesting that Congress forget about getting votes for their bill and repeal Obamacare.

White House moves to weaken congressional rules

It's obvious that doing so, however, would, of course, leave millions of Americans without insurance. And while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had initially rejected the suggestion, the administration continued to try and convince others to reject all criticism against legislation and to even reject the CBO assessment.

White House aides Marc Short and Brian Blase wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post where they attempt to convince Americans and lawmakers to not put much value in the CBO.

The White House had reportedly been circulating the piece which is ironic given that the Washington Post is one of the media outlets the administration had criticized of being "Fake News." But it's also been reported that the White House had been working on another front to get governors across the nation to ignore the CBO scores too. On Friday and Saturday, the White House tried this when they sent the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price and Vice President Mike Pence to Rhode Island to convince governors to accept reduced funding for Medicaid.

During a closed door meeting, White House representatives told governors to ignore the CBO score, but Governors on both sides of the aisle took issue with the suggestion, especially when Price attacked the CBO only to turn around and use the score when he needed to make a point. Overall governors wanted to know what kind of financial fallout they should expect as they felt as if they were being told to trust the administration and fly blind. If there's any indication of what to expect from the administration over the first several months, trust isn't something anyone should expect.
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