INSTEAD OF COMMITTING A “GAFFE”, YOU CAN NOW JUST, “GRUBER YOURSELF”!

 

…Jonathan Gruber, Obamacare PhD Consultant

 

 

Darrell Issa’s last act as an important House Committee Chairman is a real fiasco.

You can tell when you have really screwed up, when your proper name is used as a “verb” for describing something you did or said that was totally stupid.
 

That is what has happened to the MIT professor, Mr. Jonathan Gruber.
 

Mr. Gruber was the not-so-bright consultant that in an attempt to brag about his involvement in developing and introducing Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA), he had previously stated that, “This bill was written in a tortured way” to avoid it appearing to be a tax.  He also said about the act that the, “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage” because people didn’t know that “healthy people pay in and sick people get money.” 

Yes, Mr. Gruber is the guy that now so famously said that the, “…passage of Obamacare”, on which he was a prominent consultant, “relied on the stupidity of the American voter.”

This was a comment that Mr. Gruber made while bragging to his colleges, not aware that he was being recorded, and unaware that these comments would become the Republican “talking-points” for those conservatives in Congress that disparately want to repeal Obamacare.

Yep, as of today, when you really blow it and say something so stupid that the term “gaffe” just isn’t potent enough to explain its level of stupidity, you can now say that you have just “Grubered yourself”.

In order to emphasize that someone that actually helped introduce the ACA had said something as stupid as this about the program, for his last act as the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa (R-CA), called this Mr. Gruber to appear before the committee.  During this hearing on Obamacare, Chairman Issa likened Gruber to Tom Hank’s, Academy Award performance as, “Forrest Gump, the ultimate in successful stupid men.”

 

The reality is that Mr. Gruber had to debase himself when he admitted to the committee that he had only been bragging and being arrogant in trying to impress his fellow PhD associates when he made those comments.  Mr. Gruber’s remarked about what he had said as being, “Glib, thoughtless . . . uninformed . . . mean and insulting . . . uncalled for in any contest . . . demeaning . . . inexcusable arrogance.”

Those were Gruber’s own words. But as bad as his comments were about himself, the bipartisan lawmakers were even less charitable.

Chairman Issa asked Gruber: “Are you stupid?”

“I don’t think so, no,” said Gruber, as he sat at the witness table.

“Does MIT employ stupid people,” said Issa?

“Not to my knowledge,” said Gruber.
 

“So you’re a smart man,” Issa continued, “who said . . . some really stupid things?”
 

And Gruber nodded as he accepted the characterization

But I personally feel, that as Mr. Issa last act as the committee’s chair, I think Mr. Issa kind of Grubered himself.

Since Mr. Gruber did actually say those very stupid things about Obamacare, why did Issa bring Mr. Gruber to the committee to shame him? 

Since this man was someone that had direct involvement in the act that all the Republicans had voted 50+ times in trying to repeal it, why not bring Mr. Gruber to the committee and thank him for this gift of words that he had given the GOP?

After Chairman Issa’s comments, the hearing kind of went off the rails and it then became an issue as to which side could “out Gruber” the other.

The Democrats on the committee tried to “Gruber” the Republicans by tying the MIT professor to former Massachusetts Republican governor Mitt Romney, for whom Gruber also consulted for Romneycare.

Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the committee read aloud quotes from Governor Romney in praise of Mr. Gruber.  But the Democrats still could not hide the damage that Gruber had done to Obamacare.  Rep. Cummings even said to Mr. Gruber that it was a “public relations gift” to Republicans that “You wrapped it up with a bow.”

The issue has become so high profile that outside the Rayburn House Office Building, a Tea Party group was selling T-shirts with Gruber’s photo and the words “I’m with stupid.”

Darrell Issa as usual, went after President Obama as he called Gruber a “critical player” in Obamacare.  Over the Democrat’s objections, Issa had seated Gruber next to Marilyn Tavenner, the official that oversees Obamacare, who was also called to the hearing.  Issa called them a “perfect pairing” as other Republicans grilled Gruber on how many times he had met with Obama, which it turned out was only one time.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked Gruber to elaborate on his claim that legislation “passed because the American people are too stupid to understand the difference.”

Gruber grumbled, saying he was “trying to make myself seem smart by insulting others.”

Gowdy responded: “So you’re a professor at MIT and you’re worried about not looking smart enough?”

“Yes.” Answered Gruber.

“Well,” said Gowdy, “you succeeded.”

When Issa had been made the chairman of this high-profile oversight committee, he had sworn to go after the president as the “most corrupt president to ever hold the office”, and he has failed miserably at making that point.  Or I guess you could say he has, “failed perfectly” at not doing any real damage against the 2 term Democratic president. 

Issa has now been assigned to what one Washington pundit has referred to as “legislative Siberia”.   That being that Rep. Issa is now the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s intellectual property subcommittee.  That’s quite a demotion.

Finally, when Rep. Cummings noted the new oil painting of Darrell Issa on the wall behind them and referred to the “hanging of your portrait,” Issa interrupted with the inappropriate response: “Thank you for saying I was hung.”

Leave it to the less-than-appropriate Issa to go out with such excellent flare.

Copyright G.Ater  2014