Columnist George Will called MIT professor Jonathan Gruber “the gift that keeps on giving” to Obamacare opponents Monday after new emails show that the White House downplayed his role in crafting the law.
Appearing on “Special Report,” Will tied Gruber to the upcoming Supreme Court decision on Obamacare subsidies, saying we’ll read the opinion “in light” of Gruber’s comments. The syndicated columnist made the comments after the House Oversight Committee released 20,000 pages of emails between Gruber and Obama administration officials.
GEORGE WILL: Well, Mr. Gruber is, for opponents of the Affordable Care Act, the gift that keeps on giving. What the emails say he is important. Well, he should have been. The Department of Health and Human Services paid him almost $400,000 for whatever he did. This matters because either Thursday or a week from today, on Monday of next week, the supreme court will hand down an opinion as to whether the Affordable Care Act should be read as written. That is, should be read that subsidies can only be delivered through exchanges established by the states. The question is is that language purposeful as it is plain? Mr. Gruber is on record as saying it was written deliberately to, and these are his language, squeeze the states to compel them to be collaborators in the Affordable Care Act. It’s too late for this revelation to influence the Supreme Court. But we will read the Supreme Court opinion in light of this.