It's Obama and Gruber Who Are "Stupid" - not America

MIT economist Jonathan Gruber has become the glaring negative advertisement for the Obama administration. The often-quoted advisor on Obamacare, the President's health care law, has been quoted over and over for saying that the "stupidity" of American voters and a "a lack of transparency" were keys to getting Obamacare passed. Gruber was grilled yesterday by the House Oversight Committee, telling them he was "glib" and "inexcusably arrogant" when he said it was "the stupidity of the American voter" that led to the law's passage. Democrats tried to limit the damage but the majority Republicans excoriated Gruber at the four-hour hearing. Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee's ranking Democrat, called Gruber's remarks from 2012 and 2013, when he was videoed making the comments, "absolutely stupid" and "incredibly disrespectful." The remarks gave the health law's opponents a public-relations gift, Cummings told Gruber, "and you did a great job. You wrapped it up with a bow." Republicans sarcastically praised Gruber for "telling the truth" in his 2012 and 2013 remarks, while also hammering his efforts Tuesday to walk them back. Gruber tried to play on earlier apologies, repeatedly telling the. Committee : "I was conjecturing in areas beyond my expertise.... [my] earlier comments were uninformed, glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting....[I] was showing off before various groups, and trying to be something I'm not, which was a political expert." Gruber also denied that he was the "architect" of the law, as some press accounts had claimed. Gruber struggled to defend his remarks. They "were not lies," he said. Rather, "they were my conjecture outside my area of expertise." When asked by GOP Representative Jim Jordan, "how much did the American taxpayers pay you to deceive them?" Gruber said that for his consulting work, which centers on economic models that predict health care costs, he was paid by the federal government about $400,000 - but he declined to speculate about payments from various states. Chairman Darell Issa said the Committee will subpoena his income records. Several Republicans pressed Gruber about his earlier remarks suggesting the administration went to lengths to portray a key element of the health law as something other than a tax. Under the law, people who fail to obtain health insurance will have to pay a penalty, collected with their income taxes. Most Republicans portray that penalty as an unwanted tax, unlike the Supreme Court that ruled 2012 that it is not a tax. Democrats are debating the wisdom of devoting 2009 - Obama's first year as President - to the healthcare legislation that finally passed in 2010 without a single Republican vote. Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer is now criticizing the timing. Top liberals are defending Obama, but the argument is creating new Democratic divisions after major losses in this year's elections. ~~~~~ In many ways, Gruber is a lot like the man he worked for. President Obama is often : conjecturing in areas beyond his expertise...making comments that are uninformed, glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting...showing off before various groups...and trying to be something he's not - a political expert." ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is easy to see how Obama came to rely on Gruber to push Obamacare through Congress and foist it on an unsuspecting American public. Even then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told America that Congress would have to pass the bill to know what's in it.". But there is one Gruber comment that is totally wrong. American voters are not "stupid." The proof? They voted out more Democrats from Congress in November than at any election since World War II. Obama-Gruber may have fooled America -- not because of voter stupidity but because they both lied to America about what they were doing behind their backs. Obama and his Democrats paid bigtime for those lies in the midterms and they will pay again in 2016.