Jonathan Gruber apologizes to Congress for ‘inexcusable’ political comments about Obamacare
– The Washington Times – Updated: 1:38 p.m. on Tuesday, December 9, 2014
URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/9/jonathan-gruber-apologizes-congress-inexcusable-po/#ixzz3LQpytgZW
- MIT economist Jonathan Gruber listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014, as he testified before the House Oversight Committee health care hearing. Congressional Democrats charged Tuesday that Republicans are seizing on a health adviser’s self-described “thoughtless” and … more >
Jonathan Gruber, the man whose clumsy remarks sparked the latest Obamacare headache for the White House, apologized to Congress for “glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting” observations about the stupidity of the American voters and how the health overhaul passed, testifying Tuesday he shouldn’t have forayed into politics in his academic speeches.
Mr. Gruber said his caught-on-tape comments should not reflect poorly on President Obama’s signature achievement, which is under threat in the courts and from Republican opponents set to take full control of Congress.
“It’s never appropriate to try to make oneself seem more important or smarter by demeaning others. I knew better. I know better. I’m embarrassed, and I’m sorry,” Mr. Gruber, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the House oversight committee.
The economist downplayed his role in the formation of the Affordable Care Act, saying he provided microsimulation models to describe the reforms’ impacts and was not the law’s “architect.”
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, California Republican, and his fellow Republicans were not deterred by his attempts to dampen the scandal, saying his remarks were not mistakes, but rather an inadvertent look at health law’s harsh truths.
For four hours, they highlighted the economist’s penchant for braggadocio and threatened to subpoena records to find out how much he was paid to help the Obama administration.
The panel’s top Democrat, meanwhile, scolded him for gifting the GOP another weapon in their fight against Obamacare.
“Man, you did a great job. You wrapped it up with a bow,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland.
He also chided Republicans for failing to offer a comprehensive solution to Obamacare, and failing to acknowledge that their 2012 nominee for president, Mitt Romney, worked with Mr. Gruber to pass health reforms that paved the way for Mr. Obama’s national vision.
Undeterred, Mr. Issa used large TV screens to play Mr. Gruber’s remarks. In one, the economist said the law was scored in a “tortured” way to game budget rules and obscure its impact from the American public.
Obamcare’s opponents have held up Mr. Gruber’s comments as exhibit “A” in what’s wrong with Obamacare and how Democratic majorities muscled it through Congress in 2010.
The comments were a setback for the Obama administration, which had been trying to move on from a botched rollout last year and outrage over health-plan cancellations despite Mr. Obama’s pledge that Americans could keep their coverage.
Tuesday’s lengthy hearing did not turn into the gloves-off sparring match that many anticipated, although it did have its awkward moments.
At one point, Mr. Issa asked Mr. Gruber: “Are you stupid?”
“I don’t think so, no,” Mr. Gruber replied.
His testimony overshadowed that of an actual government official, Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), who testified it was “regrettable” that her agency included 400,000 dental plans with the enrollment figures it reported to the committee earlier this fall.
When the dental plans were excluded, Obamacare enrollment fell to 6.7 million in the first go-around, or less than the 7 million target the Congressional Budget Office had estimated.
Mr. Issa, who denied Mrs. Tavenner’s request to testify apart from Mr. Gruber, said it took a staffer 20 minutes to find the error.
“Simply put, this was a mistake,” Mrs. Tavenner said, vowing it would not happen again.
Mr. Gruber made a clarification of his own, regarding the context of taped remarks in which he seems to suggest Obamacare subsidies should only flow to state-run exchanges.
A lawsuit before the Supreme Court makes that same argument and could seriously dent the health
care law by cutting off the tax credits to about two-thirds of the states, which use the federally run exchange.
Mr. Gruber said he was speaking hypothetically about what would happen if the Obama administration, “for whatever reason, might not create a federal exchange.” If that happened, the only way states could be sure that their residents would get tax credits would be to set up their own exchanges, he told the committee.
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