Grubergate - Obama joins chorus of 'Who?" Denial

[maxparrish]

The strident denial of obvious administration flim-flammery in Grubergate has become more than an amusing prat-fall, it is developing into a major PR disaster hinting at a potential scandal.

Several days and a few tapes ago Pelosi provided some jaw dropping amusement when she effectively said "Who's Gruber? I don't know any Gruber". Within a day researchers came up with Gruber quotes from her website (and that of the white house), followed by a 2009 Pelosi video with her proudly citing her expert, Gruber. Oh well, that cover story imploded.

When that ploy failed, the transmission belts of the left tried to minimize Gruber as some "guy" of minimal importance. Kliff, at VOX, wrote her music to that theme, forgetting that she had tweeted a couple of years ago about Gruber, describing him as the “health economist who pretty much wrote Obamacare.”

Then we have Politico health reporter Paige Winfield Cunningham, who has sought to minimize his contribution to Obamacare. Ironically, this same reporter as recently as July also referred to Gruber as an Obamacare architect.

And now Obama, in Brisbane Australia, told FOX that he ‘just heard about’ the controversy over Jonathan Gruber whom he described as ‘some adviser who never worked on our staff.’ He then went on to say that there was ‘not a provision of the healthcare law that was not extensively debated and it was fully transparent.’

Perhaps Obama forgot that one of those fully transparent provisions that was "debated" was the Cadillac tax deceit, concocted at the meeting with Obama and Gruber?

http://conservative50plus.com/blog/...deception-with-gruber-at-white-house-meeting/

Oh my.

 

[bilby]

The strident denial of obvious administration flim-flammery in Grubergate has become more than an amusing prat-fall, it is developing into a major PR disaster hinting at a potential scandal.

Several days and a few tapes ago Pelosi provided some jaw dropping amusement when she effectively said "Who's Gruber? I don't know any Gruber". Within a day researchers came up with Gruber quotes from her website (and that of the white house), followed by a 2009 Pelosi video with her proudly citing her expert, Gruber. Oh well, that cover story imploded.

When that ploy failed, the transmission belts of the left tried to minimize Gruber as some "guy" of minimal importance. Kliff, at VOX, wrote her music to that theme, forgetting that she had tweeted a couple of years ago about Gruber, describing him as the “health economist who pretty much wrote Obamacare.”

Then we have Politico health reporter Paige Winfield Cunningham, who has sought to minimize his contribution to Obamacare. Ironically, this same reporter as recently as July also referred to Gruber as an Obamacare architect.

And now Obama, in Brisbane Australia, told FOX that he ‘just heard about’ the controversy over Jonathan Gruber whom he described as ‘some adviser who never worked on our staff.’ He then went on to say that there was ‘not a provision of the healthcare law that was not extensively debated and it was fully transparent.’

Perhaps Obama forgot that one of those fully transparent provisions that was "debated" was the Cadillac tax deceit, concocted at the meeting with Obama and Gruber?

http://conservative50plus.com/blog/...deception-with-gruber-at-white-house-meeting/

Oh my.

Whatever the person in that video was saying when he was filmed appears to bear no relationship whatsoever to the soundtrack that plays alongside the visuals.

Do you have a less obviously fraudulent source for this claim? Because this is truly sad, even by the very low standards of political partisanship.

 

[Ford]

Grubergate?


Really?


At this point it appears that wingers are so desperate to paint Obama into a corner that if he dropped particularly stinky deuce in the Congressional bathroom and then denied leaving the offending scent, the right wing would turn it into "dookie-gate" and take it for a spin around the news cycle.


Not everything is a "-gate," folks. In fact the original "gate" was Watergate...a fucking felony. Some flack saying something untoward doesn't rise to the level of a felony, nor does an awkward denial of that person's association with a policy.

Jesus H. Tap-Dancing Christ can we please stop making every minor flub into a national scandal?

 

[bilby]

Grubergate?


Really?


At this point it appears that wingers are so desperate to paint Obama into a corner that if he dropped particularly stinky deuce in the Congressional bathroom and then denied leaving the offending scent, the right wing would turn it into "dookie-gate" and take it for a spin around the news cycle.


Not everything is a "-gate," folks. In fact the original "gate" was Watergate...a fucking felony. Some flack saying something untoward doesn't rise to the level of a felony, nor does an awkward denial of that person's association with a policy.

Jesus H. Tap-Dancing Christ can we please stop making every minor flub into a national scandal?

Yeah, it's a national disgrace. I am surprised that it isn't headline news as 'Scandalgate' or 'Gategate'...

 

[laughing dog]

The Obamahurt will plague conservatives for years after he leaves office. So get used to this kind of partisan bs because we will see it for years.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

When are we going to we stop using "gate"? It was fun the first time, now it's old.

