Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor and Obamacare
architect who recently made headlines when a video was unearthed of
him saying that the law’s backers relied on “the stupidity of the
American voter” in order to pass the law, is set to
testify in front of the House Oversight committee next
week.
In
an interview with USA Today earlier this week, former
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was asked
what she thinks he might say. Here’s how Sebelius, who presided
over the first several years of Obamacare’s implementation,
including the botched rollout of the exchanges in 2013,
responded:
“I have no idea what Dr. Gruber is going to say, but frankly I
don’t think that it’s relevant in terms of his personal opinions of
what happened,” she told USA Today. “He was not author of
the bill itself. He didn’t influence the members of Congress who
actually wrote the legislation.”
This is not strictly true. Gruber was not the sole
author of the bill itself; like most lengthy pieces of legislation,
it had multiple authors. But Gruber claims he was one of them. In a
videotaped 2012 lecture
about how the law works, he says that he “actually wrote” the
portion of the bill dealing with small business tax credits. News
reports have also credited Gruber with helping to create the law’s
structure and draft its specifics.
As for Gruber’s influence, there’s little question that he
influenced key provisions of the bill. He
participated in an intimate White House meeting with President
Obama that led to the inclusion of the law’s Cadillac tax on
high-deductible plans. He made multiple trips to the White House,
according to visitor logs.
And he certainly influenced legislators, including those who
were closely involved in the drafting of the bill.
Sen. Max Baucus chaired the Finance Committee while it drafted a
version of what would eventually become the health law.
According to a 2010 statement from his staff, “Senator Baucus
wrote the bill that passed the Finance Committee and then worked
with his colleagues to write the health care bill that is law
today.” He is one of Obamacare’s primary elected legislative
authors.
We know that Gruber influenced Baucus, because in December 2009,
during a debate about Obamacare, Max Baucus
cited Gruber’s work by name on the Senate floor, describing at
length a Gruber-authored study looking at Obamacare’s expected
effects on health insurance premiums. Baucus was pointing to
Gruber’s study in order to help make the case for the bill, which
suggests that it helped shape his thinking. In the same speech,
Baucus also praised Gruber’s work and reputation, saying “most
people think he is one of the best outside experts.” In other
words, Baucus, one of the health law’s key backers and authors, is
citing work by Gruber that he found convincing, and attesting to
Gruber’s wide influence.
It’s unclear whether Sebelius is intentionally misleading people
about Gruber’s role or whether she is simply misinformed. But
when says that Gruber “didn’t influence members of
Congress who actually wrote the [Obamacare] legislation,” she is
wrong.
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