Almost every lawmaker remembers their first “bad” score from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan entity that estimates the budgetary and economic impacts of legislation.
For Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., it was when she tried to get a bill passed that would mandate Medicare and Medicaid coverage of tobacco cessation services, including counseling and drugs.
At the time, the CBO told her that such a provision would raise the bill’s costs, despite her view that, as a preventive health measure, it would cost money upfront but save money in later years by reducing cancer and disease.
