Posted on 11/18/2014 12:02:16 PM PST by Kaslin
Before he became the Obama administration's least favorite overpaid expert, MIT economist Jonathan Gruber was its darling. He appeared in an Obama campaign ad saying, "I helped (Massachusetts) Gov. (Mitt) Romney develop his health care reform, or Romneycare, before going down to Washington to help President Obama develop his national version of that law." The false portrayal of Romneycare and Obamacare as practically identical fueled the Democratic delusion that Congress had drafted the Affordable Care Act to appeal to rascally Republicans.
Now Gruber is in the doghouse because he was captured on video being brutally honest. In 2010, Gruber told a panel, "Barack Obama's not a stupid man, OK?" Obama knew the public doesn't care about the uninsured, Gruber said. "What the American public cares about is costs. 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."
Ergo, candidate Obama's 2008 promise that his universal health plan would "bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family."
What happened to those savings? Josh Archambault, senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, a free market think tank, answered, "We have not seen them yet."
Even in 2008, it was clear that pledge was bogus. The New York Times reported in July, "The health policy advisers who formulated the figure say it actually represents the average family's share of savings not only in premiums paid by individuals, but also in premiums paid by employers and in tax-supported health programs like Medicare and Medicaid." Economist David Cutler admitted to "occasional misstatements" made in service to a desire to "find a way to talk to people in a way they understand."
(Three Harvard professors made a "best guess" as to how much the government, employers and consumers might save when Obama's proposals are fully implemented -- $200 billion annually -- divided by the number of Americans and multiplied by four. Then they let Obamaland talk as if all the savings would go to premium reductions.)
At a different venue, Gruber alluded to the "stupidity of the American voter" for falling for the administration's claim that Obamacare's Cadillac tax on employer-paid health plans would be "a tax on insurance plans rather than a tax on people when we all know it's a tax on people who hold those insurance plans."
Obama whisperer David Axelrod tweeted, "If you looked up 'stupid' in dictionary, you'd find Gruber's picture." For a stupid guy, Gruber sure cashed in. According to Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler, the federal government paid Gruber almost $400,000 to consult on the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and another $2 million over seven years to assess Medicare choices.
In 2012, Gruber was a key figure in the making of a myth -- that is, that Democrats drafted Obamacare to attract Republicans, who perversely would not vote for the law, thus forcing Democrats to enact a measure they didn't really want. Chalk that up to the stupidity of the consulting class -- which pays very well.
That arrogant pos is not my president. Is he yours?
You said it
Nice one.
In what universe does anyone believe democrats drafted the Affordable Care Act to attract Republicans?
==============================================
Progressive Democrat Gruber achieved every single one of the odious Marxist dicta. The preening, duplicitous Gruber---the embodiment of cockamamie far-left thinking---believed it was his moral duty to lie, deceive and collude w/ the US govt......so that these revolting ideas could be imposed on "sub-mental defectives' taking up valuable space in their Utopian America.
Loyal foot-soldier Gruber, in obeisance to the Marxist dream, invented mechanisms to serve Obama's Marxist obsession w/ wealth transfer---as candidate Obama told Joe the Plumber---his plan was to redistribute the wealth:
(1) throwing Americans off affordable health plans
while assuring them they could "keep their plans,"
(2) nationalizing 1/6 of the US economy,
3) installing IPAB's (healthcare rationing),
(4) decimating intergenerational transfers of wealth (
a Progressive bugaboo) (grandma/pa's holdings go to the govt---not to you),
(5) pulling $750 billion out of Medicare (another Progressive irritant---giving the elderly healthcare),
(6) drug-rationing---death panels,
(8) outright abandoning seniors and the chronically ill,
(9) transferring wealth from healthy young Americans to subsidize healthcare for others.
Obama organized Democrats into a high-stepping cheerleading squad to force the Progressive Poison down the throats of recalcitrant Americans.
=============================================
Vladimir Lenin / 1945 pamphlet
Socialized Medicine is the Keystone to the Arch of the Socialist State.
They played on Gruber's vanity... it's an old communist trick - used with people who fancy themselves 'intellectual elites'... In short - Gruber was played - for a fool...
Sadly he still is my president, as much as I would wish it otherwise - a bunch of short-sighted, petty, unimaginative conservatives, not understanding that you never get all you want in life and even a small step back toward conservatism is preferable to allowing the country to lurch further to the left, stayed home in 2012 and allowed him to creep back into office - thankfully that problem seems to have been resolved on 4 November of this year.....
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.