After Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber's controversial comments about how a lack of transparency and the stupidity of voters helped pass the health care law made national headlines earlier this week, the White House not only denounced his statements on Thursday, but also attacked the GOP.
"The fact of the matter is, the process associated with the writing and passing and implementing of the Affordable Care Act has been extraordinarily transparent," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during a press briefing in Burma, according to a transcript provided by the White House. Obama "is proud of the transparent process that was undertaken to pass that bill into law."
Instead, Earnest pointed a finger at Republicans, Politico reported.
"It is Republicans who have been less than forthright and transparent about what their proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act would do in terms of the choices are available to middle class families," Earnest said.
Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dismissed Gruber's role in Obamacare on Thursday, telling the press, "I don't know who he is. He didn't help write our bill."
But "many outlets immediately noted that Pelosi cited Gruber in a 'Health Insurance Reform Mythbuster' on her official website in 2009," Politico reported.
Till date, three videos have surfaced where Gruber, who served as a technical consultant to the Obama administration during Obamacare's design, can be seen mocking and criticizing the intelligence of American voters.
"We just tax the insurance companies, they pass on higher prices that offsets the tax break we get, it ends up being the same thing. It's a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter," Gruber said in remarks from 2012 that aired Wednesday evening on "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
In a second video that has recently come to light, the MIT professor boldly stated that given a choice between honestly informing the public or passing the bill, he would rather have the bill, The Daily Caller reported.
"Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter, or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass," the 49-year-old said in a video clip taken at an event in October 2013.
In another video clip of a separate event, while talking about tax credits in the Affordable Care Act, he said, "American voters are too stupid to understand the difference."
On Tuesday, Gruber apologized, stating his regret for making those remarks, NPR reported.
"I was speaking off the cuff, and I was basically speaking inappropriately, and I regret having made those comments," he said on MSNBC's "Ronan Farrow Daily"
