PROFESSOR GOOBER
Since the misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was never about health care, but about delivering health insurance to the uninsured, it would have been more appropriate to label the lawThe Patient Protection and Affordable Insurance Act
Even that would have been a stretch, however, since this law never was about being as affordable as the insurance those who already had insurance had and liked. But according to a video that recently surfaced, MIT Professor and ObamaCare consultant, Jonathan Gruber (Ph.D. Harvard University), the "American public doesn't actually care that much about the uninsured." Perhaps. But how does he know? When was the last time the MIT Professor of Economics and ObamaCare consultant had a beer with Joe Sixpack? Who incidentally footed the bill for his $6 million worth of consultation(s) with federal and state governments. (1)
Professor Gruber elaborated: "If you had a law which said healthy people are going to pay in -- if you made it explicit that healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed." Professor Gruber went on to say, the bill "was written in a tortured way to make sure (the Congressional Budget Office) 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 healthy people are going to pay in - you made explicit that healthy people pay in and sick people get money - it would not have passed. Okay? Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage." The professor added that he wished they could have made the bill transparent, but "I'd rather have this law than not. ... Yeah, there are things I wish I could change but I'd rather have this law than not. And I think that involves some trade-offs that we don't prefer as economists but which are realistic."
Trade-offs he doesn't prefer? Things he wished he could change? He'd rather have the law than not! Who does he think he is? Who elected him? Who is he accountable to? And, most importantly, who hired him and how do we get rid of him or her?
Conservative activists recently unearthed a treasure trove of videos featuring the loquacious professor extrapolating on the lack of intelligence of the American voter. (The videos have been available for years, but the majority media either never bothered to search for them or never bothered to release them--at least not when they could damage the Affordable...Whatever.)
In 2012, the professor told the Honors Colloquim at the University of Rhode Island that it was "very clever, you know, (the) basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter."The professor further pontificated that the "Lack of transparency is a huge advantage. And basically, you know, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever. But basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass."
In 2013, Blabbermouth told an audience at Washington University at St. Louis that one important provision of the bill passed "because the American people are too stupid to understand the difference."
The American people are too stupid to know the difference? What about being too stupid to be filmed saying this stuff? Shouldn't Harvard take back a Ph.D. bestowed on someone this clueless? By the way, according to National Review, the universities which recorded these videos are scrambling to take them down --perhaps in hopes that in a few weeks, the majority media will be able to convince "stupid" Americans it never happened, and if it did, it was the Republicans' fault anyway.
Naturally, the jabbering professor is causing all kinds of problems for the Democrats and the majority media charged with protecting them. While Fox News reported Professor Goober's (sic) reflections, the New York Times waited until the videos went viral before putting the Prof's revelations on page twelve. Broadcast News likewise avoided the story for as long as they could. A Google search of "Gruber's Videos" has 11 listings before CNN.com finally comes up. At least they covered it. ABC doesn't show up until page two. Growltiger stopped checking then, so doesn't know if NBC and/or CBS ever got around to covering Gruber's remarks. How's that for cutting edge news?
As for elected Democrats, California Representative, Nancy Pelosi, who, when Speaker, shepherded ObamaCare through the House of Representatives, now claims she never heard of Professor Gruber. The laugh-deprived should watch the video of Ms. Pelosi's tortured denial which can be found by cutting and pasting (2) into their browsers. One hopes Ms. Pelosi's ObamaCare plan provides therapy for memory loss because on Dec. 1, 2009, in a news release titled "Health Insurance Reform Mythbuster - 'Health Reform And Insurance Premiums' ", Ms. Pelosi cites Gruber by name seven times (2) Ms. Pelosi has taken down the references from her site but not before it was archived. Oops.
President Obama, who never finds out about political scandals until some rogue reporter (usually Ed Henry of Fox News) has the temerity to ask him a question about it, dismissed Professor Gruber, who visited the White House over two dozen times (3) as "some advisor who never worked on our staff" (4). How stupid does he think we are? Never mind. Professor Gruber already answered that question.
Democrat pundits are incensed by Professor Goober's remarks about the intelligence (or lack of) of the American voter, but Growltiger takes a different view. While the Professor's remarks are insensitive, the American voter did, after all, elect President Obama twice albeit with some help from the "mainstream" media. And comedian Al Franken still is in the Senate. Maybe Professor Gruber didn't get it wrong, after all.
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