Unhealthy Political Practices

Obamacare has a new poster child... Jonathan Gruber!

It seemed appropriate to follow up my post yesterday with this one. One of the big national stories that finally made its way around the media was the comments made by one of the “Obamacare architects” regarding the construction and passage of this useless piece of legislation. Note that the ‘main stream media’ was much later in picking this up than the “conservative” outlets.

On numerous occasions, Jonathan Gruber has spoken at great length to the deception that was built into the ‘Affordable’ Care Act. He also specifically noted that much of the strategy that was required to gain support for the bill required the left to leverage the stupidity of the American people. As was reported in Politico: “In the three videos that surfaced in the last few days, Gruber says parts of the law, including its insurance subsidies and so-called Cadillac tax on expensive plans, wouldn’t have passed back in 2009-10 if voters weren’t “stupid.””

While few have denied that Gruber was an economic consultant on the bill, there has been frequent and repeated efforts to backpedal and characterize Gruber as someone with limited influence on the legislation. However, this ignores the gross misconduct at hand. While we don’t know how much influence he had on the polishing of the turd, he was at the very least in the room and was privy to the construction thereof. He knew of the shell game that was being perpetuated and this is where his comments come into play.

Equally disturbing are the outright lies that have been told to the media this week specifically those from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who is quoted as saying “I don’t know who he is… He didn’t help write our bill.” She made this adamant statement despite the fact that she has referred to his work in the past. Of course, what do you expect from someone whose infamous pitch when pushing the bill was “But we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

In addition to the lies, misrepresentations, and insults that have surfaced lately (although many of us knew that they were there all along) we now find ourselves at a point in time when healthcare premiums have gone through the roof, few new people have been insured, and financial limits have been placed on hourly workers who cannot go over 30 hours per week. We are getting taxes taken out of each paycheck to cover the program, we are required to take on benefits in our plans that we don’t want or need, and the total cost of the legislative cluster is far beyond any of the projections used to pass the law. Now I am ready to say to all those who questioned my opposition to this bill, I told you so!