Obama Claims Jonathan Gruber Didn’t Work On Obamacare Staff [Video]


The Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) has been in even more hot water than usual lately, after one of the supposed architects of the healthcare bill admitted that lack of transparency helped Obamacare to get passed.

“This bill [Obamacare] was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes,” said Gruber. “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. Basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass.”

Even though Gruber’s comments surfaced on the internet over a year ago, they’ve gotten another wave of attention this month — especially from activists against Obamacare and President Obama’s healthcare policies. According to the Washington Post, Obama addressed the recent criticism of Obamacare at a press conference held on Sunday after the Group of 20 summit. You can watch Obama answer a pointed question about Gruber’s remarks in the video above. When a journalist asks the president about the nature of Obamacare’s passing based on Gruber’s remarks, Obama responds with the following statement.

“I just heard about this. The fact that some adviser who never worked on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with, in terms of the voters, is no reflection on the actual process that was run.”

Other claims have emerged in an effort to prove that Jonathan Gruber did, indeed, serve on the staff drafting Obamacare, including a report that he was paid $400,000 for his work on the bill. Since Jonathan Gruber’s remarks, he has been largely absent from public appearances.

Another video surfaced showing Gruber discussing the passing of Obamacare, in which he mentions that Obama tried to find special ways to get Obamacare passed, since he didn’t believe it would get through Congress on its own. While these comments are taken out of context and do not necessarily imply that Obamacare was passed through deception, it does raise some questions about the authenticity of the legislative process that took place. You can watch that video below.

During the press conference, Obama was asked if he and other Obamacare advocates misled Americans on the bill or the taxes surrounding it.

Obama responded, “No. I did not.”

Fox News correspondent Melissa Francis also recently spoke out about Obamacare, claiming CNBC tried to silence her from discussing topics related to the bill. You can read more about that here.

Some sources suggest Obamacare is not at all working, while others claim it is effective. The intent of Obamacare was to get millions of uninsured Americans healthcare, and it did successfully fulfill those goals. While some anti-Obamacare voices claim premiums have gone up, other sources say rates are actually increasing more slowly than economic history suggests they should at this time, even without Obamacare.

What do you think? Did Obamacare get passed through a lack of transparency?

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