'Grubered': How did MIT economist become buzzword for Obamacare woes?
A new eponymous phrase favored by conservatives, about misleading the public on a prominent political issue. For critics of President Obama and his administration, the similarity of 鈥淕rubered鈥� in spelling and rhyme to pejorative words like 鈥済rubby鈥� and 鈥渟nookered鈥� enhances its appeal.
鈥淕rubered鈥� refers to MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, a 2009-10 architect of the Affordable Care Act. In November 2014, videos surfaced of Gruber lamenting the public鈥檚 鈥渟tupidity鈥� and ignorance over the specifics of Obamacare. Conservatives are using the controversy to show that Democrats knew the law was terrible all along.
鈥淚f you have a law that makes explicit that healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed,鈥�. 鈥淟ack of transparency is a huge political advantage, and basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical to getting the thing to pass.鈥�
Once the videos emerged, the previously braggadocio academic suddenly went quiet, refusing media interviews. But not before conservatives turned his name into a verb 鈥� on health care and a range of other perceived Obama administration misdeeds.
said in an e-mail that what it calls misleading data from the Export-Import Bank may have been 鈥淕rubered.鈥� A headline on conservative Newsbusters blared, 鈥�.鈥�
Gruber is hardly the only public figure in 2014 to have his name involuntarily turned into a verb. As , Rep. Eric Cantor's epic failure to win his June GOP primary a new term synonymous with the unforeseen dethronement of a powerful politician. During the 2014 election cycle, "Cantored" came to supplant the longtime phrase "getting primaried," which represents the threat of an incumbent facing a primary challenger who deems his or her opponent to be insufficiently conservative.
Just weeks after the then-House majority leader鈥檚 primary defeat, about 42-year incumbent Rep. Charlie Rangel鈥檚 (D) of New York intraparty challenge: 鈥�6 Primaries to Watch 鈥� Rangel鈥檚 Rematch and Who Might Be 鈥楥antored鈥欌�� (Rangel survived, and is pledging to retire after the 2016 elections.)
Chuck McCutcheon and David Mark write their "Speaking Politics" blog exclusively for Decoder Voices.聽
