Krauthammer: The Gruber Confession

The Washington Post ^ | November 13, 2014 | Dr. Charles Krauthammer

[2ndDivisionVet]

It’s not exactly the Ems Dispatch (the diplomatic cable Bismarck doctored to provoke the 1870 Franco-Prussian War). But what the just-resurfaced Gruber Confession lacks in world-historical consequence, it makes up for in world-class cynicism. This October 2013 video shows MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber, a principal architect of Obamacare, admitting that, in order to get it passed, the law was made deliberately obscure and deceptive. It constitutes the ultimate vindication of the charge that Obamacare was sold on a pack of lies.

“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” said Gruber. “Basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass.” This was no open-mic gaffe. It was a clear, indeed enthusiastic, admission to an academic conference of the mendacity underlying Obamacare.

First, Gruber said, the bill’s authors manipulated the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which issues gold-standard cost estimates of any legislative proposal: “This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes.” Why? Because “if CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.” And yet, the president himself openly insisted that the individual mandate — what you must pay the government if you fail to buy health insurance — was not a tax....

[nascarnation]

Did you see the money this guy was making in “consulting fees” from the fed gov and a bunch of states? Millions....

[billorites]

Gruber? Gruber?
Anyone?

[COUNTrecount]

The model, the Gruber Microsimulation Model, is the coin of the realm, in large part because it is similar to the model used by the Congressional Budget Office. That means administration policy-makers could predict with reasonable certainty how CBO would score legislation. Given that legislation in Washington often falls or rises depending on the CBO score, that made this model a very powerful tool for administration officials.

The first four months of the contract could not be found on the FedBizOpp.gov Web site, but in June 2009, HHS renewed the contract for eight months, with a value of $297,600. Gruber in an e-mail confirmed that the first part of the contract was for $95,000.

That adds up to $392,600 — or “almost $400,000.”

Gruber’s consulting was largely unknown at the time, and eventually it became an issue as he had been frequently quoted by journalists and lawmakers who may not have known of his connection to the administration; he also generally did not disclose his connection when writing opinion articles.

In one especially fishy circumstance, Nancy-Ann DeParle, at the time director of the White House Office of Health Reform, wrote about Gruber’s work on the White House blog on Nov. 29, 2009. “MIT Economist Confirms Senate Health Reform Bill Reduces Costs and Improves Coverage” was the headline on the post.

DeParle made no reference to the fact that Gruber had already earned hundreds of thousands of dollars working for the administration. She described him as an “MIT economist who has been closely following the health insurance reform process.”

(The emphasis on reducing costs in Gruber’s report is especially interesting in light of the Gruber video that emerged Thursday. “What the American public cares about is costs,” Gruber said in 2010. “And that’s why even though the bill that they made is 90 percent health insurance coverage and 10 percent about cost control, all you ever hear people talk about is cost control.”)

In any case, the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 has been lucrative for Gruber and his microsimulation model. All told, he has been hired by at least eight states to provide advice or assist in creating the health-insurance exchanges that are at the heart of the Affordable Care Act: Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Not all of the contracts could be found on public Web sites, but here is a sampling. In some cases, Gruber worked with other consultants, so the fees were shared. These figures also might not represent the final payout, and of course these are gross figures, before expenses. But it’s safe to say that about $400,000 appears to be the standard rate for gaining access to the Gruber Microsimulation Model.

Michigan: $481,050

Minnesota: $329,000

Vermont: $400,000

Wisconsin: $400,000

Gruber has also earned more than $2 million over the last seven years for an ongoing contract with HHS to assess choices made by the elderly in Medicare’s prescription-drug plan.

[2ndDivisionVet]

That’s actually pretty typical.

[taildragger]

Mr. Weinstein was on Glenn's show today and says the new story that he needs to get out is the Cadillac Tax is a rouse to eliminate the deductibility of Health Care for Small Businesses and Large Corporations.

It makes sense, all these folks buying plans on the "Exchanges" are with after tax dollars whilst the deduction remains for small businesses to take this deduction ( it hangs by a thread IMHO ).

The Solution to Insure everyone was to Change line 29 on the 1040 so that anyone could buy a plan with Pre-Tax Dollars and expand the State Based High Risk Polls to all 50 States from the 35 we had post the ACA's enactment.

