MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber is turning out to be a master at foot-in-mouth disease. As the primary architect of Obamacare, he has almost single-highhandedly opened the door for an entire revocation of the health care plan. His status is quickly disappearing with the Obama administration through several taped discussions where the professor basically called the American people “dumb.”
In a video that was unearthed, Gruber is seen saying during a panel discussion at the University of Pennsylvania last year the health care law was written “in a deceptive, nontransparent way to exploit the stupidity of the American voter.” His remarks quickly flowed to the press with Fox News taking full advantage of the embarrassment the professor has caused the Obama White House. Ironically, the story is not being covered whatsoever by the mainstream media including network news, the New York Times or the Washington Post.
Gruber’s idea of damage control was to appear on the most non-news station in the bunch, MSNBC, which has never experienced a non-partisan day in their existence. He attempted to explain his words saying they were “off the cuff.” But the truth is he said the same sort of remarks at least three times in separate talks.
Initially there was only one video of Gruber’s unedited remarks. But quickly more videos surfaced of him saying much the same thing at different venues. On more than one occasion he called Americans “stupid,” and even had his audience laughing over the description.
His remarks have been dismissed by the White House as a professor who is “just some random, poorly trained speaker.” A humbled Gruber embraced those remarks and refused all further interviews by the media.
The fact remains that complexity is a staple of liberal policy making. The smoke and mirrors strategy is designed to confuse the American people and place the liberal elite in the position of being a sort of guiding father to its flock.
Gruber and the rest of the Obama team that created the Affordable Care Act are now out in the open and the main architect cannot take back his words on several different occasions. With new challenges on the law coming to the Supreme Court, Professor Jonathan Gruber may find his words have sown the seeds for the revocation of the health care act in the next year.
The professor’s words were not a one-time deception. His sleight-of-hand explanation will make it that much harder for the lawyers defending Obamacare and its very existence in the coming months.
Obamacare’s architects might better reflect on how, even with crushing majorities in the House and the Senate, they had to lie and obfuscate to get Obamacare passed. If nothing else, it may save some of their reputations. But it hard to close Pandora’s box when you have the brains behind the law calmly telling the American people the law is a load of crap.
