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# CityWatch Today: Bad Numbers
July 13 2017
Written by Abby Zimet.
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GUEST COLUMN-Sorry, but another egregious[ failure ](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/12/15960920/white-house-video-attack-cbo-inaccurately-typo)by the Flailing Trumpettes.
Facing an upcoming vote on their crappy let-poor-people-die-to-get-tax-cuts [bill ](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/senate-republicans-health-bill.html)and eager to ram it through Congress despite widespread condemnation, the White House has embarked on a sleazy effort to trash the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
In a newly [released](https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse) shiny bauble of a video, they charge the CBO "uses faulty assumptions and bad math” in its devastating criticisms of the bill. Arguing that CBO once over-estimated the number of people who would be covered by Obamacare, they go on to claim that CBO's estimate of at least 22 million Americans left uninsured by the debacle of TrumpCare is likewise unreliable and "based on bad numbers."
As [usual](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jul/10/context-how-white-house-edited-ap-story-about-heal/), there are a few wee problems with the claim.
1. It goes back to an Obama-hating, long-disproved GOP talking point; in reality, the CBO estimate [got ](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/29/15892642/28-million-uninsured-obamacare)some unpredictable factors wrong but was on target for overall coverage.
2. Despite its bouncy music and glitzy graphics, the [video](https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/885202925370224641) offers no actual numbers of its own.
3. It is [attacking](http://www.salon.com/2017/07/12/white-houses-fuzzy-math-fail-unprecedented-ad-attacking-cbos-inaccurate-score-of-trumpcare-spells-inaccurately-wrong/) a [respected ](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/upshot/the-house-passed-its-health-care-bill-now-the-scorekeepers-will-weigh-in.html?_r=0)institution whose only crime - like the press, courts, Dems et al - is [doing ](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/why-lawmakers-need-the-congressional-budget-office/532929/)its job.
4. It can't friggin' spell: Until someone with half a brain caught it, the initial video inaccurately [spelled](https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/885201557201059840) "inaccurately," twice. And yes, competence matters. Which bring us to …
Without irony, it asks us to trust the thugs and morons in power over a staid body of 230 economists and policy analysts headed by a Congressionally [chosen ](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/keith-hall-congressional-budget-office-115584)director, all of whom can presumably spell "i-m-p-e-a-c-h-m-e-n-t." So nyet.
- *Photo above; Evangelicals* [*lay hands* ](http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article160904779.html)*on the Trumpster seeking "a great spiritual awakening" or at least to pray away the stupid.* [*Photo*](https://www.facebook.com/rodneyadonicahowardbrowne/) *by Florida televangelist and megachurch pastor Rodney Howard-Browne.*
*Read more* [*here*](http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article160904779.html#storyl...])*[:](http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article160904779.html#storyl...])*
*(Abbey Zimet writes ‘Further … ‘ for the excellent [Common Dreams](http://commondreams.org).)*
*-cw*
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