MIT economist Jonathan Gruber has no qualms about speaking his mind on ObamaCare. He’s been one of the most outspoken independent voices defending the healthcare proposals.
But there’s a catch. He’s not independent at all. As it turns out, the Department of Health and Human Services paid him nearly $400,000 to provide "technical assistance" in evaluating the healthcare proposals.
Funny how he forgot to mention this blatant conflict of interest on the many TV shows in which he’s touted the plan, or in the newspaper articles where he’s been quoted.
He even wrote an Op-Ed piece on health reform in the Washington Post, and again declined to mention that he’s getting paid put a positive spin on the plan.
Yup — just one more elite who takes your money to tell you what’s good for you.
For the record, Gruber says it’s all fine because he told anyone who asked, and anyway he was paid to advise the administration — not for his media appearances.
To paraphrase an old saying about ducks: If it speaks like a shill and it’s paid like a shill…it’s a shill.
Counting the days until the midterm elections,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
P.S. And if you still need more proof that they just won’t play fair, take a look at this video. On at least eight occasions, President Obama promised to put the health care negotiations on C-SPAN for all to see. Guess what you won’t find on C-SPAN? That’s right…those negotiations. The most significant piece of legislation in modern history is going to be hammered out behind closed doors…as usual. What happened to change we can believe in?