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Explore our coverage of government and politics.

Despite National Controversy, Shumlin Sticking With Gruber

Pablo Martinez Monsivais
/
AP/file
Vermont Republicans are calling on Gov. Peter Shumlin to terminate a contract with Massachusetts Institute of Technology expert Jonathan Gruber, shown here on Capitol Hill in 2009.

A health care economist hired by the Shumlin administration earlier this year has become ensnared in a national controversy.

And Republicans are calling on the governor to terminate the state’s contract with MIT professor Jonathan Gruber.

When the Shumlin administration hired Jonathan Gruber to help design a single-payer health care system in Vermont, the economist’s prominent role in the creation of the federal Affordable Care Act was among his top selling points.

Suddenly, it’s become his most severe liability.

Several videos have surfaced in recent weeks showing Gruber mocking the intellect of American voters. In the footage, Gruber says he took advantage of Americans' “stupidity” to pass provisions in ObamaCare that might have otherwise proven politically impossible.

Several videos have surfaced in recent weeks showing Gruber mocking the intellect of American voters. In the footage, Gruber says he took advantage of Americans' "stupidity" to pass provisions in ObamaCare.

“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage, and call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever,” Gruber said at a conference at the University of Pennsylvania in October of 2013. “Look, I wish … we could make this all transparent. But I’d rather have this law than not.”

In a separate speech last year, Gruber said Congress was able to slip a tax on high-end insurance plans into the ACA because, quote, “the American voters are too stupid to understand the difference.”

Stowe Rep. Heidi Scheuermann says Gruber’s comments will leave a permanent stain on whatever work he does for Vermont. She’s part of a group of House Republicans calling for Gruber’s ouster.

“I think he shows a great deal of arrogance, disrespect and condescension to American people, and that includes Vermonters,” Scheuermann says.

Peter Shumlin says he shares Scheuermann’s outrage.

"I think he shows a great deal of arrogance, disrespect and condescension to American people, and that includes Vermonters." - Stowe Republican Heidi Scheuermann

“Not only did he say this stuff, but he thinks this stuff. I mean, you can’t make this up,” Shumlin says. “So it’s obviously really, really disappointing. I can’t imagine anyone making comments like that. They also don’t reflect the way we do things in Vermont.”

But Shumlin says the state won’t be cutting ties with the embattled economist.

The state hired Gruber to run economic models on various single-payer financing scenarios. The single-payer program aims to replace the $2.2 billion Vermonters spend on private premiums with a package of new taxes. Shumlin says Gruber’s models will allow the administration to see how those various tax changes will affect jobs, wages, and other key economic forces. 

Shumlin says Gruber won’t play any role in drafting of legislation in Vermont.

“He’s our calculator. He’s not doing policy for us, he’s not doing advice for us. He’s really our calculator,” Shumlin says. “He’s the person who we say, do our ideas, grow jobs, grow economic opportunity. He’s almost completed that work, and I’m grateful for that.”]

And Shumlin says terminating the contract now would prevent the administration from presenting its long-awaited financing plan to the Legislature in January.

Scheuermann however says Gruber’s credibility is shot. And so, she says, is the credibility of any health care plan with his fingerprints on it.

“That’s a real problem, that that is how policies are being made in Washington, and that is not how policies should be made here,” Scheuermann says.

The state is paying Gruber $400,000 to conduct the single-payer modeling.

The Vermont Statehouse is often called the people’s house. I am your eyes and ears there. I keep a close eye on how legislation could affect your life; I also regularly speak to the people who write that legislation.
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