Are You Stupid?

       

                A recent news article was about a man who apparently believes that some Americans are stupid.  Are you one of them?  A 2013 clip was recently discovered; in it Jonathan Gruber, the MIT health economist who helped craft parts of the Affordable Care Act, discussed some of the tactics used to get the Affordable Care Act passed.  I understand the first video was taken down, but a second one can be seen here. 

                During a panel at the Annual Health Economists’ Conference in 2013, Gruber said, “This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure [the Congressional Budget Office] did not score the mandate as taxes….  If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.  OK, so it’s written to do that.  In terms of risk-rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in – you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed….

                “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage….  And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass.”

                Gruber claimed that it was “better for the American people to be saddled with a law they don’t understand … than for them to understand the law and rally against it.”

                “Look, I wish … we could make it all transparent … but I’d rather have this law than not.”

                Many Americans did not fall for the lies of the administration but stood against Obamacare.  The Tea Party was born in an effort to fight Obamacare and keep it from becoming law.  In spite of their best efforts, Congress passed the law and the Supreme Court ruled it was constitutional.  Now, most Americans understand that Obamacare is bad for all of us.  Too bad so many Americans were so slow to learn. 

                Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) had some words for Professor Gruber:  “You want to see how stupid our fellow citizens are?  Take a look at last Tuesday night,” Gowdy said, referring to the sweeping GOP victories in the midterm elections.  “Because they rejected you, this bill and this administration.”

                Gowdy had some counsel for the American people: “Comprehensive is Latin for, `there’s lots of bad stuff in here.’  And he just proved that he is willing to lie… because he has the arrogance of thinking that he knows what is best for this country and the citizens and the voters do not.  So, keep that in mind the next time anyone tries to sell you a big piece of legislation by calling it comprehensive.”

                So, are you one of the stupid Americans that believed Obamacare would be good for our people?  If so, I hope you like what you got because most Americans still do not like the law.  I am grateful that most Americans are not stupid!