Gingrich: Abolish ‘totally destructive’ CBO

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) called for an end to both the Congressional Budget Office and the White House daily press briefing in an interview on Fox Business Thursday.

“Abolish CBO. It is totally destructive. It is totally dishonest,” Gingrich told host Maria Bartiromo, one day after the independent government office released its long-awaited analysis of the House GOP’s healthcare bill.

“It was unbelievably wrong about ObamaCare. Go back and pull up how wrong they were. Let’s assume they are equally wrong about the Republican bill,” Gingrich said.

He made the same criticism in March, after the CBO’s initial analysis.

{mosads}”They should abolish the Congressional Budget Office. It is corrupt. It is dishonest. It was totally wrong on ObamaCare by huge, huge margins,” Gingrich told Fox’s Martha MacCallum at the time.

He also said Wednesday that President Trump should end daily White House press briefings.

“If [Trump] is as disciplined at home as we have seen him be on this trip, if he decides to focus on big things, if they cut out the daily briefings which are totally destructive — notice that there aren’t daily briefings on this trip — you don’t have a place for the elite media to come in and destroy everything,” the former Georgia congressman said.

Earlier this month, Trump suggesting he might cancel “all future ‘press briefings'” in the name of accuracy.

“As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” Trump tweeted on May 12.

The White House daily press briefing has been in existence since 1929.

Bartiromo also asked Gingrich if he would accept a position as the White House chief of staff, in the midst of speculation that a White House staff shakeup is in the works.

“The major changes in the White House [are] for President Trump to decide,” Gingrich replied, not dismissing the prospect.

Speculation has surfaced in recent weeks that Trump is considering replacing White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Gingrich was reportedly on Trump’s shortlist to join his ticket as vice president, a job that ultimately went to then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.