Who is Jonathan Gruber?
It’s a name that we should all know. Gruber is an MIT professor who was a key architect of both Romneycare and Obamacare.
A staunch defender of both bills, Gruber sees no real difference between them.
When it comes to Mitt Romney’s efforts to distinguish his own Romneycare from Obamacare, Gruber says that Romney is “lying.”
Gruber credits Romney for “not totally disavowing the Massachusetts bill” but adds that there is no real difference between it and Obamacare.
Gruber said: The problem is there is no way to say that [the bills are different]…. Because they're the same fucking bill. He [Romney] just can't have his cake and eat it too. Basically, you know, it's the same bill. He can try to draw distinctions and stuff, but he's just lying. The only big difference is he didn't have to pay for his. Because the federal government paid for it. Where at the federal level, we have to pay for it, so we have to raise taxes."
There you have it, strong words from an impassioned liberal advocate. How did it happen that Mitt Romney chose someone as liberal as Gruber to craft his health care reform?
Very few people have read both bills. Fewer still understand what's in them. Not many people are qualified to judge their similarities and differences. Yet, Jonathan Gruber knows them both, perhaps better than anyone. To his mind Mitt Romney is a flat-out liar.
He does not say that Romney is mistaken or confused. He suggests that Romney knows that the bills are identical, but has chosen to lie about it.
Food for thought.
So this is the way professors talk, these days?
ReplyDeleteIt's telling that he says "Where at the federal level, we have to pay for it, so we have to raise taxes." There's the rub--if the President and Democrats in Congress had just had the balls to say they would pay for their wonderful caring ideas with taxes we wouldn't be going to the Supreme Court, because there would be no question of constitutionality.
From Day 1 of this debate it was obvious that the financing for Obamacare was a tax on the young, and the healthy, disguised as "insurance." And the big insurance companies get to take a percentage. And plenty of new government jobs would be created.
If they had just been honest enought to "raise taxes" to cover everyone, it would have been different. For Mr. Gruber to use that phrase is "just lying."