Jonathan Gruber and the Stupid Americans
Who are you calling “stupid?”
There’s been quite a commotion over the video of “Obamacare architect” Jonathan Gruber admitting what everybody who’s been paying any real attention already knew: the intentional duplicity with which the law was passed. The only surprise is how open Gruber was about it.
The video shows Gruber describing fairly accurately how liberals lied in order to make Obamacare seem much more attractive that it actually is. But Gruber did make one glaring error.:
Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass
In addition to Gruber’s offensive condescension about those “stupid” proles, he’s just plain wrong about what actually happened in the political sense. Americans are smarter than he thinks: they never were fooled by that bag of tricks. The people have been against this from the start, and nothing has changed in that regard since.
Obamacare was not passed by referendum, it was passed by our elected representatives in the House and the Senate. The people tried desperately to make their anti-Obamacare wishes known, but the Democratic members of Congress who were in the majority at the time refused to listen. Their leaders whipped them into line, and although a few were allowed to vote against, Pelosi and Reid made sure there wouldn’t be enough of them voting “nay” to actually derail the bill. Why did they allow some to vote against Obamacare? Because they knew just how very unpopular it was, and that those who voted for it in districts where it was unpopular were very much at risk of not being returned to Congress in the next election.
And that’s exactly how it went. 2010 was a protest election that returned the House to Republican hands. What were the people protesting? Obamacare.
So who’s stupid, Gruber?
[Neo-neocon is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at neo-neocon.]
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Regardless of his native intelligence, arrogance and hubris make him flat-worm stupid. Plus mouthy.
And…
HEH…!!!
But you see, in his mind and those of all leftists, all of that is trumped by his innate moral superiority and that of his desire to provide health care to the teeming millions of sickly proletarians languishing about the countryside.
– –
Know who else cogently argued that lies and deception to trick an ignorant populace were justified so as to get things done for their own good?
Not Reagan. Not Bush, or Nixon, or Romney, or Ike, or McCain. Not Goldwater or Dole.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
But they are not providing “health care” they are providing “Death Care.”
It’s just been reinforced;
One
Big
Assed
Mistake,
America!
Rich Winestein (spelling dubious) is the Breitbart who ferreted out the Grubber videos.
He’s just a regular guy who picked through HOURS of this POS bloviating about his own wonderfulness.
Way to go, average citizen…!!!
h/t Michael Berry
Doing the jobs American journalists won’t do.
He’s sorta got a point on the stupid Americans bit. I mean, Obama got elected twice…with Joe Biden as VP.
We are not stupid! We are honest, hard working people who have a hard time believing that others are not as honest as we are. Obama won re-election by weaponing the government against us, his opposition, how would we ever have expected that! Let alone counter it between 2010 and 2014? He won re-election by eliciting voter fraud. And the MSM covered for him and attacked anyone telling the truth. We were/are subjected to unbelievable levels of propaganda. If we had been part of the USSR for the past 100 years we might have recognized it sooner.
Still we knew what they were selling was a POS bill that did nothing for us.
We had a dog in our neighborhood who pooped in everyone’s yard, he was small but still we all got tired of his land mines. Professor Gruber could be a Great Dane, or Mastiff when it comes to the land mines he has left behind himself.
Right when I heard that Pelosi said that they had to pass the bill to find out what is in it I called Amy Klobuchar and her staff reassured me that Amy read the bill, actually they assured me more then once. Now I wonder what she is going to say. I think she has stepped in one of Gruber’s land mines.
By Gruber’s and obola’s reasoning in reference to “stipid Americans”, the only ones who “acted stupidly” were the middle and upper class ‘rat electorate – those with jobs and businesses. They chose to believe or at least not to bother their congress critters about voting against it. The rest of us knew, and their congress people knew or they wouldn’t have excepted themselves from the law. That exception was reported and widely discussed long before the vote was taken, yet those stupid American supporters of obola and the congressional ‘rats did not see that as a BIG clue.
The ‘rat constituency of modest to plentiful financial means is the only group of Americans who were stupid. Conservatives ‘got it’ loudly and clearly.
