Gruber on ObamaCare: ‘I helped write it’

ObamaCare consultant Jonathan Gruber is seen in a newly uncovered video describing how he “helped write” the legislation.

Donning a dual-tone black V-neck sweater, Gruber discusses ObamaCare – “the single most important piece of government legislation perhaps since World War II” – in his final lecture of the term to an undergraduate economics class in the fall of 2010.

{mosads}“Full disclaimer: I’m going to describe it objectively, but I helped write it,” Gruber told his Massachusetts Institute of Technology students in the video.

“So I’ll be objective – I’ll try to be objective – but just full disclaimer I was involved in writing the legislation, so there is some bias involved here,” he added.

Gruber testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday about his controversial comments that the healthcare law was passed due to a “lack of transparency” and “the stupidity of the American voter.”

Republicans have seized Gruber’s comments to revive attacks on ObamaCare, while Democrats have sought to put distance between themselves and the economist they have relied on for data modeling surrounding healthcare legislation.

At the House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, Gruber said in prepared remarks, “I did not draft Governor Romney’s health care plan, and I was not the ‘architect’ of President Obama’s health care plan.”

But in numerous speeches, lectures and TV interviews in the past four years, Gruber has been introduced as the “architect” of the Massachusetts law and/or ObamaCare.

Instead, he has often highlighted his role in the law’s creation.

“Yes, I want the public to be informed by an objective expert. But the thing is, I know more about this law than any other economist,” Gruber is quoted as saying in a March 2012 New York Times report detailing his background with the White House.

Gruber’s official bio, used for speaking events for several years, lists him as “a key architect” of healthcare reform in Massachusetts and a “technical consultant” on the federal law.

“Several of the architects of Massachusetts reform, including myself, worked closely with the Administration and Congress to translate the lessons from Massachusetts onto the national stage,” Gruber wrote in an April 2012 op-ed after former Gov. Mitt Romney signed the state’s healthcare reform into law.

The back cover of his 2011 comic book explaining healthcare reform says he was “a key architect of Massachusetts’s ambitious health reform effort” who “consulted extensively with the Obama administration and Congress during the development of the Affordable Care Act.”

Gruber has also highlighted his ties to the president.

He fondly recalled being called to the White House to offer input on healthcare reform, including one meeting with President Obama in July 2009.

“It was just a fun, intellectual conversation,” Gruber said in a 2012 “Frontline” interview.

White House visitor logs show more than a dozen appointments for Gruber between 2009 and June of this year.

The MIT economics professor reportedly met with then Sen. Barack Obama in 2006, who in a speech referenced Gruber’s work, and offered input for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. 

When Gruber’s comments initially surfaced last month, Obama dismissed him as “some adviser who never worked on our staff.”