Former WH official: Gruber 'an important figure' in putting ObamaCare together
In a well-reasoned piece in Bloomberg, Dave Weigel suggests that Democrats have put themselves in a tough position with their initial, panicked response to the discovery of the first six plus videos featuring MIT professor Jonathan Gruber making impolitic but honest statements about the Affordable Care Act and the intelligence of the American voter.
"I don't know who he is," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi unconvincingly replied when asked about the prolific health care policy wonk.
"The fact that an adviser who was never on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with in terms of the voters is not a reflection on the actual process that was run," Barack Obama later insisted.
"It's sad to me that good political journalists are spending so much time on these irrelevant comments by this guy Gruber," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) fired off in a tweet nearly as dismissive and condescending as the Gruber's original comments.
The more honest Democrats with ties to the White House know they're caught in a trap, and struggling will only make the snare grow tighter.
With that grim reality in mind, Barack Obama's "Car Czar," Steve Rattner, appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday where he did the White House no favors amid their increasingly flailing effort to create some artificial distance between the administration and the policy analyst to whom they are so inexorably tied.
"I think if you go back to The Washington Post or The New York Times, or anything from that period, you will find Jonathan Gruber's name all over it," Rattner said.
The Weekly Standard's John McCormack apparently took Rattner's advice. When New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait conceded that "Gruber designed Obamacare conceptually" but that "he played no direct role in writing the law," McCormack noted that the Times reported quite the opposite.
"After Mr. Gruber helped the administration put together the basic principles of the proposal, the White House lent him to Capitol Hill to help Congressional staff members draft the specifics of the legislation," New York Times reporter Catherine Rampell wrote in 2012...Also read:
Gruber: GOP Governors' Refusal to Expand Medicaid 'Almost Awesome In Its Evilness', Blames 'Racial Reasons'
Gruber's 'Remarkable Hubris' Denounced By...Jay Carney?
It is so obvious that the drive-by MSM and Obama administration are sprinkling gasoline all over Ferguson wishing for the mother of race riots if no indictment comes from the Grand Jury. What other possible message do the "protesters" take from Obama telling them to 'stay on course'?
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