I don’t resent Gruber saying this at all. He obviously believes it sincerely or he wouldn’t have repeated it three times over several years if he didn’t, and the eventual result is that he identified who is stupid and who is not. And you know what? His assessment is absolutely correct.
We are not the ones he rightfully pointed out as “stupid” because we didn’t buy into obolacare in the first place, so you shouldn’t be upset at all. We saw the economic impact it would have, and we were right. Be glad that this administration’s appraisal of Americans’ intelligence and that its perpetration of fraud on the American people came out.
exempted, not “excepted” 🙁
Massive Election Malfeasance – Twice – not honest or real election wins.
Limbaugh has said this over and over again, Democrats NEED stupid voters and that’s what got Obama elected…twice.
I’m in 100% agreement with you. I don’t think the GOP won in 2014 because America got smarter or angry, they won because stupid and lazy happen to cohabitate; ie the stupid people stayed home. That means 2016 is not in the bag for the GOP.
PS- I don’t listen to el Rushbo often. You have two wade through 3 hours of blathering to get the few crisp salient points he makes.
So it’s the stupidity of the American elected representative.
Also, I see why they don’t give a rat’s rear what the ‘intent of Congress’ was. The intent of Congress was whatever men like Gruber told Congress it was. That’s why Krugman can say ‘the interpretation’ overwhelmingly favors the idea that people in federal exchanges get subsidies, because a little thing like the words on the page can’t be expected to matter when smart people get involved.
No, the ‘rat congress people were not stupid. This has been one of their elitist Utopian dreams for decades. They wouldn’t have exempted themselves from the law if they didn’t know how bad it really is. They’re not stupid, just evil. The “stupid Americans” are the Joe Lunchbucket ‘rats up to wealthy ‘rats who blindly, lazily, ideologically and willingly supported them. We knew. We warned. They didn’t listen. F’em. They’re stoooopid. I hope they all go broke.
The idea of nationalized health care is fully a century old.
All Democrats’ socialist ideas are old; most have been tried in various places at different times, always failing to deliver the promised results.
They have excuses for every failure, though. Very good ones – they been refined to perfection over multiple uses.
And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass.
I thought the really critical thing was lying about it, until it was passed….”So we can find out what’s in it.”
It looks like many are starting to consider filing a complaint with MIT over Jonathan Gruber’s conduct:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3226252/posts
MIT Procedures for Academic Misconduct (how to terminate Jonathan Gruber tenure)
MIT ^ | MIT
Posted on 11/12/2014, 12:24:24 PM by SteveH
10.1 Procedures for Dealing with Academic Misconduct in Research and Scholarship Unethical behavior in research and scholarship strikes at the heart of the scholarly and educational enterprise. A shared understanding of expectations and responsibilities is, therefore, critical — not only to the quality of the research enterprise but also to the collegial life of this community. Academic misconduct can take many forms, including fabrication or falsification of data, theft of ideas or direct plagiarism, and deliberate interference with the integrity of the work of others. Whatever the form, academic misconduct is behavior that may lead to a variety of disciplinary actions, including, in severe cases, expulsion of a student, dismissal of an employee, or termination of tenure.
(more at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3226252/posts)
Prog “elites” like this prick never come out of their bubble in the northeast states. If this prick showed up in Texas he would get his teeth knocked down his throat.
The Republicans better grow a pair of nuts and repeal this piece of shit legislation.
The GOP won’t repeal it. They don’t have the stones. They MIGHT defund it. Personally, I’d defund virtually everything on principle, but that’s just me…
My hairdresser’s daughter went to medical school and became a doctor. She’s in family practice in the Claremont area of California. And, while I was getting a haircut, shortly after Obamacare passed … she told me patients called for appointments. And, they said they had the new ACA insurance.
They never paid a single premium. And, whatever they were trying to pass off as insurance left her daughter high and dry.
The army of “free stuff” people have no intention of paying for anything. But Obamacare gave them a window where they didn’t have to go to a clinic; but could see, instead, a private doc.
Is there a solution? Sure. When you make an office visit appointment with a new doc, you’ll be asked to bring “proof of insurance,” which now includes proof that you’ve paid the premium.
Also, you’re not going to find the old docs. Because they’re retiring in record numbers.
