Jonathan Gruber grilled by Congress over Obamacare
During his testimony today at a House hearing, Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber essentially admitted that not calling the individual mandate penalties a tax was a trick by the Obama administration and the Democrats in order to get the law passed.
Below the fold I also include a video excerpt of Congressman Trey Gowdy’s questioning of Gruber today. It is high entertainment as Gowdy easily highlights the dishonesty of Gruber and the Obama administration in its writing and passing of Obamacare. However, it is important to stay with the clip to the very end, when Chairman Darrell Issa proves with one simple question how Gruber was not alone in his contempt for the American voter, and that this contempt was held by everyone at every intellectual conference Gruber attended and spoke at.
It is very important for the American public to be aware of this intellectual contempt, for it will tell them to stop listening to this intellectual elite. They are not trustworthy, and are willing to screw the general public in order to impose their will on everyone.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
During his testimony today at a House hearing, Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber essentially admitted that not calling the individual mandate penalties a tax was a trick by the Obama administration and the Democrats in order to get the law passed.
Below the fold I also include a video excerpt of Congressman Trey Gowdy’s questioning of Gruber today. It is high entertainment as Gowdy easily highlights the dishonesty of Gruber and the Obama administration in its writing and passing of Obamacare. However, it is important to stay with the clip to the very end, when Chairman Darrell Issa proves with one simple question how Gruber was not alone in his contempt for the American voter, and that this contempt was held by everyone at every intellectual conference Gruber attended and spoke at.
It is very important for the American public to be aware of this intellectual contempt, for it will tell them to stop listening to this intellectual elite. They are not trustworthy, and are willing to screw the general public in order to impose their will on everyone.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Trey Gowdy grilled Gruber, who’s only response was that he was glib and not qualified to weigh in on the politics. Daryl Issa followed up Gowdy’s time with one question, asking if anyone questioned or disagreed with any of his “glib” statements in these intellectual conferences. Gruber said no and Issa rightfully noted that those rooms were filled with like minded intellectuals.
What strikes me is how the liberals went after Gruber today. Given that only democrats supported and voted for Obamacare, Gruber’s architectural deception was aimed squarely at liberal constituent mindsets who drank the kool aid and took all the bait without questioning the that the numbers didn’t add up. I think the democrats rage is mostly feigned for the same gullible liberal audience.
This video, from the MIT website shows Gruber in a lecture to an economics class from 2012. At the 9 minute mark, as he talks about the ACA, he says “full disclosure … I helped write it”. Today, he tried to make it seem as though he wasn’t involved in the writing.
http://videolectures.net/mit1401sc11_gruber_lec26/
What troubles me about that hearing, particularly from the leadership, was the lack of simple but direct and most important questions: 1) Mr. Gruber, now that you have admitted your statements were glib and irresponsible, what are you prepared to do to rectify your actions? For example, Mr. Gruber, are you prepared to return all of the money you were paid for your supposed expertise, which you now disavow? 2) Mr. Gruber, will you provide this committee with a detailed accounting of the money you were paid by the federal government and the various state governments, and itemize what services you provided for those sums? 3) Mr. Gruber, did you meet with President Obama to discuss the Affordable Care Act? If so, how many times did you meet with him and what was the topic of your discussions? and 4) Did you utter the same words to the president that you spoke — as documented on video — to the other groups, and if so, did you lie to the president as you claim to have lied to your other audiences?
Gruber is at heart a dishonest person and we saw that again during the hearings.
“So, you’re a professor at MIT and you’re worried about not looking smart enough?”
“Yes.”
On reviewing the various videos and listening to Gruber’s “glib, insulting, arrogant, thoughtless, inappropriate, hurtful, and inexcusable” comments in context, it seems that the professor was not invited to those conferences to try to impress his audiences but to spread around some successful techniques for pushing through legislation that might seem impossible or politically infeasible. He was saying in those conferences, ‘here is the non-obvious political tactic what worked, and here is why it worked.’
To suggest that he could make himself look smarter to a conference audience that is obviously smart itself (otherwise they wouldn’t be at the conference) is to suggest that he thinks that his congressional and C-SPAN audiences are as stupid as he called the American voter.
Gruber probably had been planning to go drinking that evening with his buddies to brag, “gee, those guys were so stupid to buy my line about not being politically savvy , even though they know that I get paid millions for my political expertise.”
He was not smart enough to be able to look like a moron who gets invited to conferences and the White House, but he looked like he tried to play one on C-SPAN TV.
A problem with the intelligentsia is that they think that they are the smartest ones in society, even over nuclear scientists, brain surgeons, rocket scientists, and garbage men (“Dilbert” reference).
My conclusion: the intelligentsia think that because they are so smart, any idea of theirs must be right — yet this testimony shows that they can be *very* wrong. I know this conclusion to be true, because I thought of it, and I am very, very smart. The hubris of these people.