Episode 43: The CBO Is Almost, but Not Quite, Useless

Economist Paul Krugman is well-known for his pro-Democrat stances. Recently, he's claimed that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said that if the Individual Mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, is repealed, 22 million Americans will "lose" their health insurance. What he doesn't say is that the vast majority of those 22 million people are simply opting out. They are _choosing_ not to have health insurance. But here's the problem with CBO forecasts: they're usually wrong. And they're wrong in almost the exact same way. Why are the CBO forecasts so bad? Why do they consistently get it wrong in such a consistent way? And what does this mean for our economy? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more in this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Emirates’ new 777

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericrosen/2017/11/13/new-emirates-first-class-suites-on-777-300er-revealed-at-the-dubai-air-show/#13ce46a256b8

Curing disease by rewriting our DNA

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/first-scientists-try-edit-faulty-dna-inside-patients-body-cure-genetic-disease/

iHeart Radio:https://www.wsj.com/articles/iheart-creditors-reject-another-offer-from-company-as-they-push-for-chapter-11-1512090362

Jeff Sessions on marijuana:http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/sessions-hints-at-a-coming-crackdown-on-recreational-weed.html

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/sessions-opioid-news-conference-marijuana/index.html

http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/26/sessions-continues-to-push-gateway-drug

Foolishness of the weekhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/republican-tax-bill-moves-closer-to-senate-passage.html

The CBO

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2017/07/22/cbo-three-fourths-of-coverage-difference-between-obamacare-gop-bills-driven-by-individual-mandate/#327a3b9e3627

Follow us on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

https://twitter.com/AntonyDavies

Join the Words and Numbers Backstage FB group, where the conversation continueshttps://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices