The Atlantic

The Congressional War on Expertise

The Congressional Budget Office is a controversial part of the health-care debate, but that just proves its importance.
Source: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Talk about a lousy recess.

Even as members of Congress were sprinting out of town for the July 4th holiday, the hard-working nerds at the Congressional Budget Office were handed the number-crunching equivalent of a colonoscopy: Republican leadership asked them to score yet another version of the party’s ultra-toxic health-care bill. Two versions actually, one with a major amendment by Texas Senator Ted Cruz and one without.

This seems cruel even by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s cold-blooded standards. Haven’t the CBOers suffered enough already? The high-octane health-care battle has been ruining their lives for months

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