Jonathon Gruber Tells Us What Our Elected Officials Really Think of Us

Onyx Truth Contributor:  J.S. Franklin

Over the course of the last week several videos have surfaced showing a man named Jonathon Gruber bragging about how the federal government and the Democratic party exploited the “stupidity” of the American voter in order to pass the Affordable Care Act into law.  It’s likely that many of you out there have not yet heard this story since Fox News is the only major media outlet actually covering it; so for those of you who are unfamiliar, Jonathon Gruber is an economics professor at MIT who played a large role in the crafting of the ACA back in 2009 serving as a high level economic adviser.

The quick summary of this story is that Gruber has spent the last few years traveling around, speaking at various conferences, sharing his story of how Congress used intentionally tricky wording, obfuscation, and out right lies in order to sell the ACA to the American people.  The highlights include Gruber claiming that a “lack of transparency” helped Democrats pass the law.  Gruber went on to say, “Basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”  Another video shows Gruber discussing the so-called Cadillac Tax on more expensive health insurance plans saying, “We just tax the insurance companies, they pass on higher prices that offsets the tax break we get, it ends up being the same thing.  It’s a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter…They proposed it and that passed, because the American people are too stupid to understand the difference.”  But by far one of the most damning things Gruber said was in regard to the individual mandate penalty, “This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure the C.B.O. did not score the mandate as taxes.  If C.B.O. scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.”  The problem here is that the Supreme Court upheld the ACA mandate as Constitutional because it classified the mandate as a tax.  So here we have one of the architects of the ACA blatantly contradicting the entire basis for the decision to uphold the ACA by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Gruber attempted to walk back his comments and offer an apology during an interview with MSNBC after the first video came to light.  He claimed he was “speaking off the cuff” when he made his comments about voter stupidity.  Four videos later it’s rather difficult to believe he was speaking off the cuff.  Mr. Gruber’s comments, which are very consistent over the course of several years, really illustrate the thinking of liberal Democrats and how they truly view the American public; and when I say this I’m not referring to the average liberal minded citizen sitting at home, but rather to the liberal Democrats currently in Congress and the White House.  They truly believe that the American people are simply not smart enough to think for ourselves, and to act in our own best interest.  They truly believe that their line of thinking and their social-political agenda is what is best for America and they have no problem deceiving us to ensure that is it implemented, regardless whether it’s wanted.

And to further reinforce the notion that Washington Democrats think Americans are stupid we have Nancy Pelosi telling reporters that she doesn’t know who Gruber is and that he had nothing to do with the drafting of the ACA.  Back here in reality there is video from C-SPAN showing Pelosi from 2009 referencing Gruber’s work by name.  The truth is Gruber has been paid hundreds of the thousands of dollars by the government for his work on the ACA and was listed as a primary source by the government’s lawyers in court while defending various parts of the law that have come under legal review.  The truth is that Gruber has been a primary player throughout the entire process and continues to be, despite what Democrats like Pelosi are trying to tell us.  The truth is that this entire episode shows us exactly what the Democratic Party thinks of us Americans.  Everyone, regardless of political affiliation, should be outraged by this.  Sadly this is unlikely as the majority of the liberally biased, mainstream media is ignoring this story almost entirely.  They recognize how damaging this story is not just to the Democratic Party, but also to the ACA (which is still facing legal review by the Supreme Court), and to the President himself.  Their choice to ignore this incredibly important story demonstrates their complicity in the Democratic Party’s contemptible view of the American voter.  Shame on them, shame on all of them.