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Many Senate hearings are mere theater, but one that took place on July 16, 2009, mattered. With Congress in the midst of writing the bill that became Obamacare, senators asked Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, to evaluate their efforts. (David Leonhardt, 12/9)

The CBO has long enjoyed a reputation for objectivity, but now some conservatives are clamoring for changes that would undermine the CBO's independence and lead to bigger, hidden federal deficits. The critics are pushing to dump the current director, Doug Elmendorf. Elmendorf, first appointed in 2009 when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and reappointed in 2011 when control was split, has a well-earned reputation for facing down political pressure from both parties. (12/8)

Most Americans have never heard of the Congressional Budget Office, so it may come as a surprise that an intense debate is occurring in Washington about the agency and its director, Doug Elmendorf. While some are urging the new, Republican-controlled Congress to keep the Democratic appointee, the better approach would be to bring in new blood. CBO scores have an outsized impact on the workings of Capitol Hill; unfavorable scores often end legislative debates before they begin. Elmendorf's CBO is widely respected as a supposedly neutral arbiter of legislative costs. But on several occasions its rulings — rosy estimates of job gains from the stimulus and predictions downplaying job losses from Obamacare, for example — have done the policy debate a disservice. (Michael A. Needham, 12/8)

Mary Landrieu ’s defeat in Saturday’s Louisiana Senate runoff was no surprise, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored as inevitable. Ms. Landrieu was a widely liked three-term incumbent, and her GOP foe was hardly a juggernaut, yet she lost by 14 points after Washington Democrats all but wrote her off. Think of Ms. Landrieu as one more Democrat who has sacrificed her career to ObamaCare. It’s hard to find another vote in modern history that has laid waste to so many political careers. Sixty Democrats cast the deciding 60th vote for the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010, but come January only 30 will be left in the Senate. (12/8)

One criticism of the Affordable Care Act is that it imposes a costly, one-size-fits-all standard, drastically increasing premiums by requiring everyone to buy health insurance that covers the same mandated benefits. This is not so. (Austin Frakt, 12/8)

Homicides account for close to two-thirds of all gun deaths of young people 19 years and younger. Gunshots (from both suicide and homicide) are the second biggest killer of teens and the top killer of black teens. Yet, stories like Jorge’s garner far less attention in the popular press than do the unintentional shooting deaths of children. Unintentional shootings—which sometimes involve very young children who find a gun in a parent’s or friend’s home—account for only 4% of pediatric gun deaths. ... pediatricians can enrich the conversation about pediatric gun safety so that urban teens are not left out. While acknowledging obvious risk factors for gun homicide, such as poverty and gang involvement, we cannot ignore the connection between unfettered access to guns and high rates of gun death. (Nancy A. Dodson and David Hemenway, 12/8)

Patients with disabilities face barriers when they attempt to access health care. These barriers include physical barriers to entering health care establishments, lack of accessible equipment, lack of a safe method for transferring the patient to an examination table, and the lack of policies that facilitate access. ... Many patients with disabilities receive their health care through government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. How is it that the federal government does not adequately enforce the federal laws to protect patients with disabilities? (Tara Lagu, Christine Griffin and Peter K. Lindenauer, 12/8)