Jonathan Gruber is 49 years old, in apparent good health, and by all accounts possessed of a brilliant mind for the economics of healthcare. But for all his mental powers, Gruber suffered extensive and repeated failures of memory Tuesday, when he testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Complicating the picture, Gruber’s was a specialized type of memory loss: the more difficult and challenging the question about his notorious descriptions of Obamacare’s birth, the more tenuous Gruber’s memory became.

After swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, Gruber told committee members he could not remember saying some of the outrageous statements that have replayed on video in recent weeks. For example, Ohio Republican Rep. Michael Turner asked Gruber about a statement that Obamacare “was written in a tortured way to make sure [the Congressional Budget Office] did not score the [individual] mandate as taxes.” Even though the event at which Gruber spoke wasn’t all that long ago — Oct. 17, 2013 — Gruber seemed fuzzy about the whole thing.