Infamous Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber told people not to read Obamacare, admitted he never knew how to control costs in the law and said he designed it by “throwing stuff at the wall” in one of his most characteristic public speeches. In between taking personal shots at conservatives, he actually thanked congressional Democrats for voting against their constituents.
As Gruber faces the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tuesday morning, here are some classic Gruber-ish quotes from a San Francisco podcast appearance in January 2012:
Obama lied about the law and told congressmen to vote against their constituents’ wishes:
“I wish that President Obama could have stood up and said, ‘You know, I don’t know if this bill is going to control costs. It might, it might not. We’re doing our best. But let me tell you what it’s going to do…” (goes on to explain that some people would die without insurance) (49:55)
“If he could make that speech? Instead, he says ‘I’m going to pass a bill that will lower your health care costs.’ That sells. Now, I wish the world was different. I wish people cared about the 50 million uninsured in America…But, you know, they don’t. And I think, once again, I’m amazed politically that we got this bill through.
I mean, we actually asked many politicians to vote against their self-interest. Against what their constituents were telling them, to really do the right thing. And I think they deserve our support and applause for doing that.” (51:04)
Super-Genius Jonathan Gruber Doesn’t Know That Much About Sports
“And to deny this bill because it doesn’t do enough to control health care costs is like criticizing the Giants, the San Francisco Giants, because they didn’t win the Super Bowl.” (29:00)
Seconds later, he calls conservatives stupid
People don’t understand this bill…I don’t expect to convince people who think that President Obama was born in Kenya. I’m not going to convince those people.” (29:30)
He tells people not to read the law (this might be a good one to bring up at the Oversight “transparency” hearing):
“Nonetheless, if you read the Affordable Care Act, which I recommend you do not…” (21:40)
He didn’t know how to keep costs down so he just came up with a bunch of random stuff:
“You get demagogued. You get shouted down by people making stuff up. Even if we KNEW how to control health care costs, we couldn’t do it politically. So what do you do? You’re President Obama and the Congress. You promised you’re going to control health care costs…Your pollsters have told you that the American public doesn’t actually care about insurance coverage, all they care about is health care cost…What do you do? Well, you do what I like to think of as sort of a “spaghetti approach.” Throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and see what sticks.” (22:30)
Takes a personal shot at Newt Gingrich
“The Newt Gingrich approach, which is repudiate everything. ‘I didn’t mean it.’ Whatever. ‘I didn’t mean to be married to her.’ Whatever…”(54:50)
No shortage of self-esteem
“In terms of opinions, they’re opinions. And, um, I like to think I have an informed opinion. I like my opinion. But, they’re opinions. I don’t really know if I can point you to places that I like a whole lot better.” (54:10)
