Jonathan Gruber

Gruber in July 2012, Confirmed In White House Logs: Obama Discussed Benefits Taxation Subterfuge
By Tom Blumer | November 13, 2014 | 8:22 PM EST

I think this makes six videos (CNN says they have Number 4, and I believe this is Number 5) of Obamacare co-architect Jonathan Gruber giving away the Obama administration's comprehensively deceptive game in drafting and promoting the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

The most relevant 40-second snip is at the YouTube account and a Thursday afternoon post by the indispensable Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit. It's a small portion of a 33-minute June 2012 interview of Gruber at PBS's Frontline. The most important revelation is that President Barack Obama was in the room and actively participating in, if not leading, a discussion about how to effectively take away the tax benefits of the most generous healthcare plans which were then being offered in the marketplace. What resulted is now known as the "Cadillac Tax." But there is much more to that Frontline video.

Washington Post Writer Fails to Fact Check Nancy Pelosi's Jonathan Gruber Denial
By P.J. Gladnick | November 13, 2014 | 2:22 PM EST

Nancy Pelosi denied knowing who Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber is. Unfortunately for Pelosi, her official website was chock full of Gruber references in 2009. This fact could have been easily discovered by Washington Post writer Sean Sullivan whose story headlined Pelosi's denial of knowing Gruber. For some reason he chose not to fact check this blatant falsehood perpetrated by Pelosi.

CBS Finally Covers Gruber Revealing ObamaCare Deception
By Kyle Drennen | November 13, 2014 | 10:33 AM EST

After a video of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber declaring that the health care law only passed due to the "stupidity of the American voter" went viral over the weekend, the Big Three broadcasts networks were initially silent. However, on Thursday, CBS This Morning finally noticed the scandal as co-host Charlie Rose informed viewers: "A new controversy stirring this morning over the Affordable Care Act. An architect of President Obama's health care law says it was written to take advantage of what he calls 'voter stupidity.'"

WashPost First Liberal Paper to Arrive on Gruber 'Stupidity' Gaffe
By Tim Graham | November 13, 2014 | 8:02 AM EST

The Washington Post suddenly put the Jonathan Gruber “voter stupidity” brouhaha on the front page Thursday, with the headline “Health-care law’s opponents riled anew by ‘stupidity’ video.” Online, its newsworthiness was made plainer: “GOP’s anti-Obamacare push gains new momentum in wake of Gruber video.”

Charles Pierce: Gruber Not Wrong About Stupid Voters, Since ‘Drooling Yahoos’ Re-Elected Brownback
By Tom Johnson | November 13, 2014 | 1:07 AM EST

The Esquire blogger Charles Pierce laments that Kansans gave their Republican governor another term even though his “extreme applications of conservative economics” have made the state “a basket case.” Kansas is apparently a "state full of clodhopping, drooling yahoos."

NYT Writer Defends Gruber on MSNBC; Voter Expectations on Health Care Are ‘Completely Incoherent’
By Curtis Houck | November 12, 2014 | 6:24 PM EST

During a discussion on MSNBC’s The Cycle about the disparaging comments ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber made about the law’s passage and the “stupidity” of voters, New York Times writer and substitute Cycle co-host Josh Barro sought to defend him by blasting the expectations that Americans have about health care as “completely incoherent” and lying was the only solution to make them happy. Barro told fellow panelists and guest Lauren Fox of National Journal that “what drives me crazy about this story” was that: “Jonathan Gruber was right. Public opinion on health care policy is just completely incoherent.” 

Politico Belatedly Buries Gruber Video Scandal With Brief Misleading Reports
By P.J. Gladnick | November 12, 2014 | 5:51 PM EST

Politico finally got around to reporting on the Jonathan Gruber video scandal in which he boasted about how ObamaCare deception was necessary in order to get the bill passed. However, the two Politico reports on this story in addition to being published days after this story had already gone viral, were notable for their brevity and the fact that they made it seem to imply that it was somehow a Fox News obsession rather than being of wider interest.

Mika Admits: If Gruber Were Republican, MSM 'Would Be Exploding'
By Mark Finkelstein | November 12, 2014 | 8:51 AM EST

Kudos to Mika Brzezinski for admitting the truth: if Jonathan Gruber were a Republican, the MSM "would be exploding."  Instead, noted Mika on today's Morning Joe, the MSM has been silent on the Gruber story, with only conservative sites [ed.: notably including Newsbusters] covering it. 

Mika contrasted the current quietness on the MSM-Gruber front with the media "firestorm" that erupted when David Stockman made his infamous allegations about Reagonomics.

ANOTHER Gruber 'Stupid Voters' Video Appears; Fox's Megyn Kelly Goes Off
By Tom Blumer | November 12, 2014 | 12:42 AM EST

If Jonathan Gruber, the Obama administration and the establishment press thought that Gruber's faux mea culpa appearance on MSNBC Tuesday afternoon would get them off the hook and avoid the need to deal with and cover the Obamacare architect's exposure of the left's mendacity, they were sadly mistaken.

There's yet another damning "stupid voters" video. Megyn Kelly was all over it Tuesday night, exposing the defiantly silent White House's and others' former financial and emotional love for and dependence on the MIT economist's work.

Jonathan Gruber Delivers Obamacare Deception Video Excuses to Ronan Farrow
By P.J. Gladnick | November 11, 2014 | 6:08 PM EST

Jonathan Gruber declined to be interviewed on Fox News by Megyn Kelly yesterday. Instead he appeared on a complete pushover today in the form of Ronan Farrow. Gruber actually made less of an attempt to defend his video remarks about deceiving the public about Obamacare than Ronan Farrow who claimed that Gruber was being "nuanced." After that Ronan delivered convincing proof that he is a horrible interviewer.
 

Man Who Has Found Damning Gruber Vids Faults Media's Failure to Uncover Them
By Tom Blumer | November 11, 2014 | 4:31 PM EST

David Weigel's writeup this afternoon at Bloomberg Politics ("Meet the Mild-Mannered Investment Advisor Who's Humiliating the Administration Over Obamacare") is about the guy who has found at least two incriminating videos of Jonathan Gruber revealing the true intentions behind the Affordable Care Act. In some respects, it's well done and interesting.

What's not well done is Bloomberg's choice of the pull quote to highlight:

Nets Ignore Video of ObamaCare Architect Crediting Law’s Passage on ‘the Stupidity of the American Voter’
By Curtis Houck | November 10, 2014 | 10:03 PM EST

On Friday, the group American Commitment uploaded a video to YouTube of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber telling a group of healthcare economists in 2013 that the “lack of transparency” regarding the bill’s contents and “the stupidity of the American voter” were critical to its passage through Congress in 2010.

Since the video was uploaded, the major English and Spanish broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision, and Telemundo have chosen not to cover this devastating video on either their morning or evening newscasts. During the day on Monday alone, Gruber’s comments were covered on cable news channels CNN and the Fox News Channel (FNC) in addition to news sites ranging from The Daily Signal to Forbes to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.