GRUBER'S HHS CONTRACT (factcheck.org excerpt)

factcheck.org ^ | November 21, 2014 | Lori Robertson

[Liz]

EXCERPT Gruber was hired by the Department of Health and Human Services for a one-year contract to provide “technical assistance in evaluating options for national healthcare reform,” as a Feb. 25, 2009, federal job posting indicates. The posting said he was uniquely qualified for the position not only because of his expertise in health economics but his “proprietary statistically sophisticated micro-simulation model” that could determine the impact of changes in health care policy.

Gruber’s consultancy work wasn’t made public until it was reported in early January 2010. Fox News then reported that Gruber was paid almost $400,000 for the contract, an amount that was recently confirmed by the Washington Post’s Kessler.

Gruber’s expert status in health economics was very well-known before Obama took office. We have quoted him on the subject many times, including in February 2008, when we cited his microsimulation modeling of different approaches to a health care overhaul and noted he had talked with the Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards campaigns on the topic. Gruber, who is also director of the health care program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, had advised former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the state Legislature in developing the state’s 2006 health care law, which shares several similarities with the subsequent federal law.

In an April 2012 opinion piece, published by MassLive.com, a western Massachusetts news site, Gruber described himself as one of the architects of the Massachusetts law, but not the federal law: “Several of the architects of Massachusetts reform, including myself, worked closely with the Administration and Congress to translate the lessons from Massachusetts onto the national stage.” Similarly, his MIT bio says he was “a key architect” of the Massachusetts overhaul and a “technical consultant” to the Obama administration from 2009 to 2010 who “worked with both the Administration and Congress to help craft the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”

Gruber declined to comment for this article.

Pelosi’s post is wrong to say he testified only once before the Senate. He testified at three Senate hearings on health care overhaul options and legislation: a May, 12, 2009, Senate Finance Committee hearing; a June 11, 2009, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing; and a Nov. 3, 2009, hearing also before the HELP Committee.

At the June hearing, he said he wanted to “congratulate the committee on a draft bill which really provides a terrific framework for fundamentally transforming healthcare in the United States.” At the November hearing, his remarks included the results of modeling the impact of the Senate Finance Committee bill on small businesses using the Gruber Microsimulation Model, which he said had been “widely used for policy analysis at both the state and federal level” and was similar to CBO’s modeling.

White House visitor logs show that Gruber visited the White House on several occasions, as reported by both the Wall Street Journal and The Hill. His six visits in 2009 include a July 20 group meeting with Obama and other economists.

Former administration advisers and congressional staff have said Gruber was tapped for his modeling work, not to draft the legislation.

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, who was the special adviser for health policy to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from January 2009 to January 2011, told us in a phone interview, “He was a consultant who, quote, ran the numbers,” meaning that “he did the estimates of how much, when you change things in a proposal, how that would affect the number of people covered and the cost of the program.”

Emanuel, who is now vice provost for global initiatives and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, says calling Gruber “the architect” of the law is “utter, total nonsense.”

In his book “Reinventing American Health Care,” which was published in March, Emanuel mentions Gruber just once, in the context of economic modeling. He writes that the White House was concerned about how the CBO would score the cost of legislation. Emanuel says his brother, then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and the president “established a very firm maximum-cost limit” of $1 trillion over 10 years. They wanted half of the money to come from savings in existing programs and half to come from new revenue, Emanuel writes.

Here’s the mention of Gruber:

“Reinventing American Health Care,” March 2014: During the development of the ACA the administration undertook 2 major efforts to create a shadow CBO “score” function. First, the Department of Health and Human Services contracted with Jonathan Gruber, an economist at MIT, to predict the CBO score. Gruber was picked largely because he had developed an economic model of the health care system that the CBO borrowed and refined to create its own model.

David Bowen, who was the health policy staff director for the HELP committee first under Sen. Ted Kennedy and then Sen. Tom Harkin, told us he “wouldn’t describe any single person as the architect of the ACA,” as a number of people made major contributions to the law. As for Gruber, he says, “There were a few experts that we sought as sounding boards and counsel, and he was one of those.”

Gruber’s economic modeling was very helpful, especially early on before there was draft legislation that CBO could score, says Bowen, who left the Senate committee shortly after the ACA was signed into law and is now an executive vice president at H&K Strategies. But Gruber wasn’t one of the people writing the legislation or working on it into the early hours. “I know who was there at 3 in the morning and I know who wasn’t,” Bowen says. Gruber wasn’t.

“It was an excellent analytical model,” Harvard University’s David Cutler, a former Obama adviser, was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal. “He was not a formal adviser. It was all about his model.”

Neera Tanden, a senior adviser to HHS from 2009 to 2010 and now the president of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, wrote in an op-ed in the Journal that Gruber was a consultant who “did not make policy.” She said, “The true architects of the ACA are the members of the Senate Finance and Senate Health committees who wrote the bill, with input from dozens of congressional hearings and bipartisan round tables.”

