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Buzz Cut:
• ObamaCare architect: Voter ‘stupidity’ prompted cost concealing
• GOP works multi-fronts to blunt Obama immigration move
• It’s 2016 already: Mitt’s midterm momentum
• Conservatives coalesce around Cassidy
• Decades of dedication to duty
OBAMACARE ARCHITECT: VOTER ‘STUPIDITY’ PROMPTED COST CONCEALING
Just a few days before Americans get the pleasure of wading through the upgraded though still not completely debugged Healthcare.gov Website, another bombshell that paints a picture of public deception in pushing through the president’s unpopular health law has been dropped by ObamaCare’s chief architect. Forbes: “You’ve got to hand it to MIT economist Jonathan Gruber. The guy dubbed the ‘Obamacare architect’ is a viral YouTube sensation. A few months back, he was caught on tape admitting that Obamacare doesn’t provide subsidies for federally-run insurance exchanges; it’s now the topic of a new case before the Supreme Court. [Monday] a new video surfaced in which Gruber said that ‘the stupidity of the American voter’ made it important for him and Democrats to hide Obamacare’s true costs from the public. ‘That was really, really critical for the thing to pass,’ said Gruber. ‘But I’d rather have this law than not.’ In other words, the ends—imposing Obamacare upon the public—justified the means. The new Gruber comments come from a panel discussion that he joined on October 17, 2013 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. He was joined on the panel by Penn health economist Mark Pauly. Patrick Howley of the Daily Caller was the first to flag Gruber’s remarks.
[No video here – Daily Caller reports the University of Pennsylvania has scrubbed the video of the Oct. 2013 event where Johnathan Gruber made his comments.]
Team Obama tamps down ObamaCare enrollment forecast – With ObamaCare’s second enrollment period opening this weekend, the administration is busy lowering enrollment expectations. AP: “A report released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 9 million to 9.9 million paying customers will enroll for subsidized private coverage in 2015. That’s significantly lower than the 13 million the Congressional Budget Office had projected earlier this year.”
[Storm warning – “We will have things that won’t go right. We will have outages, we will have downtime… Something will happen. What we need to do is be transparent, be fast and get it fixed.” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, during an address Monday at the liberal Center for American Progress.]
Rubio and Ryan teeing up ObamaCare alternative – Tampa Bay Times: “Sen. Marco Rubio [R-Fla.] and Rep. Paul Ryan [R-Wis.] are preparing to release a health care alternative to Obamacare, a proposal that could get more traction under a Republican-controlled Congress but set up a confrontation with President Barack Obama… Rubio’s office indicated Monday that things were still coming together. (He’s broadly talked about other ideas.)”
GOP WORKS MULTI-FRONTS TO BLUNT OBAMA IMMIGRATION MOVE
Although Republicans are not in the majority yet, they are sending clear signals they are ready for a showdown with President Obama over executive action he’s said he’ll take on immigration. With the president recently doubling down on his threat to go-it-alone despite warnings from Republicans, GOP lawmakers are leveraging on fronts ranging from Congress’ power of the purse to consideration of Obama’s nominee for attorney general to head off Obama.
