Obamacare's stupid sales job: Opinionline

Tevi Troy, The Wall Street Journal : "Jonathan Gruber, an (MIT) economist, is making himself a household name, and not in a good way. ... Videos have emerged in recent days showing Gruber — an architect of the Affordable Care Act — telling college audiences that major parts of the law were designed purposely to mask its true cost. ... His views may be obnoxious, but Gruber has performed a public service by finally telling the truth about Obamacare and providing a glimpse of the mindset of those who foisted it on the country."

Neil Irwin, The New York Times : "This wasn't some obscure debate in which no one at the time knew what was going on. There was clear public guidance from the Congressional Budget Office on how the individual mandate had to be devised in order to not move trillions of dollars of health care expenditures onto the federal budget, and the writers of the law used that guidance to make it so."

Tammy Bruce, The Washington Times : "Obamacare's architects promoted it as something that would decrease health care costs, but they actually had no idea what would happen with costs. They just said that to the American people because they saw in a poll that it was important to stupid, silly voters. This environment explains the outright lie by President Obama that we could keep our plans, doctors and hospitals. Period. Most normal people could never imagine a president lying so specifically about things so dramatically important, but he did."

Aaron Blake, The Washington Post : "'Jonathan Gruber? Doesn't ring a bell.' ... This is essentially what top Democrats have said about (Gruber) in the wake of the appearance of a video in which he implies the Affordable Care Act passed because of the 'stupidity' of the American people. ... Democrats are beside themselves that Gruber felt the need to express himself, in a public forum, in such a crass and cynical way. ...It's never a good idea to even suggest that Americans are stupid."

Ron Fournier, National Journal : "(The White House) lied to all of us — Republicans, Democrats and independents; rich and poor; white and brown; men and women. Liberals should be the angriest. ... The administration's dishonest approach to health care reform has helped make Obamacare unpopular while undermining the public's faith in an activist government."

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