Remember when the CBO sucked?

All of a sudden Democrats are singing the praises of the Congressional Budget Office.

But quick, who were the three biggest critics of the CBO back in July of 2009? If you said Pelosi, Dodd and Obama, you win.

It seems that back when the CBO was asking if Congress was smoking crack, or words to that effect, Nancy Pelosi and company didn’t think the CBO was so “wonderful” and “precise.”

Back then, the Queen of Congress said, “..it’s always been a source of, yes, I will say frustration, for many of us in Congress that the CBO will always give you the worst case scenario on one initiative and never … any credit for anything that happens if you have early intervention, health care. If you have prevention, if you have wellness … you name any positive investment that we make, that we know reduces cost, brings money to the Treasury in the case of education but never scored positively by the CBO. Yes, it is frustrating.”

Chris Dodd also bitched about how unfair the CBO was saying “One of the things that’s disappointing about CBO — and frustrating — is all the work…done on prevention” that the CBO doesn’t factor in.”

But no one was less in love with the CBO than The Greatest President In History, who said during one of those White-House-Goes-to-a-Townhall episodes “…the CBO, which sort of polices what all various programs cost, they’re not willing to credit us with those savings. They say, ‘That may be nice, that may save a lot of money, but we can’t be certain.’ So we expect that not only are we going to pay for health care reform in a deficit-neutral way, but that’s it also going to achieve big savings across the system — including in the private sector where the Congressional Budget Office never gives us any credit — but if hospitals and doctors are starting to operate in a smarter way, that’s going to help you even if you’re not involved in a government system.”

But now everything is wonderful with the CBO, Congress and, of course, President Obama.

So what changed? Well, it could have been the unprecedented calling of the head of the CBO Douglas Elmendorf to the White House, where he was personally educated by the Greatest Professor In History on numbers, health care and stuff.

As one wit said, think of it as baseball umpires visiting the owner’s box.

Monty Hall would be proud.

Source: ABC News

– Written by Patrick Michael