Jonathan Gruber Totally Regrets Saying Americans Are Stupid …. In First Video

November 12, 2014 – 8:25 am

That’s right, there are two videos

(Mediaite) Jonathan Gruber, MIT professor and so-called architect of Obamacare, is walking back year-old remarks that the health care system overhaul passed only because of a “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter.”

On MSNBC Tuesday, Gruber told Ronan Farrowthat he “spoke inappropriately” when he made the comments, which surfaced this week in an online video.

“The comments in the video were made at an academic conference,” Gruber said. “I was speaking off the cuff and I basically spoke inappropriately and I regret having made those comments.”

He never actually apologizes nor says he’s sorry, he just regrets the comments. And was inappropriate. Probably because he got caught. Well, not probably. You know he meant it when he said it.

And then this happened

(Daily Caller) Fox News’ Megyn Kelly was the first to air the video on her program, “The Kelly File.” Kelly played the video of Gruber appearing on MSNBC’s “Ronan Farrow Daily” apologizing for his earlier remarks. “I was speaking off the cuff and I spoke inappropriately, and I regret making those comments,” he said.

“But now tonight,” Kelly reported, ” more video has surfaced showing this was not the first time Mr. Gruber called the American people stupid in an ‘off-the-cuff’ remark. In this next clip from also last year, Mr. Gruber explains how Democrats played with the language of the Obamacare law so that it achieved their goals, by again, fooling the stupid public.”

She then played a short 5-second clip of Gruber, saying the following, that a part of the Obamacare passed because “the American people are too stupid to understand the difference.”

Kelly didn’t say much about the background of the clip, but the video appears to be from a lecture Gruber gave at Washington University in St. Louis in October of last year, entitled “Cost of Health Care.” Indeed, Gruber’s remarks can be heard around the 31-minute mark of the University’s video of the event.

So, if the first was just an off-the-cuff remark, what is the second?

Protein Wisdom makes an interesting point

Each time the repeal bill is passed and Obama vetoes it, the leadership from both Houses should call press conferences highlighting Obama’s obstructionism in service to a law one of its architects boasted only passed thanks to the stupidity of American voters and a concerted effort by those who drafted it to keep it confusing and to make its redistributive attributes as non-transparent as they could. They should note that sweeping GOP gains in the House and a comfortable control of the Senate — along with changes in governorships and state asssemblies favoring the GOP — represents a mandate to repeal the unpopular and financially devastating law, with many of those who unseated Democrats having run on the repeal of ObamaCare. They should refer time and time again to the denigration of the American electorate by one of the law’s main architects (who also was an architect of RomneyCare, for those of you who are interested in such things), and reprising the key phrases Gruber used, first, about the “stupidity of the American voter” and second, how a “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage” when trying to fool the electorate.

Liberals really do think the rest of the American public is stupid, and that they Know What’s Best For Everyone Else. I suggest that the GOP call the repeal bills Democrats Think Americans Are Stupid Obamacare Repeal Act.

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This entry was written by William Teach and posted on at 8:25 am and filed under Democrats, Healthcare. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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9 Responses to “Jonathan Gruber Totally Regrets Saying Americans Are Stupid …. In First Video”

  1. david7134 says:
    November 12, 2014 at 9:34 am

    What is bad is that he is basically talking about the Democratic base. The conservatives figured all this out and opposed the measures, so we must be really smart.

  2. Hank_M says:
    November 12, 2014 at 9:40 am

    The only thing Gruber regrets is getting caught on camera saying exactly what he and the democrats think of the American voter and accurately describing how they got this sham of a law passed.

    Voters should remember this next time one of them has the nerve to say they’re fighting for the middle class.

  3. Another Video Of Jonathan Gruber Calling Americans Stupid Has Surfaced | The Lonely Conservative says:
    November 12, 2014 at 9:44 am

    […] that he regrets having made those comments, which he said were inappropriate. But as it turns out, that wasn’t the only time Gruber was recorded calling Americans stupid. Megyn Kelly aired the video last […]

  4. Jeffery says:
    November 12, 2014 at 10:35 am

    So-called architect of Obamacare? By whom? The Daily Caller, lol. Grow up, kids. Politics ain’t beanbag. Conservatives oppose any and all forms of universal healthcare because it gives power back to workers and away from employers.

    Although Gruber apologized for the language he used, Gruber said that the larger point he was trying to make centered on the political pressures that shaped the law. He added that those pressures “led to an incomplete law with some typos.”

    “It would have made more sense to do Obamacare the way we did in Massachusetts, which would be to just give people money to offset the cost of their health insurance,” Gruber said. “That was politically infeasible and so instead it was done through the tax code.”
    Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/gruber.asp#Vxd7hs6gig0mW9RL.99

    Conservatives don’t want a better law, they want no law.

    Every 4 years 49% of Americans consider that 51% of voters are stupid.

    A US Senator recently wrote:

    The stock market and gross domestic product keep going up, while families are getting squeezed hard by an economy that isn’t working for them.

    Our economy is rigged to support the politically powerful donors. The super wealthy keep getting super wealthier and the working classes have flat or even declining incomes. We all know this to be true. So how do we fix it?