The Dems who were promising to give everyone “health care” never gave much thought to the “care” part.
To be fair, they didn’t worry all that much about the ‘health’ part, either.
Nope, and it really was and is about death panels.
“FREE Death Panels for everyone!” – Ebola Obama and the Democratic Party!
The only surprise is how open Gruber was about it.
Hubris, meet Nemesis.
Couldn’t happen to a stupider guy.
Two reasons Obama got elected twice:
John McCain
Mitt Romney
George W. Bush also got lucky. Gore lost his own state, Tennessee in 2000. And, no winning candidate for the presidency ever lost his own state. Goldwater won Arizona. McGovern won wherever he was from. And, Dukakis won Massachusetts.
Now, the blowout we just had will start to prove its not how much you spend on advertising, but something about the nature of picking race horses.
We participate with one vote. But “trending” is influenced by many factors. Should be interesting to see sh#t loads of money going into racing … just like it did the time hollywood spent a bank load on ISHTAR. Just because you spend it doesn’t mean people will come.
2016? The dems are at war between Kerry, Biden, and Hillary.
Jeb? Maybe money in the pocket for Karl Rove, but in no way is a Bush gonna win anything.
And, neither will the fatso bully Chris Christie. Even if he wasn’t the idiot who planted the dunce caps on the road entering the George Washington Bridge.
Turns out he “didn’t” use an unfortunate choice of words, as he claims. There are other videos of him laughing at his lies to get ocare passed.
But if you really want to see stupid……
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/11/blame_founding_fathers_for_gop_hold_on_senate_moran.html#incart_river
The problem is that all states, big or small, get the same two seats in the Senate. That gives a nearly vacant state like Wyoming the same heft as California or New York. It gives a voter in Cheyenne 66 times more power than a voter in San Francisco in shaping the Senate.
———–
So I was gratified to learn that it’s regarded as insane by one of the nation’s premier experts on the U.S. Constitution, Professor Sanford Levinson of the University of Texas, author of “Our Undemocratic Constitution.”
Levinson is able to publish such BS because most Americans under the age of 45 don’t know we live in a republic, not a democracy, that the constitution was not intended to form a democracy, that the Revolutionary War was not fought to establish a democracy, what a republic is or, for that matter, what the constitution really is.
Without equal representation in the Senate, there would never have been a United States at all.
Population is already represented in the House. That’s the purpose, the design.
Those who hate our Constitution can change it by persuasion, or find a place more hospitable to their tender sensibilities.
I hear Venezuela is nice this time of year, Chomsky.
The 2014 election is an indicator that people who vote … across this country … are pretty much disgusted with the democrats. (That’s a shoe usually worn by republicans.)
As to Gruber, at least you can see he got into Obama’s office even though he’s white. I guess they couldn’t find anyone black to write this health on the table, game.
It’s major failing isn’t that we, the People, are stupid. But that we know the price costs of health insurance went up. While at the same time pressuring employers to drop their plans. So it’s a shock to the American system.
There was a failure with housing prices.
Now, there’s a failure in employment to even find a job that lets you work 40 hours. Making ends meet usually takes two people living under one roof, to navigate all their monthly payments.
Compare this to the 1950’s, when America’s productive engine turned on. People moved away from big cities. To their own houses, with two car garages. “Those were the days.”
The liberal elites know their base consists of ill informed and uneducated people and assume the rest of the country are the same.
Jonathan Gruber’s subconscious (that is, his Superego) was getting the best of him; and his Superego made his Ego broadcast to whomever was videotaping him what he, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Hoyer, Reid and rest of the Democratic Ruling Elite who supported PPACA really thought of the proletariat-Democratic- voting masses–that they are stupid. In a way, Jonathan Gruber is like Edward Snowden–a whistleblower. Whereas Snowden, on a conscious level, was a whistleblower. Gruber was a whistleblower at the subconscious level.
Given Set A = {Obama, Biden, Reid, Pelosi, Hoyer, Gruber}
Gruber, from a Subconscious level, is the most honest one from Set A.
Is this fraud in the legal sense and if so could those who have lost their coverage as a result of Obamacare sue the government?
It IS “fraud” in the legal sense.