Here is a statement from Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), on the Republicans’ rejection of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announcement today that the Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would add $230 billion to the federal budget deficit over 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the second decade:

“It’s only Day 2 of the Republican reign in the House, and we’re already up to our hips in double-talk and hypocrisy. Now the Republicans are rejecting the CBO’s new report that says repeal of the ACA will jack up the budget deficit by $230 billion over 10 years. There’s no promise the Republicans won’t break, no principle they won’t sacrifice and no fact they won’t ignore to let the insurance companies off the hook and strip consumers of important protections like the ban on denying care to people with pre-existing conditions.

“Republicans are trashing the nonpartisan CBO report because its numbers are inconvenient. Instead they cook up their own numbers about the ACA costing money when it really saves $1.2 trillion.

“Their reckless repeal plan will put insurance companies back in charge of our health care, restore the ‘anything-goes’ premium rate hikes that are crushing consumers and businesses and blast the federal budget deficit to the sky. The health insurance companies are certainly getting what they paid for in the 2010 elections.”

Health Care for America Now yesterday launched an online petition to urge Republicans in Congress to end this all-out assault on the Affordable Care Act, and it has already gotten nearly 40,000 signatures.

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Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of healthreform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.