MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber’s gaffes could derail Obamacare
Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber — the MIT brainiac caught on video admitting the law’s “lack of transparency” was meant to dupe a gullible American public — could end up becoming Obamacare’s demolition man, with congressional Republicans threatening to hold hearings and experts saying his bombshell comments could impact the Supreme Court case challenging the Affordable Care Act.
“They can subpoena him and call him to testify about the way he used federal money because he got an awful lot of it,” said Dennis Hale, a Boston College political science professor, referring to reports yesterday that Gruber received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants to help states implement Obamacare. “If he shows up to testify, it’s going to be pretty ugly.”
“This is the gift that keeps on giving,” Hale said. “If you’re selling a product that people don’t want to buy and then tell them they’re stupid because they don’t want to buy it, you get into trouble.”
Gleeful Republicans, who will dominate the House and Senate come January, have pounced on Gruber’s comments that the Obamacare law “passed because the American voters are too stupid to understand the difference.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post, “We may want to have hearings on this.” And Arizona Sen. John McCain said the controversy “gives us ammunition to make fundamental changes to the law.”
The Gruber firestorm comes just a week after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging whether states enrolled in the federal HealthCare.gov portal — rather than creating their own exchanges — can dole out Obamacare subsidies.
https://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/11/mit_professor_jonathan_grubers_gaffes_could_derail_obamacare
The majority party (come January) should be careful. They seem to be thinking Gruber will allow himself to be filleted by mere members of Congress. One cannot induce shame in them that lie with such facility, such precision, such gusto. Gruber will deny any accusation that he did anything wrong and his interlocutors will end up run through with frustration at his astonishing intransigence. Do they think he will end up saying “You know, you’re right…this law stinks and should be repealed immediately.” Rather than give Gruber just another soapbox to stand on and sing his own praises, Congress should just move forward with the work of preparing and passing legislation to repeal the ACA. They will either succeed or fail in making this change but no good plan this commenter is aware of would justify focusing the public spotlight back on someone like Professor Gruber unless, like in the motion picture “A Few Good Men”, Congress is sure that it can “get him”.