Politico Downplays Jonathan Gruber as Obamacare Architect

NewsBusters ^ | November 15, 2014 | P.J. Gladnick

[PJ-Comix]

Stop it! Stop it right now! Please don't refer to Jonathan Gruber as an Obamacare architect. He actually had a relatively minor role in the Obamacare scheme of things.

Since Politico is now unable to ignore the Jonathan Gruber scandal as they tried to do earlier this week, they have switched gears to craft a story by Politico health reporter Paige Winfield Cunningham to portray him as  much less than an architect of Obamacare. Ironically, this same reporter as recently as July also referred to Gruber as an Obamacare architect. First let us check out Cunningham's attempt to downplay the role of Gruber in her article that tells you where it is coming from just by reading the title, New Obamacare furor: Was Jonathan Gruber the “architect”?

[joshua c]

Gruber was paid $5.9 million as a consultant on Obamacare. Who is the next highest paid consultant?

[Presbyterian Reporter]

How quickly Politico forgets. It was but a short time ago that Politico called Gruber the 14th most influential person. “”His big ideas ended up in Obamacare.””

Here is what they wrote about Gruber:

14/ Jonathan Gruber Economist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology FOR ENVISIONING OBAMACARE. Jonathan Gruber

Michael Hoeweler

Jonathan Gruber is a true believer in President Obama’s signature health care law. “Look, if this succeeds, then Obama becomes FDR,” he says. “This is the most important social policy accomplishment since the 1960s.” His enthusiasm is no surprise—he essentially wrote it.

After spending decades modeling the economic effects of health care policies, Gruber crafted the law that helped Gov. Mitt Romney provide health care to 98 percent of Massachusetts residents; other states soon called, followed in 2008 by Obama’s team. In both Massachusetts and the Obama White House, Gruber pushed for an individual mandate—a provision requiring most people either to buy health care or else pay a tax. According to Gruber, an MIT economist, that was the only way to prevent the entire system from collapsing, by ensuring that healthy people buy insurance, too, thus keeping premiums down. Gruber, who was soon dispatched to Capitol Hill to help lawmakers draft the His big ideas ended up in Obamacare.

health care bill, also advocated subsidizing health care for the poor and revising the criteria for providing health care to people with pre-existing conditions.
The individual mandate, which survived a Supreme Court ruling in 2012, has yet to be implemented, but the past year saw the rollout of much of the rest of Gruber’s vision. Despite an inauspicious start with a faulty website and ongoing Republican efforts to repeal the law, more than 10 million adults have gained coverage under Obamacare, and America’s uninsured rate has dropped 5.2 percentage points, according to researchers at Harvard. Gruber has since shifted his attention to the online health care marketplaces the law encouraged each state to set up; 27 states have refused to do so, leaving residents to rely on the federal government’s online exchange. The viability of the exchanges is now in question after conflicting federal appeals court rulings earlier this year. (In July, Gruber became the center of controversy when a 2012 video surfaced in which he appeared to side with the law’s opponents; he said he had misspoken.) No matter where Obamacare ends up, Gruber sees the next steps—where we figure out how the law is actually transforming America—as the most exciting. “That’s where economics is at its best,” he says

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/politico50/2014/jonathan-gruber-14.html#.VGd8DU0tBwE#ixzz3J9dz482T

[joshua c]

Progressivism = Gruberism

Gruber is the ultimate progressive

Top down one size fits all central planning forced on citizens by lies and deceit. And Gruber, like progressives, thinks it is ok to do this. The ends justify the means.

[Ray76]

Gruber’s name is all over the official record.

http://www.finance.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=dc892979-001b-7677-e099-84105e0c92c9

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/legacy/fullcomm/107cong/2-13-02/records/gruber.htm

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/blog/09/11/24/An-Insightful-Article-on-Health-Care-Costs/

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111shrg75442/html/CHRG-111shrg75442.htm

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-112srpt11/html/CRPT-112srpt11.htm

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg50479/html/CHRG-111hhrg50479.htm

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111shrg50510/html/CHRG-111shrg50510.htm

on and on and on....

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/11/04/word-white-house-objective-analysis-shows-reform-will-help-small-businesses-lower-pr

and on and on

Here is the Department of Health and Human Services solicitation
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=3032e84fe13f650770acee31c1372a1b&_cview=1&cck=1&au=&ck=

Here is the award
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=3032e84fe13f650770acee31c1372a1b&_cview=0

The foregoing is just a small sample

[Mears]

“(In July, Gruber became the center of controversy when a 2012 video surfaced in which he appeared to side with the law’s opponents; he said he had misspoken.) No “

—

I’m not familiar with this video. Anyone know where,when it took place?

.

[Soul of the South]

“Goober is one of those Millionaires and Billionaires Bammy warned us about.”

In addition he became a millionaire courtesy of lucrative consulting deals handed out by corrupt politicians and paid for by the US taxpayer. You would think the stupid party would all over this and fueling the flames.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

2012 video at this site

http://www.redstate.com/2014/07/24/obamacare-jonathan-gruber-subsidies-exchange/

[DAC21]

“This is the most important social policy accomplishment since the 1960s.”

ACOMPLISHMENT? Yeah Civil Rights / War on Poverty was such a success. This guy is MIT material? He has pulled the Gruber over the eyes of even those oh so smart leftist elites. They can wallow in it together when Odummycare unravels.

[Mears]

Thanks.

That guy keeps putting his foot in it,doesn’t he?

What an absolute ass.

.

[GraceG]

[rlmorel]

"Gruber was paid $5.9 million as a consultant on Obamacare. Who is the next highest paid consultant?"

An excellent question by an astute Freeper! I would like to see that answered too.

[Amagi]

"Politico" is always where I don't go for news or opinion.
But it is some fun watching them spin.

[Colonel_Flagg]

He took credit for it. I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures, right?

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— How quickly Politico forgets. It was but a short time ago that Politico called Gruber the 14th most influential person. “-—

Eggsellent.

[EternalVigilance]

One of the first signs that you’re dealing with a Gruber is when they try to downplay Gruber.

[LMAO]

You said....
“Gruber is “a gift that just keeps giving.” This lying cheat has linked the clown in the White House to lies. The Gruber revelations are in the process of demonstrating the treacherously interlocking nature of America's left. The leftist machine is swarming to downplay “The Gruber.” This leftist ploy is open for all to see. Gruber is a wonderful moment in American history in that he reveals leftist politics as lies.”

I agree.

Since the Grubergate story broke, I have been all smiles. Finally, everything conservatives warned about the law has been laid naked for all of America to see. What we warned the nation about in 2009 is coming to fruition.

Watching the DNC, including the press, trying to spin the story as not really a negative while at the same time scurrying like cockroaches while calling the public stupid for all Americans to see is more than I could have ever wished for.