photo #8948527

#news Fast Fact: Obamacare, MIT economist admitted that the bill was deliberately misnamed, because it wouldn't have passed if people knew it was actually a tax on those who had health insurance. #DC Jonathan Gruber —who was a key architect of the law—admitted in multiple recorded statements that the legislation was intentionally made to mislead the American public to make sure it would pass. Gruber's comments, which first surfaced in 2014, said they had to hide the law's true intention of a tax and wealth redistribution scheme, exploiting what he called the "stupidity of the American voter." Gruber explained how the law was written in a way that the Congressional Budget Office wouldn't label the individual mandate as a tax. "Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage," Gruber said. "And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass." He also said that if the law had explicitly stated that "healthy people pay in and sick people get money," it would not have passed, so they needed to make sure Americans did not know what was in the bill. The Supreme Court confirmed the individual mandate was a tax rather than a penalty. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that while the mandate "looks like a tax in many respects," the Obama administration had downplayed this aspect to gain public support. Gruber later apologized for his "insulting" comments during a 2014 congressional hearing before the House Oversight Committee, calling them "inexcusable" and attributing them to arrogance. Republicans on the committee grilled him on his role and finances, accusing him of profiting from the deception. Fact-checking from sources like FactCheck.org confirms Gruber's apologies but say they reflected the political realities of passing the bill without Republican support in 2010. Gruber's consulting fees for Obama-care related work was more than $6 million from federal and state governments, according to a 2014 compilation by National Review and congressional inquiries. This included: Nearly $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for federal modeling. $481,050 from Michigan. $400,000 from Wisconsin. $400,000 from Vermont (though a later settlement in 2017 required him to forfeit $90,000 amid allegations of inflated billing, which he denied but settled without admission of wrongdoing). $392,000 from Minnesota. Additional money from states like California ($566,000), Oregon ($805,000), and West Virginia (up to $1.5 million), plus smaller contracts from the U.S. Department of State and others. Obamacare was successful in its goal of making healthier people pay for sick people through mandates and subsidies, and expanding medicaid. #ChristinaAguayoNews Which in turn made premiums skyrocket—rising 105% on average.