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The problem is, the Trump administration
is allergic to facts.
TV REPORTER: In a piece for today's Washington Post,
the White House challenged the expected CBO score,
arguing "The American people and Congress
should give this prediction little weight."
The COB doesn't even capture those individuals
who say to the federal government,
"I don't want the plan that you think I need,
I want the plan that I know I need."
We really think that the CBO estimate
-should stick to their budgetary numbers, -Right.
and not try to forecast the number of people on insurance.
TV REPORTER: The White House put out a 45 second spot
attacking the Congressional Budget Office
for being inaccurate.
The video, which was deleted,
shows a misspelling of the word "inaccurately."
Like, I feel like the whole point of saying "inaccurate"
is that you would spell it... I mean...
At the same time, though, I feel like
all of Trump's spelling errors
are sort of a metaphor for his presidency. You know?
Liberals are, like, "Aah! He can't even spell a word!"
And most people are like, "Yeah, who cares?
We use emojis now, man."
Like, most people don't care about Trump's spelling.
What they do care about
is whether they'll have health care next year.
And instead of focusing on the numbers,
Trump's team says we should focus
on what we... believe.
Let me be clear-- President Trump and I believe
the Senate health care bill strengthens
and secures Medicaid
for the neediest in our society.
We believe we're gonna be able to cover more individuals
on this bill than are currently covered.
Now, I know that's counterintuitive to folks
that have been reading other headlines,
but the goal is to get every single American covered
and have access to the kind of coverage they want.
Yes, we believe everyone's going to be covered.
Some by insurance,
some by the sheets that the coroners place over them
because they can't afford health care. Yeah.
And, by the way, if you can't afford the sheet,
the coroner's just gonna cover your eyes.
"Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look.
-Look now." -"Aah!"
"No, don't look, don't look."
Now, the CBO clearly doesn't believe in the power of dreams,
uh, because, unlike straight Tim Gunn over here,
their numbers show that around 22 million fewer people
will have insurance under this plan.
And they've come to that prediction with data
and statistical models,
which are, by far, Trump's least favorite type of model.
So, although Mitch McConnell wants to push this through
as fast as possible, the CBO's numbers,
which are expected later this week,
will will definitely slow him down. Yeah.
What also doesn't help Mitch McConnell is that
not all Republicans are on board
with this faith-based approach to reforming health care.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader,
needs 50 votes to get this thing passed.
There are 52 Republicans in the Senate.
Two of those are already hard no's.
Uh, Susan Collins of Maine
and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
If he loses another vote, this bill dies.
Does Senator... Senate majority leader McConnell
have the votes to pass this revised bill?
You know, I don't think, right now, he does.
You know, on some level, you-you have to be impressed
that Mitch McConnell and his friends
have written a bill so bad
that their own party hates it.
The only question is, when-when something
is so deeply unpopular,
how could you possibly make it worse?
REPORTER: Senator Ted Cruz has authored an amendment
to the Senate GOP health care bill.
My man.
REPORTER 2: Cruz's amendment would allow insurers
to sell cheaper plans with fewer benefits.
REPORTER 3: The nation's largest insurers released a letter,
calling the Cruz proposal unworkable in any form,
and saying it would increase premiums for those
with pre-existing conditions
and lead to widespread terminations of coverage.
Ju-Just so you understand, up to this point,
insurers have been pretty quiet
about the Republican health care plan.
But as soon as Ted Cruz chimed in,
they were all like, "This is the worst possible idea.
"We didn't even read it, we just saw
"it was named after Ted Cruz, and we had to speak up.
"Like his face, it is unworkable
"in any way, shape or form.
"People will die.
-People will die." -(cheering, applause)
So, to sum up,
the CBO says millions fewer people would have insurance
with the Senate health care bill.
Moderate Republicans hate it for not covering enough people.
Conservative Republicans hate it for covering too many people.
Insurance companies hate it, Republican governors hate it.
The American people hate it. Yet somehow,
it is still possible the bill could pass
without any hearings or debate.
Or, at least, that was the case...
until the Republican health care reform plan
was stopped by irony.
A vote on health care was expected
to take place this week, but, now, a delay.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says
he will give Senator John McCain time
to recover from a surgery
to remove a blood clot from his eye.
With McCain gone, they simply did not have the votes
to even bring this bill to the Senate floor.
That's right-- this bill is looking so bad right now
that even Republican senators are like,
"I better get all my procedures done now
"before we pass this thing.
Because, after we're done with it, who knows?"