    Read the rest of what the Senator wrote:

    … for all the talk of change in Washington and in states where one party is taking over from another, one thing has not changed: The stock market and gross domestic product keep going up, while families are getting squeezed hard by an economy that isn’t working for them.

    …

    It’s not about big government or small government. It’s not the size of government that worries people; rather it’s deep-down concern over who government works for. People are ready to work, ready to do their part, ready to fight for their futures and their kids’ futures, but they see a government that bows and scrapes for big corporations, big banks, big oil companies and big political donors — and they know this government does not work for them.

    The American people want a fighting chance to build better lives for their families. They want a government that will stand up to the big banks when they break the law. A government that helps out students who are getting crushed by debt. A government that will protect and expand Social Security for our seniors and raise the minimum wage.

    Americans understand that building a prosperous future isn’t free. They want us to invest carefully and prudently, sharply aware that Congress spends the people’s money. They want us to make investments that will pay off in their lives, investments in the roads and power grids that make it easier for businesses to create good jobs here in America, investments in medical and scientific research that spur new discoveries and economic growth, and investments in educating our children so they can build a future for themselves and their children.

    … At this very minute, lobbyists and lawyers are lining up by the thousands to push for new laws — laws that will help their rich and powerful clients get richer and more powerful. Hoping to catch a wave of dealmaking, these lobbyists and lawyers — and their well-heeled clients — are looking for the chance to rig the game just a little more.

    But the lobbyists’ agenda is not America’s agenda. Americans are deeply suspicious of trade deals negotiated in secret, with chief executives invited into the room while the workers whose jobs are on the line are locked outside. They have been burned enough times on tax deals that carefully protect the tender fannies of billionaires and big oil and other big political donors, while working families just get hammered. They are appalled by Wall Street banks that got taxpayer bailouts and now whine that the laws are too tough, even as they rake in billions in profits. If cutting deals means helping big corporations, Wall Street banks and the already-powerful, that isn’t a victory for the American people — it’s just another round of the same old rigged game.

    Yes, we need action. But action must be focused in the right place: on ending tax laws riddled with loopholes that favor giant corporations, on breaking up the financial institutions that continue to threaten our economy, and on giving people struggling with high-interest student loans the same chance to refinance their debt that every Wall Street corporation enjoys. There’s no shortage of work that Congress can do, but the agenda shouldn’t be drawn up by a bunch of corporate lobbyists and lawyers.

    Change is hard, especially when the playing field is already tilted so far in favor of those with money and influence. But this government belongs to the American people, and it’s time to work on America’s agenda. America is ready — and Congress should be ready, too.

    Right now our President is in China working on a new “trade deal”, supported by Congressional Dems and Repubs, plutocrats all, that will almost certainly reward American capitalists while harming the working classes, once again.

  5. gitarcarver says:
    November 12, 2014 at 12:24 pm

    So-called architect of Obamacare? By whom?

    Well, let’s see…. a simple Google search shows Gruber was chief architect of Obama care and labeled as such by…..

    The New York Times
    The LA Times,
    The Washington Post
    Forbes
    The Boston Herald
    The Atlantic Journal Constitution.

    Even your discredited buddy Paul Krugman has said Gruber was the chief architect.

    In other words, while you try to dismiss the label based on one media outlet, you ignored others because 1) you always ignore facts that are against you and or 2) you never even bothered to check your opinion, preferring to make an unfounded accusation.

  6. Jeffery says:
    November 12, 2014 at 4:37 pm

    In 2009–10 Gruber served as a technical consultant to the Obama Administration and worked with both the administration and Congress to help craft the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

    The media calls him The Architect of Obamacare, gitarcarver ups the ante, promoting him to The Chief Architect of Obamacare!

    Krugman said:

    The bottom line is this: Jon Gruber is a technical expert, some of whose research has been supported — entirely properly — by government agencies. And we need his input into policy. 2010.

    and later:

    The eminent health care economist and health reform architect is annoyed at Casey Mulligan’s latest, which misrepresents Gruber’s views; mine too. 2014.

    But this is classic gitar. Diversion by minutiae. If Gruber was the Chief Architect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, why didn’t he design it like he did Romneycare, and which he preferred?

    gitar – I concede that Gruber was The Chief Architect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (The CAPPACA) if it means I can ignore another of your tedious and tendentious comments.

  7. gitarcarver says:
    November 12, 2014 at 6:30 pm

    Thanks Jeffery.

    Once again we see that instead of manning up and saying you were wrong, you went after the person who demonstrated that your ridicule of a statement was based on your ignorance and lying.

    You just don’t have it in you to act like a mature individual, do you?

  8. Conservative Beaner says:
    November 12, 2014 at 7:23 pm

    This should be a great GOP commercial for the 2016 campaign. It shows the Dems lied (as usual, except Pelosi who said “we need to pass the bill to find out what’s in it”)and Obama was the biggest liar of all, “I didn’t know it was going to do this”. Run it day and night and demand the Dems pass legislation repealing the law or defend it on the campaign trail.

    Jeff, this law does not give power to the worker. It gives more power to the insurance agencies and big government.

  9. Third Gruber Video Surfaces, House Considers Having Him Testify » Pirate's Cove says:
    November 13, 2014 at 7:17 am

    […] of Obamacare, simply spoke inappropriately and regrets those comments, how does he feel about the second, and now third, […]

Pirate's Cove