President Obama said yesterday that Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber, was just “some adviser who never worked on our staff.”
“Did you mislead Americans about the taxes, about keeping your plan, in order to get the bill passed?” asked Fox News White House correspondent Ed Henry at a press conference at the G-20 summit in Australia.
“No, I did not,” said Obama strongly. “I – I just heard about this; I get well briefed before I come out here. The fact that some advisor who never worked on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with, is no reflection on the actual process that was run.”
Obama then pointed to the “year-long debate” over Obamacare and said: “I would just advise every press outlet here; go back and pull up every clip, every story, and I think it’s fair to say that there was not a provision in the healthcare law that was not extensively debated and was fully transparent.”
Gruber referred to the “lack of transparency” as key to passing Obamacare at several academic conferences in 2012. He also made explicit reference to the “stupidity of the American voter” as “critical to getting this thing passed.”
Buried in hour-long videos on Youtube, his remarks were only recently discovered, creating a firestorm.
Although Obama claims that Gruber was merely “some advisor” who “never worked on our staff,” Gruber is actually an MIT economist who helped create the Obamacare law. The Obama administration had paid Mr. Gruber $380,000 in 2009, cited him several times in hearings and White House blogs, and even dedicated a webpage to his expert analysis. Visitor logs show Gruber meeting repeatedly with senior officials at the White House including one meeting with President Obama.
h/t: The Washington Free Beacon