Emanuel told us that Gruber didn’t write any portion of the legislation “that I was intimately involved with,” but he couldn’t speak for the whole bill. Emanuel says the fact that Gruber calls himself an architect of the Massachusetts law doesn’t make him an architect of the federal one. The two laws are related but “distant cousins.” That sentiment was expressed by Romney’s former secretary of health and human services, Tim Murphy, who told us in a 2011 interview that there were many differences between the laws, though they shared certain mechanisms. However, Murphy said, “unless you were going to go to single-payer, how many mechanisms really are there to use?”

Gruber’s October 2013 full comments at the University of Pennsylvania conference show that he’s a supporter of the law, even though he is quite critical of some of its provisions. He may not have written it, but Obama’s claim that he was “some adviser” and Pelosi’s focus on how many committee hearings he attended brush aside the fact that he was a highly paid consultant whose modeling work was instrumental in determining the impact of health care policy. At the same time, the claim by Cassidy and conservative ads that Gruber was “the architect” overstates the role of an economic consultant and overlooks the role many others in the administration and Congress played in creating the law.

[machogirl]

For anyone that hadn’t read this in another thread,
He visited Barack, per invitation, in 2006 BEFORE Barry announced his bid for the Presidency, at Capital Hill, in Barry’s office, to discuss HEALTHCARE.
(”just a guy”, sure Barry.) (from PBS Frontline interview of Gruber. transcript)

[Liz]

I can’t wait until we get to the part where the Democrats---abject in defeat---say they had nothing to do with ACA because the Republicans stole it, changed it and duped the Demicrats into passing it.

LOL----most likely scenario. Too bad we got 'em all on-record.

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As 2014 midterms demonstrated, Americans are NEVER going to forget the sight of lock-stepping Dumbocrats---w/ their liberal lips firmly glued to Obama's ***.

As far back as 2008, at the presidential debate in Nashville, Democrat candidate Obama advanced his signature plan that was ultimately enacted (by an historic straight Democrat party-line vote) into the "Affordable Care Act:"

QUOTING OBAMA: "No. 1, let me just repeat, if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it. All I’m going to do is help you to lower the premiums on it. You’ll still have choice of doctor.” Repeated over and over by every loyal Democrat---- conning Americans into believing they'd also be saving $2500.00 on healthcare costs.

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LOCK-STEPPING PARTY LOYALTY NOT SEEN SINCE 1930-40's ERA EUROPE.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-Nev.): “In fact, one of our core principles is that if you like the health care you have, you can keep it.” (Sen. Reid, Congressional Record, S.8642, 8/3/09)

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN: “We believe — and we stand by this — if you like your current health insurance plan, you will be able to keep it, plain and simple, straightforward.” (Sen. Durbin, Congressional Record, S.6401, 6/10/09)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “If you like your insurance, you keep it.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Bill Mark-Up, 9/29/09)

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.): “Again, if you like what you have, you will be able to keep it. Let me say this again: If you like what you have, when our legislation is passed and signed by the President, you will be able to keep it.” (Sen. Murray, Congressional Record, S.6400, 6/10/09)

SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-Mont.): “That is why one of the central promises of health care reform has been and is: If you like what you have, you can keep it. That is critically important. If a person has a plan, and he or she likes it, he or she can keep it.” (Sen. Baucus, Congressional Record, S.7676, 9/29/10)

SEN. TOM HARKIN (D-Iowa): “One of the things we put in the health care bill when we designed it was the protection for consumers to keep the plan they have if they like it; thus, the term ‘grandfathered plans.’ If you have a plan you like — existing policies — you can keep them. … we said, if you like a plan, you get to keep it, and you can grandfather it in.” (Sen. Harkin, Congressional Record, S.7675-6, 9/29/10)

THEN-REP. TAMMY BALDWIN (D-Wis.): “Under the bill, if you like the insurance you have now, you may keep it and it will improve.” (Rep. Baldwin, Press Release, 3/18/10)

SEN. MARK BEGICH (D-Alaska): “If you got a doctor now, you got a medical professional you want, you get to keep that. If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of ideas, make sure you keep it. That you can keep who you want.” (Sen. Begich, Townhall Event, 7/27/09)

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.): “We should begin with a basic principle: if you have coverage and you like it, you can keep it. If you have your doctor, and you like him or her, you should be able to keep them as well. We will not take that choice away from you.” (Sen. Bennet, Press Release, 6/11/09)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-Calif.): “So we Democrats want people to be able to keep the health care they have. And the answer to that is choice of plans. And in the exchange, we’re going to have lots of different plans, and people will be able to keep the health care coverage they need and they want.” (Sen. Boxer, Press Release, 2/8/11)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio): “Our Democrat bill says if you have health insurance and you like it, you can keep it…”(Sen. Brown, Congressional Record, S.12612, 12/7/09)

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-Md.): “For the people of Maryland, this bill will provide a rational way in which they can maintain their existing coverage…” (Sen. Cardin, Congressional Record, S.13798, 12/23/09)

