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Winston Churchill once said “the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Perhaps it was this quote that the architects behind Obamacare were remembering when they drafted the legislation. In a panel discussion, one of the key consultants behind the bill admitted in 2013 that a “lack of transparency” was essential to getting it passed. Jonathan Gruber, a professor of economics at MIT, said that had they been more open about its contents, “the stupidity of the American voter” would have surely killed it.
Just when you think you’ve heard the worst of liberal elitism…
“Look, I wish…that we could make it all transparent,” Gruber said, “but I’d rather have this law than not.”
In saying this, Gruber essentially admits that he didn’t trust the American people when it came to putting together a healthcare bill. Intensely ignorant of how American democracy is supposed to work, Gruber and the Obama Administration apparently feel that decisions like this should be made in the dark. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, and all of that. After all, the lowly voter isn’t a professor at MIT. What qualifications does he bring to the table?
The Liberal Philosophy In Action
This is really the Democrats in a nutshell. Educated beyond the point of usefulness, they claim to know what’s best for the idiotic American people. If they can’t persuade voters to come out and support one policy or another, that’s no big deal. They’ll just find a way to force it through. That’s why Obama feels no shame in using executive actions and other sneaky tricks to evade congressional authority. If he and his merry band of advisers have decided on a course of action, why would they sully their genius by putting the matter up for debate?
As Gruber apparently anticipated, the “stupid” American people do not like the new healthcare law. It has failed in the polls every time Americans have been surveyed, and it has failed to meet government expectations for participation. Just today, Health and Human Services officials announced that they were lowering projections for 2015 enrollment. They said they expected to see between 9 and 9.9 million people enrolled in ACA health insurance plans by the end of next year. That is a sharp drop from earlier estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which predicted an enrollment of 13 million by the end of 2015.
To the point as well are numerous legal challenges threatening the integrity of the law. The Supreme Court is set to hear a case in the coming months that may eliminate subsidies for those states without their own exchange. Already, we have seen religious-minded business owners object to Obamacare’s contraception requirements, another facet of the law that could see some major legal challenges in the years to come.
The bigger takeaway, though, is the arrogance of this administration. It’s not news that Obama and his cohorts think they’re better than the average American, but it’s still unsettling to get an inside look at how that arrogance informs policy.
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