Free Republic

Government run health care systems all fail, and for the same reasons that government cannot effectively produce or distribute other commodities. The unimpeachable economic truth is that a few smart people who try to devise grandiose business solutions – no matter how smart they are – are not as smart as all of us. No Politburo, no think tank, and certainly no group of unelected Obama Administration bureaucrats can think their way through the millions and millions of decisions that millions and millions of individuals make daily about their own health care – individuals acting in their own economic interest,...

BRISBANE, Australia — President Obama dismissed renewed criticism of his signature health care law Sunday and disputed an assertion from a former architect of the policy who claimed the administration had deceived lawmakers. Jonathan Gruber, an economist, suggested last year that the administration’s signature health-care legislation passed in part because of the “stupidity of the American voter” and a “lack of transparency” over its funding mechanisms. “I just heard about this,” Obama said at a new conference, after wrapping up two days of meetings with world leaders here at the G-20 Summit. “The fact that some adviser who never worked...

Damn Americans. They just don’t see the wisdom of surrendering to experts the power they need to remake the country into a progressive paradise.Sighing with regret, liberals like Jonathan Gruber admit that they’re forced to hoodwink the citizens. For their own good.Gruber, the MIT economist who (in the words of The New York Times) “put together the basic principles of” ObamaCare and helped Congress “draft the specifics of the legislation” is one of a long line of liberals driven by the belief that the stupidity of the American people is so insurmountable that persuasion is futile. Liberalism: the place where...

The recent comments by an architect of Obamacare have created real problems for supporters of the act as Republicans win sweeping elections and pledge to hold hearings to roll back some of its measures. MIT economist and Affordable Care Act architect Jonathan Gruber created quite a stir recently when he attributed the success in pasting legislation for it to the “stupidity of the American voter.” The comments took place at an academic conference last year and is only just now becoming public, and Republicans are seizing on it as they seek to attack the ACA, according to the Boston Globe....

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber says what so many of thought all along — Big Government politicians think we’re stupid enough to swallow the lies they told about Obamacare. And now Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber is giddy with glee over the fraud he helped perpetrate. He uses us, We the People, as the target of his smug, elitist, condescending laugh lines in front of fellow elitists who join him in laughter.

Courtesy of Michelle Obama's Mirror, Der Fuhrer is not pleased to find out Field Marshal Gruber has spilled the beans on the ObamaCare deceptions and called the American people stupid. "That pointy headed twit! I knew he couldn't keep his mouth shut!" Hitler roars. Enjoy

[SNIP]To figure out whether an individual mandate would count on the federal books — whether it would be more like the coal miners’ insurance or the wheelchair ramps — the C.B.O. laid out several factors. Would consumers be able to choose among a number of insurance plans? Would plans have differing levels of coverage from which people could choose, and be offered by different companies? The more clearly the answer to those questions was “yes,” the more lawmakers could rest assured that the individual mandate wouldn’t shift trillions of dollars in private-sector health spending onto the government’s books.And for advocates...

One of the chief architects of the Affordable Care Act, known popularly as Obamacare, has on at least three occasions referred to you and me as either stupid or ignorant. Jonathan Gruber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has admitted (and even declared) that deceiving the American public, members of Congress and the Congressional Budget Office was necessary to pass the bill into law. Videos of these have surfaced and have been played on Fox News and on CNN. They are easily found by entering his name into a search engine. He is absolutely correct about “ignorant”, and...

MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, the boastful architect of Obamacare, apologized for what he termed “my indelicate phrasing in defense of the Affordable Care Act. I should never have publicly called American voters ‘stupid.’ I sincerely regret that I have been caught on tape using this kind of language.” “However, this does not mean that the underlying concept behind this legislation was incorrect,” Gruber insisted. “The fact of the matter is that the average American isn’t fit to decide whether he needs health insurance or to choose a plan that is adequate for the collective well-being of society. Individuals left to...

There is an idiom that parents and employers likely put in practice when an important task has to be completed correctly; “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” President Obama certainly understands that sentiment with a slight variation; if the nation wants anything done at all, the President has to do it himself due to Republicans who have done nothing since January 2009. Sometime next week, after waiting patiently for Ted Cruz to order House Republicans to take up, and pass, the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform, the President will take action on immigration reform. The...

