Democrats Kept Downplaying Jonathan Gruber’s Role in Obamacare- Then A Bunch of Emails Came OutBY KELSEY RUPP
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Remember Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor who became the center of controversy last year over how deeply involved he’d been in the creation of Obamacare?
He’s back in the news.
In 2014, President Obama called Gruber “some adviser who never worked on our staff.”
But emails the House Oversight Committee sent The Wall Street Journal reveal frequent discussions between Gruber and top administration advisors from January 2009 through March 2010.
Gruber, who said that Obama’s healthcare law passed because of a “lack of transparency” and “the stupidity of the American voter,” was in touch with key advisers, including:
Peter Orszag, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), an arm of the White House that oversaw federal programs;
Jason Furman, an economic adviser to the President; And
Ezekiel Emanuel, who was then a health policy special adviser at OMB, reported The Wall Street Journal.
In an August 2009 email, Lawrence Summers, then a top economic adviser to Obama, asked Gruber:
“If you were POTUS, what would u do now?”
Gruber responded that the President should hold out for enough money to have universal coverage, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Gruber received nearly $400,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for his work with health-policy computer models.
House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told the Wall Street Journal:
“His proximity to HHS and the White House was a whole lot tighter than they admitted. There’s no doubt he was a much more integral part of this than they’ve said. He put up this facade he was an arm’s length away. It was a farce.”
Gruber also informed HHS about interviews he had with health policy reporters, including then-Washington Post reporter Ezra Klein.
Jeanne Lambrew, a top Obama administration health adviser who worked at HHS and the White House, thanked Gruber “for being an integral part of getting us to this historic moment” in September 2009. In a November 2009 email, Lambrew called Gruber “our hero.”
Gruber even consulted with Lambrew before answering media requests.
When multiple videos emerged last year of Gruber mocking critics of the Affordable Care Act and commenting that a lack of transparency was necessary for the passage of the bill, Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attempted to distance themselves from the Obamacare architect, despite singing his praises while the bill was being debated.
Obama signed the health care bill into law on March 23, 2010.
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