Gruber's fingerprints are all over the ACA

[B2G]

Last edited Thu Nov 13, 2014, 04:25 PM - Edit history (1)

For those here saying Gruber had nothing to do with the ACA bill. This was written in 2010. Long, but read the whole thing.

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How the White House Used Gruber's Work to Create Appearance of Broad Consensus

Posted: 03/18/2010 5:12 am EDT Updated: 05/25/2011 3:10 pm EDT

Up until this point, most of the attention regarding the failure to disclose the connection between Jonathan Gruber and the White House has fallen on Gruber himself. Far more troubling, however, is the lack of disclosure on the part of the White House, the Senate, the DNC and other Democratic leaders who distributed Gruber's work and cited it as independent validation of their proposals, orchestrating the appearance of broad consensus when in fact it was all part of the same effort.

The White House is placing a giant collective bet on Gruber's "assumptions" to justify key portions of the Senate bill such as the "Cadillac tax," which they allowed people to believe was independent verification. Now that we know that Gruber's work was not that of an independent analyst but rather work performed as a contractor to the White House and paid for by taxpayers, and economists like Larry Mishel are raising serious questions about its validity, it should be made publicly available so others can judge its merits.

Gruber began negotiating a sole-source contract with the Department of Health and Human Services in February of 2009, for which he was ultimately paid $392,600. The contract called for Gruber to use his statistical model for evaluating alternatives "derived from the President's health reform proposal." It was not a research grant, but rather a consulting contract to advise the White House Office of Health Reform, headed by Obama's health care czar Nancy-Ann DeParle, to "develop proposals" for health care reform.

How did the feedback loop work? Well, take Gruber's appearance before the Senate HELP Committee on November 2, 2009, for which he used his microsimulation model to make calculations about small business insurance coverage. On the same day, Gruber released an analysis of the House health care bill, which he sent to Ezra Klein of the Washington Post. Ezra published an excerpt.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/how-the-white-house-used_b_421549.html

[shraby]

1. I watched the bill being put together in the Senate...and watched point after point

being rejected because it would never be brought to the floor if those points were left in. Also the difficulty in getting 1 senator to vote for it.
Somehow I just don't believe the Gruber story.

[B2G]

2. Denying it makes you look like an idiot

And yes, I'm talking to you, Nancy Pelosi.

Actually, 'idiot' is being kind.