Believe it or not, I'm not offended by Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber calling the American people stupid for foolishly believing government healthcare was anything but a corrupt and radical ruse designed to control our lives. I'm simply disgusted so many voters, beneath the bankrupt generalities of "hope" and "change", were so easily manipulated by the lapdog media and a President who was never been held accountable for anything: most notably his radical past, beliefs and associates. Considering the size and scope of this cover-up - regardless of how many sounded the alarm - what else did we expect to happen?...

NEW YORK – The Obamacare architect at the center of controversy for his frank admissions that passing the president’s signature legislation required lying to the American people published a paper during the Clinton administration observing that legalizing abortion saved the government $14 billion in assistance to economically disadvantaged mothers, including African Americans, and lowered crime.MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber argued in his paper that without the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, “marginal children” would have been born to many poor mothers. He said statistics show these children would have been 70 percent more likely to live in a single-parent family,...

Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis said she was “silenced” by CNBC when management told her she was “disrespecting the office of the president” by reporting about Obamacare.

A snippet of MIT economist Jonathan Gruber speaking candidly has resurfaced, but this time it’s about himself rather than American voters. “I’m an ivory tower guy at heart and do my thing and figure I’m an honest guy and people will trust it,” Gruber told Politico in Jan. 2010. The self-description is likely to resonate with the public after several videotaped recordings surfaced this week of Gruber calling Americans “stupid” and bragging about how “a lack of transparency” was necessary to pass Obamacare. Gruber called himself “an ivory tower guy” after it came to light that he had been paid...

Why an MIT health economist who was one of the health-care law's architects could cause its utter destruction. For five years, Republicans have been searching for the perfect messenger to speak out against Obamacare. They have finally found him. His name in Jonathan Gruber. Gruber is the MIT health economist who was one of the health-care law's architects. He also helped design the (now mostly defunct) Romneycare system in Massachusetts, which is currently being devoured by its federal progeny. He has also been single-handedly responsible for the biggest Obamacare-related gaffes since Nancy Pelosi said we'd have to pass the bill...

....In my far less titillating research on the Hamilton Project (see work listed below), I have come across some interesting ties between MIT economist Jonathan Gruber and the Hamilton Project. Gruber–it turns out–carries bags for the Obama administration and the Goldman Sachs, Robert Rubin-funded Hamilton Project. Gruber is a RentEconomist ready and seemingly willing to take any economic position (pardon the RentBoy inspired pun) you might want, for money that is, lots of it as Emptwheel has shown....... ....But while I have been doing research recently on the links between the Obama government and Robert Rubin and Goldman Sachs and...

Howeird Dean-- once chair of the DNC, once Governor of Vermont, who grew up at the Maidstone Golf Club in the Hamptons, attended prep school both in the US and in the UK, went to Yale, dodged the draft-- is having a meltdown again.Once famous for melting down on the air after coming in third in the Iowa caucuses, thereby ensuring he won nothing else, Dean is complaining that Obamacare was written by a bunch of elitists who don’t understand Americans.Well, duh: They’re Democrats. “The core problem under this damn law is that it was put together by a bunch...

Latest dispatch from the "dissent is patriotic" is dead front: Howard Dean has accused people who don't share his political views of being "authoritarian people who fundamentally don't believe in democracy." Poor Howard, who declared the times to be very "frightening and disconcerting," made his astounding accusation on today's Up With Steve Kornacki while attempting to explain the Republican sweep on the statehouse level. View the video here.

NEW YORK – The Obamacare architect at the center of controversy for his frank admissions that passing the president’s signature legislation required lying to the American people published a paper during the Clinton administration observing that legalizing abortion saved the government $14 billion in assistance to economically disadvantaged mothers, including African Americans, and lowered crime. MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber argued in his paper that without the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, “marginal children” would have been born to many poor mothers. He said statistics show these children would have been 70 percent more likely to live in a single-parent...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday unveiled data showing that many Americans with health insurance bought under the Affordable Care Act could face substantial price increases next year — in some cases as much as 20 percent — unless they switch plans. The data became available just hours before the health insurance marketplace was to open to buyers seeking insurance for 2015. An analysis of the data by The New York Times suggests that although consumers will often be able to find new health plans with prices comparable to those they now pay, the situation varies greatly from state...