Grubergate
By Tom Quiner
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_e00NjQvFM]
Jonathan Gruber has earned his fifteen minutes of fame.
You know, I think it’s possible he may eke out even more fame than that, whether he wants it or not.
A quick review of the story: this mastermind of Obamacare said the president’s signature accomplishment only became law because of two reasons:
1. You are too stupid to understand it.
2. The bill was written in a “non-transparent” way so you couldn’t understand it even if you weren’t stupid.
The president, Gruber, and every single Democratic member of Congress made lavish promises on the benefits of this epic monstrosity of a bill. The benefit that Democrats focused on was that it would lower everybody’s premiums, which, of course, it didn’t.
They knew it wouldn’t, but as Mr. Gruber said, the entire bill was concocted to confuse and deceive.
True to form, the president said he doesn’t know anything about the guy:
“The fact that some adviser who never worked on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with in terms of the voters is no reflection on the actual process that was run…”
But that’s not what Mr. Gruber has to say in the video above. To quote him:
“The problem is it’s a political nightmare, and people say ‘no, you can’t tax my benefits’…so what we did a lot in that room was think a lot about well how could we make this work? … And [Obama] is really a realistic guy. He was like, ‘look, I can’t just do this.’ He said ‘it’s just not going to happen politically. The bill will not pass. How do we manage to get there through phase-ins and other things?’ And we talked about it. He was just very interested in that topic.”
Notice what the president attempts to do by characterizing Gruber as an unnamed “adviser who never worked on our staff.”
And yet the president knew the guy.
The president huddled with the guy in one-on-one meetings trying to figure out how to disguise the underpinnings of the bill which required unpopular taxes. The president in fact DID agree with Mr. Gruber and adopted his plans to tax us in a sneaky way.
The president’s response above builds on his legacy of a man for whom integrity means nothing.
Tom,
Check out this link to another candid speech in 2012 by Jon Gruber – clearly telling about the intent of the Obamacare law to penalize states that don’t establish their own exchanges by not letting their citizens get subsidies. It was not a typo or an oversight, it was the clear intent of the law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBAHvX1WdWc
Thanks, Kurt.
I used to think of the term ‘legacy’ as something positive for a president. I really hate how much he is degraded that office.
Me too.
The gift that keeps on giving
Sadly, it seems that way.