MIT Economist Jonathan Gruber, widely-considered the “architect of Obamacare,” admitted that the law had “some typos” and was “incomplete,” while blaming the typos on Democrats not having enough votes to put the bill through conference after Sen. Scott Brown (R) was elected in Massachusetts during an interview on Tuesday’s “Ronan Farrow Daily” on MSNBC.
Gruber also apologized for comments he made citing “lack of transparency” as a “critical advantage” in Obamacare’s passage thanks to the “stupidity of the American voter.”
“The comments in the video were made at an academic conference, I was speaking off the cuff and I basically spoke inappropriately and O regret having made those comments” he said. He added that the point he was making was that Obamacare had to be done through the tax code.
He also stated, “I think the pressures politically led to an incomplete law with some typos which has led to this recent dramatic court case. But I don’t think it really affects the sustainability.”
Gruber argued that the language of the law regarding state exchanges and subsidies was “not really tortured language, it’s just a typo. Basically, remember this law, the law that passed was essentially the Senate version, it was supposed to go to conference and then when Scott Brown got elected, the Democrats didn’t have the votes to put it through conference, they had to basically pass the Senate version, which had basically typos in it, and this is a typo. It’s, first of all, not entirely clear if you look at the language whether what actually it means. One way to read it is that states with federal exchanges can’t give subsidies. Another way to read it, is they can. But, it’s blatantly clear through the interpretation of the law that Congress completely intended these subsidies to be available to all the states.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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