Congressman Elijah Cummings (Md.) Statement on CBO Score of Senate’s TrumpCare Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 26, 2017

Contact: Fabion Seaton (202) 225-4741

Cummings Statement on CBO Score of Senate’s TrumpCare Bill

Baltimore, MD (June 26, 2017) — Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) issued the following statement on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) report that the Senate’s TrumpCare bill would leave 22 million more Americans uninsured by 2026, including 15 million Americans who would lose their Medicaid coverage:
“This CBO Report confirmed what we already know. The Senate’s TrumpCare bill is just as ‘mean’ as the House’s, and it has no ‘heart.’

“President Trump was elected after promising the American people that “everyone will be taken care of,” but it is now clear that the only people who will be taken care of are millionaires and billionaires. Just last week, he bragged about hiring Wall Street to run our economy, so we should not be surprised that the President is now selling out the health of the American people to pad the pockets of his wealthy friends.

“TrumpCare can never have ‘heart’ because it is not a healthcare bill; it is a tax cut for the millionaire class and cut to the safety net for our most vulnerable neighbors. Of all the President’s broken promises, this is certainly the most shameful and possibly, most deadly. The American people deserve better than this.”

Background:
* Despite recent attempts by Republicans in Congress to question the veracity and integrity of the CBO’s multiple analyses of TrumpCare, a 2015 Commonwealth Fund report found that the CBO’s Affordable Care Act forecasts were “reasonably accurate.”
* The CBO predicted that under the ACA, the percentage of uninsured Americans under the age of 65 would drop to 11 percent—the uninsured rate fell to 10 percent.
* The CBO predicted that by 2016, 10 million Americans would be covered under Medicaid expansion—the actual number is 14 million.