Posted on 06/09/2015 1:31:10 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A top Obama administration health official considered putting MIT economist Jonathan Gruber to work on Obamacare to be an initiative of such “key political importance” that it was expedited because of “political push” from the Obama administration, emails released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reveal.
The agency released 750 pages of heavily-redacted records on Monday to The Daily Caller and other news outlets in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
In one telling exchange after Gruber’s Obamacare work was first reported in 2010, one HHS analyst told another that having Democrats in charge “across the board” would “stop some scrutiny” into the arrangement. Gruber’s work attracted scrutiny because the Obama administration failed to disclose the academic’s support for the health-care law without disclosing that he was paid $392,000 to help craft it.
The biggest takeaway from the emails is that they undermine one claim made by the Obama administration that Gruber was merely a bit player in the development of Obamacare. Described by many as the “architect” of the health-care law, Gruber was thrown under the bus after numerous videos surfaced last year of him bragging that Obamacare was passed because of “a lack of transparency” into the law and because the American people “were too stupid” to realize they were being manipulated into supporting it.
The email exchanges released Monday indicate that Gruber, who implemented his proprietary economic models to help mold Obamacare, was regularly involved in email conversations and conference calls with top level White House officials and others in HHS and the Treasury Department.
The records fall roughly into two categories: policy discussions and contracting discussions. Much of the meat of the policy-related emails with White House officials and those at HHS and Treasury are heavily redacted. HHS also withheld an additional 478 pages of emails citing a FOIA exemption for the “deliberative process.”
But one theme that can be taken from the records is that the Obama administration and HHS officials were anxious for Gruber to get to work. Gruber, for his part, was equally as eager.
In one March 25, 2009, email, HHS contracting officer Clint Druk pushed to fast-track Gruber’s contract, stating that it was of “key political importance” and that “there is a large involvement with White House staff” for Gruber’s services.....Continued
The only time they don’t lie is when their mouths are shut!
Didn’t Obamnation say he’d never heard of Gruber before....
Yet another datapoint that SCOTUS shot down positus.
Deceiving the citizenry — is the highest responsibility of every Statist functionary.
But they’re busy stabbing you in the back.
Obama spokesman “...never heard of ‘em...”
The justify it to themselves by affirming their own motives as good intentions,
and affirm their own intellectual superiority by asserting
that the masses HAVE to be lied to,
because they can’t understand how good this will be... eventually.
Gruber’s back in the news. Good.
“.....Finally, in a shock to no one, Gruber was not fond of Republicans, the emails reveal.
During one exchange with John Graves, his research assistant, Gruber criticized alternative proposals put forth by Republican lawmakers.
“Ah, those wacky republicans!” Gruber wrote in a July 28, 2009, email chain. He followed up with more criticism, writing “got to love those republicans!” and “this is crazy stuff.”
What specific policies Gruber found troubling is unclear since the emails are mostly redacted.”
Gruber did the same work for Mitt Romney in Massachusetts and that’s why he was sought out.
Gruber gets to be the scapegoat for a scheme to bail out hospitals and the health care industry who had to deal with what Mitt Romney called ‘freeloaders’ in a health care speech he made.
Under all the noisemaking about ‘reform’ was a scheme to pump more money into health care from our pockets with higher priced policies and higher copays for medical care.
And now we get to pay.
The Republicans will not reverse Obamacare because it was bailout scheme like TARP was for bankers in 2008.
Except this time the health care industry was getting the bailout to recoup its costs.
Yes, he did. But that’s typical. He probably only knew about him when he read it in the paper.
“The only time they don’t lie is when their mouths are shut!”
And then they lie with their eyes. Wink, wink.
Thanks Cincinatus' Wife.
i think they lie out of their backsides as well every other orifice, crack, and pore.
The Republicans complicity in the Obamacare nightmare was confirmed when they nominated Romney as their candidate,they thought conservatives would swallow their pride and vote for him,well they stayed home by the millions,and were stuck with it now,they will do nothing but help Obama if the court throws out the subsidies
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.