IMHO those simple changes would have increases the ability go get Insurance especially for those who "couldn't" get it.

But it wasn't about buying a Pre-Tax Dollar low cost HSA plan and maintaining your Liberty, it was all about control.

[TexasFreeper2009]

Proof Tea Partiers are smarter than the average voter! It didn't fool us at all!

[sappy]

is this the most transparent administration ever, yet?

[Tenacious 1]

Perfectly written. It is simple to understand is based on quotes and facts.

I wish every American could be “forced” to read this. There should be a law. j/k

[hosepipe]

Treason seems to be BIG business... for a long time now..
The Fox and Hound are a traveling minstrel Show....

AND the Hunters wouldn’t think of getting anywhere’s near an actual horse..

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

DeParle made no reference to the fact that Gruber had already earned hundreds of thousands of dollars working for the administration. She described him as an “MIT economist who has been closely following the health insurance reform process.”

I wish I could laugh. This is worse than all of his revealing comments put together.

[Alex Murphy]

“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” said Gruber. “Basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass.” This was no open-mic gaffe. It was a clear, indeed enthusiastic, admission to an academic conference of the mendacity underlying Obamacare. First, Gruber said, the bill’s authors manipulated the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which issues gold-standard cost estimates of any legislative proposal: “This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes.” Why? Because “if CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.” And yet, the president himself openly insisted that the individual mandate — what you must pay the government if you fail to buy health insurance — was not a tax....

"I won't stop fighting to open up government. It's hard to do, because we don't control every branch, but I can tell you we have put in place the toughest ethics laws and toughest transparency rules of any administration in history. In history!"
-- President Barack Hussein Obama, 2010

"...we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy..."
-- Leader of the House Nancy Pelosi, 2010

[Oldeconomybuyer]

...Gruber said, the bill’s authors manipulated the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office...

And Gruber met with the CBO in the oval office. Emails being destroyed as I type.

[Dr. Ursus]

Gruber will join the heads of the CDC and NIH as the disappeared ones!

[Hattie]

Obama and his right hand cohorts better be watching for The Handwriting On The Wall. They have no fear but Our Supreme Being may visit them with terror instead.

[colorado tanker]

Seems he also took advantage of the stupidity of Justice Roberts.

[Pietro]

And as a milestone showing how far gone the republic really is over on the dhimmi media & blogs they are falling all over themselves saying "nothing to see here", "move along", etc, etc.

When half of the electorate refuse delivery of unarguable truth we are indeed in deep trouble.

[Grampa Dave]

Charlie, Herr Gruber has a book to help you and us understand how stupid and the rat congress is.

[Grampa Dave]

4 Grubergate videos so far make Nixon’s little missing tape minutes look like a sneeze in preschool.

First You Tube link to Gruber bragging about lying to stupid American Voters about ObozoCare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G790p0LcgbI

Second Grubergate Video link to Gruber bragging about how stupid American voters are/were to pass ObozoCare.

<http://hotair.com/archives/2014/11/12/gruber-video-2-no-really-american-voters-are-stupid/

Third Video from Herr Gruber on stupid Americans wanting Obozocare.

http://weaselzippers.us/205230-three-strikes-third-video-of-obamacare-architect-jonathan-gruber-calling-americans-stupid/

Fourth Grubergate video from Herr Gruber re stupid Americans.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?292478-1/health-care-reform

Remember zero Republicans in Congress voted for ObozoCare. Every stupid rat in Congress voted for it without reading the bill or caring what was in it.

[Grampa Dave]

Must be the Democrats in Congress, who are the ones Gruber is/was calling the “Stupid Voters”. No/Zero Republicans in congress voted for Obamacare! Now, we all knew the democrats in Congress were the Stupid Voters!

A lot of Americans and many freepers have amnesia, when it comes to this documented ObamaCare voter history in Congress!

The documented history on the ObamaCare votes in Congress. Every single democrat senator and every single democrat congressit voted to make this Obamacare the law without reading nor understanding what they voted for.

Every single Republican in Congress voted against this Obamacare.

So, the stupid rats in congress own ObamaCare as per their own expert, Herr Gruber‘s You Tube comments.