Professor Jonathan Gruber Said Something True about Voting Stupidity — and the Lack of Government Transparency that Fosters and Takes Advantage of It — Now, Democrats Are Trying to Pretend that Deception in Writing the Affordable Care Act Never Crossed their Minds

17 November 2014

Admittedly, Professor Gruber‘s ObamaCare story has been blown out of proportion by prominent Republicans . . .

. . . acting (as they almost always do) with gargantuan hypocrisy.

But still, the brouhaha presents amusing insight into the United States’ exponentially increasing flood of sociopathic absurdities:

Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who the White House consulted on the bill back in 2009, said . . . in October 2013 that a lack of transparency around the Affordable Care Act was politically advantageous.

"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 getting the thing to pass," Gruber said.

"This [Affordable Care Act] bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO [Congressional Budget Office] did not score the mandate as taxes," he said during a panel discussion at the University of Pennsylvania in October, 2013.

This is not shocking news to anyone even marginally familiar with politics and legislation

Yet, the former bigwig and perennially smarmy advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod, took exception to Professor Gruber’s dredged up statement:

As one who worked hard to make ACA and its benefits clear, let me say: if you looked up "stupid" in dictionary, you'd find Gruber's picture.

And that’s why Gruber is a professor at MIT and you’re not, David?

No disrespect to the University of Chicago (where Axelrod works) intended.

The Affordable Care Act passed because no one in the Democratic majority read it.

I read most of it from the perspective of someone accustomed to reviewing legislation for its effect and potential legal problems. I do not doubt that the ACA was generated by people deliberately trying to mask what they were doing. Competent drafters would not have written such a complicated and often (at face value) mechanistically indecipherable bill.

The Affordable Care Act was destined for the Supreme Court simply because it was so atrociously written. And, unless everyone involved with crafting the proposed legislation was a certifiable idiot, the bill’s frequently displayed lack of clarity did not happen by accident.

I would say, in Gruber’s defense, that it is David Axelrod and the Obama Administration that are being disingenuous.

The “stupidity” portion of Professor Gruber’s statement

“Apathetic, fact-avoidant, and foolishly ideological” might be a more accurate description of the voting public. But I will not quarrel with Professor Gruber’s off-the-cuff characterization.

Even rephrased as I have done, “fact-avoidant and foolishly ideological” still means that we (in the electorate) are mired in Dumb. Politicians take advantage of our penchant for being both ignorant and pathologically buzzword sensitive.

The moral? — The first step in looking for national direction is to figure out who the liars and manipulators are

If you come up with the word politician, you will be correct at least 99 percent of the time.

Interestingly, Professor Gruber is not a politician. Perhaps that is why he told the truth, without realizing what a faux pas that is in today’s United States.

Note

None of what I have written above means that I am on Republicans’ side in wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Republicans, almost by definition, will come up with something noticeably worse for human beings.

See, for example here, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s childishly silly “buzzword and no meat” justifications for letting people go without healthcare in his state.

PeteFree.com

Professor Jonathan Gruber Said Something True about Voting Stupidity — and the Lack of Government Transparency that Fosters and Takes Advantage of It — Now, Democrats Are Trying to Pretend that Deception in Writing the Affordable Care Act Never Crossed their Minds