National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett dismissed the Congressional Budget Office’s recent projections for the “big, beautiful bill,” saying the agency has been “wrong” in the past.
The CBO issued its latest report on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the days before the Senate passed it, where it ultimately saw some changes before it was again passed in the House and signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4. According to its projections, over 10 million would lose their Medicaid coverage by the changes made to the service.
Within the “big, beautiful bill” is a work requirement for adults without children to receive Medicaid. However, during an appearance on CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Hassett pointed out that recipients can still meet this requirement by looking for work or volunteering.
“So the idea that that’s going to cause a massive hemorrhaging in availability of insurance doesn’t make a lot of sense to us,” Hassett said. “[The CBO] record in this modeling space is about as bad as it’s possible to be. In fact you could roll the roulette wheel and come up with a better set of numbers, better history, track record than CBO.”
Hassett cited another CBO report from 2017 when Congress included work requirements for Obamacare that predicted 4 million people would lose their insurance as a result. Instead, the number of people insured increased and continues to do so as the 10-year mark approaches.
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The CBO was also off in its projections after Obamacare was signed into law, specifically on how many people would receive health insurance. It estimated that by 2016, 21 million people would receive health insurance, but just 10 million people did.
Hassett concluded from this that “the best way to get insurance is to get a job.”
