[The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Alligator.]
When President Barack Obama took office back in January 2009, he vowed to have the most transparent administration in history — a promise he continues to make today. On the White House’s website, it says “transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their government is doing.” A declaration of this magnitude sounds great in a speech or on a Sunday talk show, but the reality is much more hazy.
Last week, a video surfaced from 2013 of one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as “Obamacare,” who said that a “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage” and that casting a shadow over the truth was essential for the bill to pass. The man who proclaimed this was Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was also the man who helped craft health care reform in Massachusetts, known as “Romneycare.”
Let that sink in a little bit more. He said that a lack of transparency was a huge political advantage to getting Obamacare passed. The administration that promised to be the most transparent in history was willing to let this slip past its radar because they wanted to create a legacy for Obama. Gruber went on to explain how this transparency was being sidetracked. He said that “This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure (the Congressional Budget Office) did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.”
In layman’s terms, they had to cover up the fact that the Affordable Care Act relies on taxing people to achieve its goals. To be granted approval from the public, the administration was willing to lie to us about what the bill really would do because for this administration, the ends justify the means.
Gruber wasn’t finished. During this 2013 Pennsylvania conference, Gruber went on to say “And basically, you know, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to get the thing to pass.” Gruber openly admitted that the bill passed because, well, we were just too stupid to understand what was going on.
I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he made an off-the-cuff remark, something he doesn’t really think. It happens to all of us. Then a second video at a different venue came out with him saying something similar. OK. Maybe he still made a mistake. But, alas, there is a third video where Gruber says that “It’s a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter.” He was referring to a plan that then-Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts was pushing for, where expensive health insurance plans, known as “Cadillac plans,” would have a tax levied on the insurance companies. Unfortunately, as Gruber pointed out, these companies would simply just push these extra expenses onto individuals to help cover the costs, as most taxes work, so essentially, it was another tax on the American people.
Clearly, Gruber thinks that we are all idiots who wouldn’t have understood what was happening as a result of the Affordable Care Act’s implementation, so it was better for the administration to cover up the truth behind its health care overhaul. And Obama bought into it. During an interview with George Stephanopoulos back in 2009, Stephanopoulos hounded Obama over the mandate, explaining that it is just a tax. Obama circumnavigated it and refused to accept it as a tax. When asked for the final time if the mandate was a tax, Obama replied, “I absolutely reject that notion.”
It is astounding that we have a president who is willing to lie to us for political gain. Now with these remarks from Gruber making it on the news, the administration has to start cleaning it up. In an attempt to portray Gruber as an outsider who had no influence on this law, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi stated during a conference that she doesn’t know who he is and that “He didn’t help write our bill.” Pelosi seems to have forgotten that she mentioned him back in 2009, by name, for his contribution to the Affordable Care Act.
While the White House does damage control, they cannot fix the stubborn fact that the Affordable Care Act is not what they want us to believe. A lack of transparency was vital for it to be accepted. When Obama says he has the most transparent administration in history, they are simply just empty words, leaving his administration with little to no integrity.
Nick Eagle is a UF economics and political science senior. His columns appear on Mondays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 11/17/2014]
