Shocker: Government Health Care Advocate Didn’t Declare He Was Being Paid By The Government
MIT professor John Gruber has, as evidenced by this Washington Post editorial, been an outspoken proponent of government health care, including a “cadillac” tax on lavish health benefits. Now, after months of advocacy, it comes out that Gruber is on the dole from Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services to the tune of $300,000.
Something he’s never disclosed.
One of the key voices for Congressional health care legislation, MIT economist Jon Gruber, is taking fire from the precincts of the left that oppose the Senate plan over the fact that he is on contract with Department of Health and Human Services.
He’s been paid $297,600, according to federal documents, to produce “a technical memorandum on the estimated changes in health insurance coverage and associated costs and impacts to the government under alternative specifications of health system reform.” The contract, which was awarded June 19, wasn’t widely known or regularly disclosed.
“[D]on’t you think it’s rather, um, dubious that the guy evaluating the heath care reform–for $300,000–is also the package’s single biggest champion? And no one has been transparent about this contract?” writes Firedoglake blogger Marcy Wheeler of the contract, which was first mentioned on DailyKos.
So, basically, Gruber is being paid by the Obama administration with our tax dollars to advocate for a health care bill that most Americans don’t want.
Hope for change.
