Headline of the Day:
“Stupidity” Comments Renew GOP Vitriol on ObamaCare
This is a beaut. An architect of ObamaCare admits it passed only because of what he regards as the “stupidity of the American voter,” and the Washington Post headline is about “GOP vitriol?”
That is the headline on the Post’s homepage. The inside headline is a bit more restrained but depicts the Stupidgate in the same way:
GOP’s Anti-ObamaCare Push Gains New Momentum in Wake of Gruber Video
Gruber is MIT professor and ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber who has repeatedly hailed what he views as the stupidity of Americans as essential in passing ObamaCare. Gruber’s “stupid” remarks have surfaced in several videos that have made the bespectacled professor into a Youtube star.
He also praised the administration’s “lack of transparency” as crucial in getting ObamaCare passed. There is a three letter word for lack of transparency.
If the voter had known what was in the ObamaCare law (i.e., if the truth had not been concealed), then the opposition would have been even greater than it was (and it already was strong).
Gruber's comments don't make me vitriolic, but they do fill me with righteous indignation. Also mirth—can you believe anybody is as stupid as Gruber, getting caught telling the truth three times?
My denigration of Mr. Gruber’s smarts must be tempered: you and I, Gentle Reader, as taxpayers, paid him $400,000 to help the administration design our un-transparent new health system.
Avik Roy, one of our favorite ObamaCare experts, noticed something interesting about Gruber’s “transparency” comment:
Gruber made an argument that many of Obamacare’s critics have long made, including me. It’s that the law’s complex system of insurance regulation is a way of concealing from voters what Obamacare really is: a huge redistribution of wealth from the young and healthy to the old and unhealthy. In the video, Gruber points out that if Democrats had been honest about these facts, and that the law’s individual mandate is in effect a major tax hike, Obamacare would never have passed Congress.
What’s next? We learn that there are “death panels” and the Washington Post raps us for vitriol?