We previously discussed the statements of Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who played a major role the ACA, or “Obamacare,” where he repeatedly endorsed the theory at the heart of the recent decisions in Halbig and King by challengers to the ACA: to wit, that the federal funding provision was a quid pro quo device to reward states with their own exchanges and to punish those that force the creation of federal exchanges. That issue will now be decided by the United States Supreme Court. Gruber caused a considerable controversy when, after he had denounced the theory as “nutty” during the arguments in Halbig and King, he was shown later to have embraced that same interpretation. Having been paid almost $400,000 as an architect of the ACA, Gruber has become a major liability in the litigation. Now Gruber is back in the news with an equally startling admission that the Obama Administration (and Gruber) succeeded in passing the ACA only by engineering a “lack of transparency” on the details and relying on “the stupidity of the American voter.”
Gruber’s remarks were made on a panel given roughly a year ago on Oct. 17, 2013. Notably, this was at the height of the tension over the ACA. While I have long supported national health care, I was critical of the sloppy drafting of the ACA, the federalism conflicts contained in the individual mandate provision, and the unsupportable claims made by the White House in selling the Act. The last concern was the subject of Gruber’s comments. Gruber told the crowd that the “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage.” He also said that “basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”
Gruber also later states that New York Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.) is someone who “as far as I can tell, doesn’t understand economics” while calling a staffer for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R., Maine) an “idiot.” The later reference appears to be a reference to aide William Pewen.
The specific comments on the bill are transcribed as follows:
“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay, so it’s written to do that. In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in – you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed… Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass… Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not.”
I was concerned that these lines were taken out of context so I watched the video below:
What is fascinating is that Gruber is open about what has long been hidden in this Administration: the lack of transparency as a tactical political vehicle. The ACA was pushed through by a muscle vote on a handful of votes while the Administration made claims that he later had to admit were misleading at best, such as the President’s repeated assurance that citizens could keep your current insurance policy if you liked it.
Gruber also admits that the Administration crafted the law to avoid it being supported by a tax despite Chief Justice John Roberts’ later decision that it was a tax. Gruber says that, while he would have preferred to be honest and open, such considerations had to be set aside in the interests of passing the law — even by less than honest means.
In a truly ironic twist, the University of Pennsylvania tried to pull back the admission on the lack of transparency by pulling the video:
It was too late. The video was out.
In fairness to Gruber, he was doing what an academic is supposed to do in honestly assessing what he believed occurred in the historic passage of the ACA. While he later sought to deny the earlier comments that he made on the state exchanges (in a less than candid moment), there is thus far no comment from him on this latest video. As in the earlier admissions, there has been little relative coverage by the mainstream media of the comments. Once again, the lack of media attention is surprising given the importance of Gruber to the ACA and the Administration.
UPDATE: Gruber went on MSNBC to say that his comments were “inappropriate” while the host insisted that his comments were misunderstood as “nuanced” observations.
I demand that our Congress repeal Obamacare. And Medicare while they are at it. We need what McConnell and those Koch Brothers say we need. Quit going to doctors anyway. If you are religious then pray for good health. Boycott hospitals. See if your dog’s vet will see you on the sly. My vet treats my half blind human whom I guide round.
Paul, that’s too bad and I send you my sympathy, but the rest of the nation needs a workable affordable doable healthcare system.
Aridog – my wife has a Cadillac policy that I am covered under. It is better and cheaper than Medicare plus a supplement.
Paul is correct… Medicare can cost you medical affiliations. I have been lucky. Many are not.
Annie….As I have said elsewhere, though today is Veterans’ Day, everyone in the US of A contributed in some way, none of us in the field could have survived without that support, so today is for all of us….from Rosie the Riveter on forward. No soldier fights alone.
Paul…correct, but only a fool passes on Part B, and a good supplement. I include even those will full military VA coverage, such as it is today. Many of my police and fire retiree friends (Detroit police and fire folk lost all their health care coverage) have had to go to AARP for a supplement to A & B…those not yet 65 are screwed.
Jim, Medicare is already doing so, and rightfully so. There is a cap to the monthly premium, BTW. It’s still an excellent deal. What I don’t understand is the rigid adherence to an ideological mind set. There are things the government does that works, Medicare is one of them.
Annie, I second the thanks for your daughters service and wish her well.
Karen S…I am okay now, and my point was simply that the FEHBP adaptation would make it much less hassle for everyone, even employers. It works well for me 90% of the time. It made way too much sense is why it was by-passed in my opinion. A system with a 50+ year successful track record…like why would the idiots in DC go for that instead of a new POS? Go figure. Thank you for you good wishes.
