Has Gruber-gate resurrected Obamacare as a front-rank issue?
| Washington
Has MIT economist and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber inadvertently given new life to the Republican effort to repeal or radically alter the Affordable Care Act?
That looks possible today amid the lava storm of GOP umbrage over Gruber鈥檚 taped comments that the ACA passed in part due to the 鈥渟tupidity of the American voter鈥� and the 鈥渓ack of transparency鈥� about its funding provisions.
The condescending tone of these remarks seems to confirm the right鈥檚 belief that liberals are snooty elitists. House Republicans are talking about hauling Gruber up to Congress for oversight hearings, while conservative activists insist that the mainstream media is ignoring the controversy.
Incoming Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had already indicated he plans to hold some kind of vote on repealing the entire Obamacare bill. Gruber-gate may increase pressure on McConnell to move quickly on that vote and others meant to make big changes in the ACA, such repealing its tax on medical devices.
鈥淕ruber鈥檚 controversial comments have reminded the public why they view the Affordable Care Act with as much suspicion as they do. This is a consequential development occurring at an auspicious moment for the law鈥檚 opponents, no matter how much the press seeks to deny it,鈥� writes Noah Rothman at the .
We鈥檙e not getting into an analysis of Gruber鈥檚 words right now. We did that yesterday, in a lengthy story that apparently escaped Fox media critic Howard Kurtz, who tweeted this morning that 鈥渕ost of the media ignore Jonathan Gruber video.鈥�
Sigh. Maybe someday we鈥檒l become part of the MSM.
However, as we noted in that piece, Gruber鈥檚 got little excuse for calling voters 鈥渟tupid.鈥� Yes, the remarks were old, dredged up by conservative activists a year after they were made. But he said it a lot 鈥� there are now at least three tapes of similar remarks 鈥� and as a quasi-public figure he should know better than to frame things in such a disdaining manner.
That鈥檚 not just our opinion. Mr. Spock thinks so, too. We are not kidding.
鈥淢r. Gruber. To speak before engaging brain is illogical. LLAP,鈥� tweeted actor Leonard Nimoy on Thursday.
That said, Gruber鈥檚 words haven鈥檛 changed the power equation in Washington. They鈥檝e only inflamed an already fraught situation.
Obamacare won鈥檛 be repealed. President Obama would veto that, and he鈥檚 still president. There aren鈥檛 enough Senate votes to override it.
He鈥檚 also likely to veto any change in the law large enough to placate conservatives. A repeal of the tax on medical devices? Maybe that gets through . . . but maybe not.
However, the right wing of the Republican Party is already pressing Senator McConnell to tie Obamacare changes to funding bills, which require only a majority of the Senate to pass. The problem with that is that it risks a government shutdown, as Obama would likely veto any spending bill with ACA changes attached, even a sweeping omnibus spending measure.
So what鈥檚 changed is not so much the odds on Obamacare鈥檚 future, as the odds of an ugly confrontation between the White House and Congress in the early weeks of the next congressional session.
