Gruber Was Key to Getting ObamaCare Passed
Grubergate: The lies are getting pretty thick these days. The president claims that he never misled anyone about ObamaCare and that Jonathan Gruber was just "some adviser." In fact, Gruber was a key player in the deception.
When Fox News' Ed Henry asked Obama on Sunday if he'd misled the American people "in order to get the bill passed," Obama's answer was "No, I did not." Space prohibits listing all the ways Obama did, in fact, mislead the public.
No one even bothers to deny that his "keep your plan" and "ObamaCare will cut premiums by $2,500" promises were premeditated efforts to deceive the public. But Obama's response to Henry's question about Gruber is just as grand a fabrication.
In his remarks, Obama tried to minimize Gruber's role in crafting the plan, saying Gruber "never worked on our staff" and that his recent comments about how lawmakers used deception to enact ObamaCare "is no reflection on the actual process that was run."
Actually, Gruber played a central role in a coordinated campaign to deceive the public — a campaign that arguably proved instrumental in getting ObamaCare enacted. To see how he did it, let's turn the clock back to Nov. 4, 2009.
At the time, the White House was in a frantic push to get ObamaCare through the Senate before the year was up. Democrats, who held 60 seats at the time, could not afford to lose a single vote against unified GOP opposition. And they were rightly worried that a January special election in Massachusetts would deny them their filibuster-proof majority if voters elected Republican Scott Brown.
That day, the White House touted a research paper that Gruber had issued, describing it as an "objective analysis" that showed how "reform will help small businesses (and) lower premiums for American families." Later that month, Nancy-Ann DeParle — director of the White House Office of Health Reform — said that another Gruber study "confirms" that the "Senate health reform bill reduces costs and improves coverage."
The press, not surprisingly, ate it all up, and Gruber became what ABC News called "a go-to voice for reporters seeking a respected academic view on health care reform." Politico's Mike Allen wrote a piece in late November headlined "MIT analysis backs Obama," which said that Gruber's research "provides new ammunition for Democrats as the Senate begins formally debating (ObamaCare)."
But what neither the White House nor Gruber told the public was that Gruber was actually a highly paid consultant working with Obama to construct the very law that his "objective" analyses were extolling.
In fact, the existence of Gruber's fat $400,000 contract didn't emerge until after the Senate passed ObamaCare — when a blogger for the left-wing website Daily Kos posted a link in early January 2010 complaining about Gruber's "sole source" contract for "technical assistance in evaluating options for national healthcare reform." The contract claimed that Gruber was the "only one responsible source" available for such help.
When that news came out, the press — which could have easily ferreted out Gruber's contract long before — issued a few mea culpas for not disclosing his glaring conflict of interest, and then let the matter drop. But it was too late to make any difference, anyway. The Senate had passed ObamaCare in late December, and the House later approved the exact same bill, which Obama signed into law in March 2010.
In other words, had the Gruber/White House disinformation campaign not been so effective, and had the Senate bill not passed, there probably would be no ObamaCare today.
When Fox News' Ed Henry asked Obama on Sunday if he'd misled the American people "in order to get the bill passed," Obama's answer was "No, I did not." Space prohibits listing all the ways Obama did, in fact, mislead the public.
No one even bothers to deny that his "keep your plan" and "ObamaCare will cut premiums by $2,500" promises were premeditated efforts to deceive the public. But Obama's response to Henry's question about Gruber is just as grand a fabrication.
In his remarks, Obama tried to minimize Gruber's role in crafting the plan, saying Gruber "never worked on our staff" and that his recent comments about how lawmakers used deception to enact ObamaCare "is no reflection on the actual process that was run."
Actually, Gruber played a central role in a coordinated campaign to deceive the public — a campaign that arguably proved instrumental in getting ObamaCare enacted. To see how he did it, let's turn the clock back to Nov. 4, 2009.
At the time, the White House was in a frantic push to get ObamaCare through the Senate before the year was up. Democrats, who held 60 seats at the time, could not afford to lose a single vote against unified GOP opposition. And they were rightly worried that a January special election in Massachusetts would deny them their filibuster-proof majority if voters elected Republican Scott Brown.
That day, the White House touted a research paper that Gruber had issued, describing it as an "objective analysis" that showed how "reform will help small businesses (and) lower premiums for American families." Later that month, Nancy-Ann DeParle — director of the White House Office of Health Reform — said that another Gruber study "confirms" that the "Senate health reform bill reduces costs and improves coverage."
The press, not surprisingly, ate it all up, and Gruber became what ABC News called "a go-to voice for reporters seeking a respected academic view on health care reform." Politico's Mike Allen wrote a piece in late November headlined "MIT analysis backs Obama," which said that Gruber's research "provides new ammunition for Democrats as the Senate begins formally debating (ObamaCare)."
But what neither the White House nor Gruber told the public was that Gruber was actually a highly paid consultant working with Obama to construct the very law that his "objective" analyses were extolling.
In fact, the existence of Gruber's fat $400,000 contract didn't emerge until after the Senate passed ObamaCare — when a blogger for the left-wing website Daily Kos posted a link in early January 2010 complaining about Gruber's "sole source" contract for "technical assistance in evaluating options for national healthcare reform." The contract claimed that Gruber was the "only one responsible source" available for such help.
When that news came out, the press — which could have easily ferreted out Gruber's contract long before — issued a few mea culpas for not disclosing his glaring conflict of interest, and then let the matter drop. But it was too late to make any difference, anyway. The Senate had passed ObamaCare in late December, and the House later approved the exact same bill, which Obama signed into law in March 2010.
In other words, had the Gruber/White House disinformation campaign not been so effective, and had the Senate bill not passed, there probably would be no ObamaCare today.
Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-obama-care/111714-726840-gruber-deception-helped-enact-obamacare.htm#ixzz3JYhkTLRk
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