GRUBER DUES: Wisconsin paid $443,000 for an analysis on Obamacare led by Obamacare ‘architect’ Jonathan Gruber. With the money long spent, what can be done about the MIT professor’s potential “transparency” problems in Wisconsin and elsewhere?
Posted on 11/28/2014 12:56:40 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
MADISON, Wis. — The “architect” of Obamacare who suggested the “stupidity of the American voter” helped pass President Obama’s signature health-care reform law hauled in $200,000 from Wisconsin taxpayers for his analysis of the potential costs and impacts of the Affordable Care Act on the Badger State, according to the state Department of Health Services.
In total, taxpayers spent $443,718 for MIT economist Jonathan Gruber and a firm to analyze the actuarial and economic impacts of the Affordable Care Act on Wisconsin health insurance markets, according to records obtained by Wisconsin Reporter.
The remaining $243,718 went to Gorman Actuarial LLC, the Marlborough, Mass.-based consulting firm that Gruber fancies working with.
“Jonathan Gruber developed the model for the report that outlined PPACA’s (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) effects on Wisconsin…” Stephanie Smiley, communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, wrote in an email.
But unlike in other states where Gruber’s Obamacare analyses go on, the money for Wisconsin’s contract is long spent — on a study whose accuracy and integrity is being questioned by taxpayers whom Gruber apparently thinks are too stupid to understand.
The state contract was issued July 1, 2010, under the administration of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, and it ended June 30, 2011.
Wisconsin Reporter asked whether the state agency involved with the Gruber contract would review the analysis and go after the expenditures, based on the professor’s comments that the health care law passed because of a “lack of transparency” over its funding mechanisms.
“Because this contract was entered into under the previous administration and the vast majority of the work was performed for that administration, we do not have a comment on the work performed,” Smiley said.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker’s office didn’t return a request for comment from Wisconsin Reporter.
A spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the office had no new information to report on the matter.
Bob Delaporte, spokesman for the office of state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, said he thinks the issue will come up in the next session, beginning in January. Darling is co-chair of the Legislature’s powerful Joint Committee on Finance, the budget-writing committee.
“It’s appalling how much he (Gruber) has made,” Delaporte said. “I remember having phone calls from liberals who would scream at me about this stuff and all the things I said came true, all my worst fears about it and (Gruber and the Obama administration) knew about it.”
While the Obama administration and ACA supporters have distanced themselves from Gruber since the release of a video showing the economist’s incendiary statements, Gruber has raked in millions of taxpayer dollars for his work designing Obamacare — on top of at least $1.6 million he has pocketed from Wisconsin and other states for his consultancy work.
Because Gruber apparently was so instrumental in designing the ACA, there is concern he massaged the original numbers to help a divided Congress pass the legislation in 2010. The law was narrowly upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012.
Gruber made his statements during a panel discussion at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013. It wasn’t until recently that a video of the economist’s comments surfaced and caught fire on social media, eventually making its way to the general press.
“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” Gruber told the Penn audience. “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.” He has since apologized for his “inappropriate” comments, but the damage is done.
Vermont recently fired Gruber in the wake of the scandal. North Carolina effectively followed suit.
“As the governor and I have said, the comments by Mr. Gruber are offensive, inappropriate and do not reflect the thinking of this administration or how we do things in Vermont,” said Lawrence Miller, spokesman for Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, in a statement reported by Fox News. “As we have also said, we need solid economic modeling in order to move forward with health care reform.”
Gruber’s patented health care modeling system has since come into question, along with the administration’s bold claims about Obamacare that proved faulty — none bigger than Obama’s, “If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance” pledge.
Economist John R. Lott Jr., former chief economist at the U.S. Sentencing Commission and Fox News columnist, recently opined that Gruber “underestimated costs and overestimated how many people would be covered.”
“Like so many Ivory Tower academics, Gruber doesn’t understand how the real world works,” Lott wrote in a column for Fox News.
GRUBER DUES: Wisconsin paid $443,000 for an analysis on Obamacare led by Obamacare ‘architect’ Jonathan Gruber. With the money long spent, what can be done about the MIT professor’s potential “transparency” problems in Wisconsin and elsewhere?
Obamacare architect, Gruber, prfoited from Wisconsin under Doyle contract.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
The un-elected lefties running the government agencies wring their hands and pretend that there is nothing that they can do. They should be fired and replaced with people that are competent enough to claw back every cent that was previously given to Gruber for his fraudulent services.
M. D. Kittle for Attorney Journalist!
What? No such thing? Truth in Journalism Czar, then! ;)
Mike is the one guy - ONE GUY - that actually RESEARCHES the data for his articles in Wisconsin.
And the LefTards in our state wanted Mary Burke as Governor, to continue the malfeasance of the ‘Diamond Jim’ Doyle Administration? Of course they did; Taxpayer Dollars Down The Rat Hole is their favorite game!
Governor Walker needs to say this as well. Work. For. Word.
“As the Governor, I say the comments by Mr. Gruber are offensive, inappropriate and do not reflect the thinking of this administration or how we do things in Wisconsin. Wisconsin needs SOLID economic modeling in order to move forward with health care reform in our fair state.”
He probably already did and I missed it. But, just in case... :)
Word. For. Word.
HHS “Started” Individual Obamacare Applications Prior To Deadline; Obtained Personal Info From States
Shark Tank / FR Posted on Friday, April 04, 2014 by M. Thatcher
In the closing days of the open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) , the US Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) was mailing out letters notifying certain Americans that the govt agency had already started a healthcare coverage application on their behalf.