 

[Underseer]

The lamestream liberal media conspiracy is still steadfastly ignoring weathermachinegate and Obama'ssecretMuslimringgate. Why? Because they hate America and hate our freedom!

 

[Keith&Co.]

When are we going to we stop using "gate"? It was fun the first time, now it's old.

Not until the stupidity becomes complete.
Not until Bill Gates becomes involved in a government scandal and some pundit thinks Gates-gate is cute.
Or perhaps someone crashes into a reinforced military gate and it crumbles because of a systemic flaw in the construction of anti-ramming gate blockers, for a Gategate scandal.

Until then, though, it's too handy as headline shorthand.

 

[maxparrish]

Gruber all but said that Obama personally asked him to find a way to disguise Obamacare facts that would, if clearly understood, sink the legislation - this from the "most transparent administration in history".

And why was Obama so keen on flim-flamming on the law’s taxes? Might it be because Obama had previously been blasting McCain over his proposal to tax health benefits “for the first time.” ?

That Obama would choose such a weak "who's this guy" ploy either bespeaks of narcissistic contempt for truth, or someone who needs to make an immediate appointment with the White House neurologist (perhaps Harry Reid dementia is catching?).

So as much as they would like to dodge Gruber - he's their guy... 400,000 juicy bucks later, and the lead person for "drafting the specifics" the stain won't go away soon (and what a delightful investigative committee topic it will make).

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/b...th-cares-mr-mandate.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

Along with these credentials, Mr. Gruber’s position as an adviser to the influential Congressional Budget Office also left him perfectly positioned to advise the White House on health reform. “The most important arbiter of everything was the C.B.O.,” said Neera Tanden, who was a senior adviser for health reform at the Department of Health and Human Services. The C.B.O.’s assessment of a bill’s efficacy and costs strongly influences political debate, but the office does not publicly reveal how it calculates those numbers. “We knew the numbers he gave us would be close to where the C.B.O. was likely to come out,” Ms. Tanden said. She was right. After Mr. Gruber helped the administration put together the basic principles of the proposal, the White House lent him to Capitol Hill to help Congressional staff members draft the specifics of the legislation.

 

[dismal]

Grubergate?

I'm happy to go with Grubergeddon or even Grubapalooza.

 

[laughing dog]

Max, your indignation would be more convincing if we had seen the same when Bush ordered his subordinates to hide the true figures for the expansion of Medicare. This seems much more like the same old partisan butthurt than real concern for effective and fair administration.

 

[maxparrish]

Gruber, the gift that keeps on giving - today's latest:

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber has billed federal and state governments at least $5.9 million for advice, as more videos surface showing him undercutting the landmark law

- MIT economist got $392,600 from the Dept of Health and Human Services for his Obamacare consulting

- National Institutes of Health paid him $2 million for Medicare consulting

- Justice Department has added $1.7 million for expert witness testimony

- Four US states combined to pay him another $1.6 million for advice about health care laws, and contracts for four more states were unavailable/

- If those states followed suit, Gruber's haul would exceed $7.5 million

Gruber has become a thorn in Democrats' sides since videos emerged of him candidly discussing how the Obama White House misled Americans to pass the Obamacare law

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-undercutting-landmark-law.html#ixzz3JM3AESx9
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[ksen]

Obviously those millions of dollars are the market rate for a consulting MIT economist.

Why do you hate the Market?

 

[laughing dog]

And where was Max's indignation when Bush lied to start the 2nd Iraq war?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

What annoys me the most about this is the way that Obama clubbed a bunch of old women to death with a baseball bat in order to save having to pay their social security and be able to afford this guy.

 

[ksen]

But on a more positive note, only a few more gigs and Gruber will be able to pay off his student loans.

 

[bilby]

Government pays consultant exorbitant fees, shock!

In other news:

Water 'May be wet' - Study

Family Ursidae defecate in arboreal surroundings

Pontiff suspected to have Catholic faith

More at six...

 

[maxparrish]

Obviously those millions of dollars are the market rate for a consulting MIT economist.

Why do you hate the Market?

I don't know about you, but I tend to hate fraud in the market - even if such fraud was orchestrated by a well paid progressive and the fish happened to be the American people.

But then, that's just me.

 

[ksen]

Obviously those millions of dollars are the market rate for a consulting MIT economist.

Why do you hate the Market?

I don't know about you, but I tend to hate fraud in the market - even if such fraud was orchestrated by a well paid progressive and the victim the American people.

But then, that's just me.

In an efficient market there is no room for fraud. Therefore Gruber got paid the market rate for an MIT economist. What's to complain about?

 

[maxparrish]

Government pays consultant exorbitant fees, shock!

In other news:

Water 'May be wet' - Study

Family Ursidae defecate in arboreal surroundings

Pontiff suspected to have Catholic faith

More at six...

More statements of the obvious?

"Most transparent administration promoted a fraud".

Yep, you got that litany right.