Obamacare Architect Says Lack of Transparency Was a Big Political Advantage

In a recently uncovered video taken at an event in October 2013, Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber says that lack of transparency was a key advantage in helping get the law passed.

“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes,” Gruber stated. “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” he explained adding, “Basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really critical to getting the thing to pass.” Given a choice between honestly informing the public and passing the bill, Gruber says he’d rather have the bill.

Gruber has been one of the most high profile defenders of the Affordable Care Act. He wrote a comic book style explanation of the law. He also, at one point, accepted money from the government for his consulting work and failed to disclose he was being paid even as he promoted the bill.

This is not the only instance in which Gruber has revealed an element of Obamacare was intentionally misleading. In a January 2012 speech, Gruber admitted that the public option was considered a way to move the country toward single-payer, something the Obama administration explicitly denied at the time.

Gruber has also been at the center of a legal dispute over subsidies in the ACA. He had argued that the case brought by plaintiffs was “crazy.” Then two recordings were uncovered of Gruber making the same argument in early 2012. Until the clips were discovered, Gruber had been cited in nearly every government court filing. Since then he has apparently been dropped.

The video of Gruber’s appearance was posted on You Tube by the group American Commitment and highlighted Sunday by the Daily Signal.