The HHS letter stated that the information they used to begin the application for individual Healthcare was obtain by the state agency in charge of implementing Obamacare.
The next step for the individual would be to visit the web site Healthcare.gov and complete the already started application to see if they qualify for “Marketplace coverage.”
News of the HHS letter was first mentioned by a listener of the popular “Daybreak with Drew Steele” Show on Fox 92.5, which is out of Fort Myers, Florida.(Excerpt)
Read more at: http://www.shark-tank.com/2014/04/04/hhs-started-individual-obamaca ...
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NEED TO KNOW:
(1) which states participated in giving confidential information to HHS, and,
(2) how would state agencies know which of their citizens would want or need a new Obamacare-compliant policy.......without violating that individual's privacy--and without consulting the individual?
(3) for an application to be legally enforced, the individual would have had to sign it.
(4) Who signed the app? (Forgery must be considered.)
(5) When a third party commits you to a financial transaction, that person is considered your fiduciary....and CANNOT act WRT a payment method or other financial burden that conflicts with your best interests.
=============================================
FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov
“under the administration of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle,”.......
Just one of the MANY wrongs Doyle laid on the tax payers of Wisconsin.
And I don’t have fulltime work, can’t afford to fix my car or help my son get his fixed, or help pay for his retired K 9’s medical conditions, or even pay my Democrat-imposed hardship rising property taxes.
And this lying Democrat sack of shit gets $443,00 +.
What is wrong with this man, this situation, our country?
I know the answers and so do you.
This man is an egotistical prick who couldn’t get a real job in the real world; he’s paid for his ego, not his work product; and Obama runs (er ruins) our country with frontmen like Gruber to do his dirty work.
2016 can’t come soon enough for me.
Federal tax dollars collected by Gruber.
The salient point is this: Gruber acting as an independent researcher is one thing--- but Gruber consorting w/ assorted lawmakers in govt, figuring out ways to lie in order to dupe the tax-paying public is a CONSPIRACY.
The makings of a conapiracy are well-documented: Gruber had influence over the CBO, the White House, and Congress, alike. It's hard to overestimate his importance; Gruber's role was central to the efforts of President Obama and his Democratic allies to shove Obamacare down an unwilling citizenry’s throat.
================================================
There are billions involved--- conniving Dems hid in O/Care a massive, multi-billion-dollar slush fund--- deliberately kept hidden from us stupid taxpayers.
<><> Where is all that money going?
<><> Was cashing-in the incentive in getting the thing passed.
<><> Were state governors getting a cut? Perhaps in exchange for hiring Gruber?
<><> Exactly who is cashing in?
<><> The sound of West Wing wire-transfers to offshore banks is almost palpable.
=========================================
The Untraceable $8 Billion ObamaCare PR Budget---truly govt fraud at its finest. Egged on by Pelosi, Democrats slavishly voted for Obamacare by an historic straignt-party line vote. But not one Democrat told Americans about Obamacare's Section 4002---which mandates an $8B untraceable fund to "promote" Obamacare (apparently b/c Boobamba had so little confidence in his signature legislation).
THE WI ATTY GENERAL NEEDS TO DETERMINE WHAT THE EX- GOV AND DEMOCRAT LAWMAKERS KNOW ABOUT THIS.
ACA SEC. 4002. PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND.
(a) PURPOSE. It is the purpose of this section of the ACA to establish a Prevention and Public Health Fund (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Fund’’), to be administered through the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary, to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs.
(b) FUNDING.—There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, and appropriated, to the Fund, out of any monies in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated—
(1) for fiscal year 2010, $500,000,000;
(2) for fiscal year 2011, $750,000,000;
(3) for fiscal year 2012, $1,000,000,000;
(4) for fiscal year 2013, $1,250,000,000;
(5) for fiscal year 2014, $1,500,000,000; and
(6) for fiscal year 2015, and each fiscal year thereafter, $2,000,000,000.
(c) USE OF FUND.—The Secretary shall transfer amounts in the Fund to accounts within the Department of Health and Human Services to increase funding, over the fiscal year 2008 level, for programs authorized by the Public Health Service Act, for prevention, wellness, and public health activities including prevention research and health screenings, such as the Community Transformation grant program, the Education and Outreach Campaign for Preventive Benefits, and immunization programs.
(d) TRANSFER AUTHORITY.—The Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of may provide for the transfer of funds in the Fund to eligible activities under this section, subject to subsection (c).
Makes one wonder what other third party commits one has been signed onto?.
Illegal has become the norm with democrats 2016 just may be the last legal election for all.
In the closing days of the open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) , the US Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) was mailing out letters notifying certain Americans that the govt agency had already started a healthcare coverage application on their behalf.
The HHS letter stated that the information they used to begin the application for individual Healthcare was obtained by the state agency in charge of implementing Obamacare.
This sounds even more ominous than what Gruber was doing in Wisconsin. It's kind of forcing people to sign up for some Obamacare plan they didn't voluntarily want in the first place.
I wouldn't be surprised if the HHS didn't get the info from "the state agency in charge of implementing Obamacare," at least in some states, most likely those that refused to start Obamacare "exchanges." The personal info might instead have been obtained from the IRS or some other federal agency.
As far as I know, there is a federal Privacy Act which prevents federal agencies from "sharing" personal information on individuals, with few definitive exceptions. What occurred here might have been a violation of the Privacy Act, if the "sharing" occurred as it may have. But if such were the case, it would be very consistent with the lawlessness that has become a hallmark of the Obama administration.
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