"Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” says the MIT economist who helped write Obamacare. "And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass."
Meet Jonathan Gruber, a professor at MIT and an architect of Obamacare. During a panel event last year about how the legislation passed, turning over a sixth of the U.S. economy to the government, Gruber admitted that the Obama administration went through "tortuous" measures to keep the facts about the legislation from the American people, including covering up the redistribution of wealth from the healthy to the sick in the legislation that Obamacare is in fact a tax. The video of his comments just recently surfaced ahead of the second open enrollment period for Obamacare at Healthcare.gov.
"You can't do it political, you just literally cannot do it. Transparent financing and also transparent spending. I mean, this bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes the bill dies. Okay? So it’s written to do that," Gruber said. "In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in, you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed. Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical to get for the thing to pass. Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not."
A few points. 1. Notice how lying to the American people is completely justified by Obama administration standards so long as the ends justify the means. Gruber would "rather have this law than not," and therefore purposely lying about what the law actually is in order to get it passed is completely acceptable. regardless of the negative effects it has on the lives of Americans. 2. Lack of transparency might be a huge political advantage in the short term, but long term there are consequences from voters, which is exactly what we saw last week during the Democrat blood bath at every level of government across the country. 3. Insulting Americans as stupid and deceiving them is a really good way to lose your power on Capitol Hill, which is again exactly what we saw last week in the 2014 midterms. Twenty-eight Senators who voted for Obamacare are now out of the Senate for one reason or another. 4. Obamacare in its entirely was "sold" on lies. From the promise to keep your doctor to claims insurance rates would go down, not up -- to hiding that the legislation was in fact a tax until of course it was necessary to argue it was a tax to save the legislation at the Supreme Court. Government bureaucrats promising an expansion of care knowing care under Obamacare would be limited, etc. Hell, even the official name for Obamacare, "The Affordable Care Act," is a lie. Obamacare isn't affordable. 5. The process through which Obamacare was shoved through and down the throats of the American people happened as a result of Harry Reid changing Senate rules and without the support of voters. The legislation didn't receive a single Republican vote in the House or the Senate. Also, remember this?
Or this?
"Absolutely not a tax increase."
Obamacare is a sham and the American people have been lied to and deceived every step of the way. Further, Obamacare has never been popular with the American people. Not when it passed and not now. It should also be noted that since before Obamacare was passed conservatives have been rightly screaming about its true contents and impact on American families and the economy. They've been right all along and were called racists for sounding the alarm.
Overall, a lack of transparency has been key to the Obama administration's existence on a whole range of topics, which is why it is one of the least transparent administrations in history despite President Obama's promises.
WRD began in January 2010 at the height of the Obamacare debacle. Since then, WRD banded with a group of like-minded individuals to form the Gadsden Group, influencing thought by challenging bias at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, volunteering for Republican candidates, participating in numerous campaign events, networking with other groups of concerned citizens, and gaining a foothold in social media on Twitter. Our "Letter to to the Left" after Governor Walker's convincing win in the June 2012 recall election went viral, and we decided to officially expand this site to include the Gadsden Group name.
We hope this site will be a one-stop shop for great websites, articles, polls, conservative commentary, and more. 2010 was the year of the Republican comeback, and 2012 was off to a great start with the convincing win of Scott Walker, but we have much work to do after the Romney and Thompson defeats, and it's up to all of us to make it happen. Share with friends, convince your kids, do your part to get our great country back! Thanks for visiting our site! Wisconsin Republican Dad and everyone in the Gadsden Group
WRD: I'm just a dad and husband who's very worried about the direction this country is going, and decided it was time I got involved. I believe in fiscal restraint, personal responsibility, a much smaller goverment, fewer government programs, agencies, and entitlements, strong national defense, and justice for criminals. I want our borders strengthened, tort reform, a balanced budget, and deficit reduction. I believe in Constructionist judges, not liberals who legislate from the bench. I'm pro gun, I'm for expanding nuclear power and offshore drilling. By default, that makes me a conservative Republican. The liberals are killing this country, and worse, they know it. Their desire to be liked, to be seen as champions of the poor, while they continue to grow the welfare state, bothers me greatly. Because arrogance is the worst of human traits, their condescension (that means you Russ Feingold) towards middle America makes me want to scream. So I am...
Gadsden Group: We are a group of like-minded individuals based in Waukesha and Milwaukee counties (WI). We're sick of liberals running our state into the ground, so we decided to make a stand. So far, so good...