Jonathan Gruber, who helped design ObamaCare, called us “too stupid” to understand it, and then proceeded to rake in millions of our taxpayer funds to help the benighted implement it.
According to reports based on government documents, Gruber was paid nearly $6 million dollars from 2009-2014 as a health-related consultant for various federal and state agencies.
According to National Review Online, Gruber received at least $5,886,150 in taxpayer-funded health-care-consulting fees, mainly from the federal government. Here’s the breakdown:
· $2,050,000 from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
· $1,730,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice
· $392,600 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources
· $103,500 from the U.S. Department of State
· $481,050 from the state of Michigan
· $400,000 from the state of Vermont
· $400,000 from the state of Wisconsin
· $392,000 from the state of Minnesota
That’s on average about $1 million each year for five years.
If you can take your skills and expertise to the marketplace and find a buyer for them, that’s great, but we have to wonder if Gruber is the right expert. And that debate would take place only after overcoming the hurdle of agreeing with the creation of ObamaCare.
We’ve seen what our $6 million dollars got us. ObamaCare is a fundamentally flawed law that distorts the healthcare market; mandates universal coverage with financial penalties on individuals and companies who refuse to obey; requires coverage of procedures that advance a (liberal) agenda; raise the costs of healthcare; forces young, healthy people to subsidize the costs of older, sicker Americans; raises other costs of labor for businesses; and more. All of this was hatched and delivered in a clandestine, rushed manner where even the most ardent supporters didn’t have time to read it all but passed it blindly.
Gruber pulled the wool over our eyes and cut a hole in our pockets all at the same time.
At least one person on Capitol Hill plans to investigate. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is demanding an investigation into the fees Gruber was paid and that he return the fees. The Hill reports:
Paul said he would request an official investigation into public funds paid to Gruber for consultant work, pegged at upwards of $6 million among multiple states and several federal agencies.
"Who was sort of organizing this for him? Is this some sort of thing that happened within government? Was he just able to market himself everywhere, or was this all coming in some sort of organized way to enrich Obama consultants?" Paul asked.
Paul joined others on the right, such as Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), in suggesting Gruber return the money.
Good luck to Senator Paul in trying to get Gruber to return his fees. We still have yet to see a dime of the billions we wasted on the healthcare.gov website and state exchange websites back from the infamous contractor CGI Federal.
Government is great at taking in and doling out our money. It's woeful at recouping misused funds which accounts for too much public funding.