President Obama says he and his administration did not mislead the
public on the financing of the health care law, disputing statements by a
consultant who said supporters of the bill took advantage of the
"stupidity" of American voters.
"The fact that an adviser who was
never on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with
in terms of the voters is not a reflection on the actual process that
was run," Obama told reporters at a news conference following the G-20
summit in Brisbane, Australia.
Obama was responding to a recently
discovered videotape featuring Jonathan Gruber, an MIT professor and
outside adviser of health care. Gruber said the Obama administration
obscured the financing of the law in order to get it passed.
"If
you have a law that makes explicit that healthy people pay in and sick
people get money, it wouldn't have passed," Gruber said on the video.
"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 critical to getting the thing to pass."
At
the G-20 news conference, Obama said all aspects of the health care law
underwent extensive debate before he signed it in 2010.
"I would
just advise every press outlet here: Pull up every clip and every
story," Obama said. "I think it's fair to say there was not a provision
in the health care law that was not extensively debated and was fully
transparent -- it was a tough debate."
From Politico:
"While
Gruber was not a staffer, he was a paid consultant whose models were
used to help assess the impact of various policy changes being
considered as part of health care legislation. Official logs show he
visited the White House about a dozen times between 2009 and this year.
"Despite
Obama's dismissive tone toward Gruber, the president has acknowledged
that some of his own statements about the law were ill-advised, in
particular his repeated promises that if Americans liked their health
care plans they could keep them. In fact, many plans were deemed
inadequate under the law, leading people to get notices that their plans
were being canceled."
President Obama says he and his administration did not mislead the
public on the financing of the health care law, disputing statements by a
consultant who said supporters of the bill took advantage of the
"stupidity" of American voters.
"The fact that an adviser who was
never on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with
in terms of the voters is not a reflection on the actual process that
was run," Obama told reporters at a news conference following the G-20
summit in Brisbane, Australia.
Obama was responding to a recently
discovered videotape featuring Jonathan Gruber, an MIT professor and
outside adviser of health care. Gruber said the Obama administration
obscured the financing of the law in order to get it passed.
"If
you have a law that makes explicit that healthy people pay in and sick
people get money, it wouldn't have passed," Gruber said on the video.
"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 critical to getting the thing to pass."
At
the G-20 news conference, Obama said all aspects of the health care law
underwent extensive debate before he signed it in 2010.
"I would
just advise every press outlet here: Pull up every clip and every
story," Obama said. "I think it's fair to say there was not a provision
in the health care law that was not extensively debated and was fully
transparent -- it was a tough debate."
From Politico:
"While
Gruber was not a staffer, he was a paid consultant whose models were
used to help assess the impact of various policy changes being
considered as part of health care legislation. Official logs show he
visited the White House about a dozen times between 2009 and this year.
"Despite
Obama's dismissive tone toward Gruber, the president has acknowledged
that some of his own statements about the law were ill-advised, in
particular his repeated promises that if Americans liked their health
care plans they could keep them. In fact, many plans were deemed
inadequate under the law, leading people to get notices that their plans
were being canceled."
O
Y
O
p
i
l