I will do that Aridog, thanks. And today is Veterans Day, my thanks to all the Veterans here and elsewhere.
Paul, Annie shows that her plan is just another way to stick it to those evil responsible rich people with this comment –
“Plus I believe the Premium goes up according to income to a certain point.”
Plus those rich get to then pay again for a health care service that is better than the what the Nanny State will be providing. It’s always about redistribution for the progressives.
Annie…thanks for the remark. Please tell your Corpsman daughter that she has the tip of my hat, since her job is among the toughest there are in the military.
Aridog – so sorry to hear that! Hope you are OK.
Paul, again it’s not free, people pay premiums, get it? Ask people who use Medicare, they love it. Your current doctors are replaceable. I had to change doctors several times with group insurance through work, I survived and actually found some excellent docs. I know many people on Medicare, not ONE has had any problem finding a doctor, not one.
Annie – I do not like change. I develop relationships with people. If I do not like the people, including the doctor, I do not deal with them. Building new relationships takes time and energy.
Paul….unless I am very badly informed, once you reach 65 you will be on Medicare, like it or not.
Aridog – you get Medicare A (hospitalization only).
Raflaw…the ACA as written now and passed is by no means a Republican idea. I suspect Issa might vote for HR 3319 because he wrote and sponsored it. Either way, they had a chance dating back to 2004 (Kerry) and before to do the intelligent thing, and Mr Gruber just explained why they did not accept it. When you hit 65 and are on Medicare I suspect you will figure it out. The public option will not be the nirvana so many think. Dealing with serious conditions, you would be surprised at what it does not cover…and I have been there done that. Still am. If I did not have FEHBP supplementary coverage I could not afford any coverage due to deductibles.
I just find it funny that when other people behave badly, some people were gleefully silent about it, and when it is pointed out that this Administration is as bad as those before it, those silent people cry about how the lefties blame Bush.
My question; is it ever appropriate to point out that the current Administration is acting like the previous one? Or are we to ignore the rest of history so that the people that were OK when their side when it lied and cheated to the American people can feel righteous when they point out the same shameful behavior of the current President.
Lying to the American people and hiding the truth is an old tactic, stop pretending that Obama was the only one, or the worst.
Bush will be remembered for starting a war based on lies and the political aspirations of the men that controlled him. Obama will be remembered for convincing the American public that we was any better than Bush.
But no one will blame the actual villains.The American people allowed this lawlessness by allowing elections to be bought. We vote in the worst of humanity, then whine about how bad they do their jobs.
Stop blaming the people that are doing exactly what they were elected to do, and start owning the blame. America has exactly the government it deserves.
But please, keep blaming it all on the President. it is a lot easier to do, plus it leaves time for Americans to focus on the important issues like sports and celebrity gossip.
Daniel – how about we just deal with the 6 years of Obama and his lying lies.
This nonsense about the ‘Chicago Way’ is the stuff of low a IQ’s argument. This is the sausage making of all government. The difference between the sausage making that is Obama care and the sausage making carried on for eight years by the three stooges is that Obama care intends to make it better for Americans regarding lowering the costs of health care. Obama was the only one who did anything about it. All first moves to turn around a perverse system such as that which has metastasized in America for the past many decades is going to be fraught with problems. You fix the problems and continue on to cut the cancer out.
Now consider the history of the sausage making of the republican party. Reagan’s sausage making gave us criminal actions on a world size scale with the Iran/Contra crimes, Cowardly behavior that destroyed any credibility America had for decades when he pulled the Marines out of Lebanon, an eight year recession because he lowered taxes and raised spending-(something he admitted to later on TV), and so on. The three stooges erased a surplus and left the US with the largest deficit in history, criminally under false pretenses invaded and destroyed Iraq, lowered taxes when income was most needed, bungled the criminal war in Iraq, bungled the war in Afghanistan, accelerated the damage being done by Wall Street, and so on-(there is so much more but Americans don’t want to remember and it hurts too much).
Honestly put the sausage making of the past six years up against Reagan’s and that of the three stooges, and then speak. Reagan was a disaster that was disguised by his rhetoric. The three stooges were in power by fraud and during a time the country was on a war footing. After 9/11 the country was so galvanized that Mickey Mouse could have been President. Mickey would have done a better job.
Rafflaw, one reason for Democrats to get out to vote in a HUGE way in 2016. As long as a Republican House, Senate or Congress exists, it’s status quo.
I think we çould have more than one system. No coercing people to sign on to something they don’t want to. Make the Public Option so great that most will gladly sign on to it.