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-Pa.): “I also believe this Democrat legislation and the bill we are going to send to President Obama this fall will also have secure choices. If you like what you have, you like the plan you have, you can keep it. It is not going to change.” (Sen. Casey, Congressional Record, S.8070, 7/24/09)

SEN. KAY HAGAN (D-N.C.): ‘People who have insurance they’re happy with can keep it’ “We need to support the private insurance industry so that people who have insurance they’re happy with can keep it while also providing a backstop option for people without access to affordable coverage.” (“Republicans Vent As Other Compromise Plans Get Aired,” National Journal’s Congress Daily, 6/18/09)

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D-La.): “If you like the insurance that you have, you’ll be able to keep it.” (MSNBC’s Hardball, 12/16/09)

SEN. PAT LEAHY (D-Vt.): “[I]f you like the insurance you now have, keep the insurance you have.” (CNN’s “Newsroom,” 10/22/09)

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.): “If you like what you have, you get to keep it” “Menendez is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is expected to release a bill later this week. He stressed that consumers who are satisfied with their plans won’t have to change. ‘If you like what you have, you get to keep it,’ he said.” (“Health Care Plan Would Help N.J., Menendez Says,” The Record, 6/19/09)

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Oreg.): “[E]nsuring that those who like their insurance get to keep it” “The HELP Committee bill sets forward a historic Democrat plan that will, for the first time in American history, give every American access to affordable health coverage, reduce costs, and increase choice, while ensuring that those who like their insurance get to keep it.” (Sen. Merkley, Press Release, 7/15/09)

SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D-Md.): “It means that if you like the insurance you have now, you can keep it.” (Sen. Mikulski, Press Release, 12/24/09)

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-W.Va.): “I want people to know, the President’s promise that if you like the coverage you have today you can keep it is a pledge we intend to keep.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Hearing, 9/23/09)

SEN. JACK REED (D-R.I.): “If you like the insurance you have, you can choose to keep it.” (Sen. Reed, Town Hall Event, 6/25/09)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.): “‘If you have coverage you like, you can keep it,’ says Sen. Sanders.” (“Sick And Wrong,” Rolling Stone, 4/5/10)

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.): ‘if you have health coverage that you like, you get to keep it’ “My understanding … is that … if you have health coverage that you like you can keep it. As I said, you may have missed my remarks at the beginning of the call, but one of the things I that I said as a requirement that I have for supporting a Democrat bill is that if you have health coverage that you like you should be able to keep that. …under every scenario that I’ve seen, if you have health coverage that you like, you get to keep it.” (Sen. Shaheen, “Health Care Questions From Across New Hampshire,” Accessed 11/13/13)

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW (D-Mich.): “As someone who has a large number of large employers in my state, one of the things I appreciate about the Democrat chairman’s remark is — is the grandfathering provisions, the fact that the people in my state, 60 percent of whom have insurance, are going to be able to keep it. And Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. That’s a strong commitment. It’s clear in the bill … I appreciate the strong commitment on your part and the president to make sure that if you have your insurance you can keep it. That’s the bottom line for me.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Bill Mark-Up, 9/24/09)

SEN. JON TESTER (D-Mont.): “‘If you like your coverage, you’ll be able to keep it,’ Tester said, adding that if Medicare changes, it will only become stronger”. (“Tester In Baker To Discuss Health Care,” The Fallon County Times, 11/20/09)

SEN. TOM UDALL (D-N.Mex.): “Some worried reform would alter their current coverage. It won’t. If you like your current plan, you can keep it.” (“What I Learned: About Health Care Reform This Summer, By Your Lawmakers In Congress,” Albuquerque Journal, 9/8/09)

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-R.I.): “..it honors President Obama’s programs and the promise of all of the Presidential candidates that if you like the plan you have, you get to keep it. You are not forced out of anything.” (Sen. Whitehouse, Congressional Record, S.8668, 8/3/09)

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) the 60th vote on Obamacare: "people who are happy with their current plan, wouldn't need to change it."
FRANKEN YOUTUBE SOUND BITE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCZmAYYNz8Ihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCZmAYYNz8I

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CUE THE SCHADENFREUD METER thirty Democrats who voted for Obamacare were ousted in the midterm Democrat Demolition Derby.

[Liz]

norwaypinesavage wrote: It’s funny how Obamacare has gone from an “exact copy” of Romneycare, according to the media during the last presidential election, to a “distant cousin” now.

According BarackObama.com 2012, President Obama's official website, Jon Gruber "helped write Obamacare....w/ specific quotes from Obama tying Mitt Romney to ObamaCare...saying that "RomneyCare" was the model for Obamacare.

Not only did Obama tie Obamacre to Romneycare....Gruber confessed that the uber-liberal Massachusetts officials committed govt fraud---and that Uncle Teddy ripped-off Medicare for $500 million to subsidize Romneycare.

No wonder they were all laughing like fools at the signing ceremony.

[liberalh8ter]

Very true *but* that still wouldn't stop the dirty dems from throwing that out there for the low information crowd to feast over.