read below and weep
By Charles Lipson
Arrogance and condescension have been essential to progressive politics for a century.
November 13, 2014, 3:30 PM
The viral video of the week, at least among policy wonks, shows one of Obamacare's key architects saying that the health care law passed only because the administration deceived the public. MIT professor Jonathan Gruber spoke candidly — and proudly — because he thought he was speaking only to a small audience of fellow academics. Unfortunately for Gruber, he was being filmed, and the video has now found a much larger, less sympathetic audience..
He cannot shrug his comments off as a momentary mistake. Two more videos have now surfaced with the same message.
Gruber speaks as an insider, someone who met directly with the president about the health care law and was deeply involved in crafting its provisions. He speaks with considerable authority when he says Obamacare passed only because of deliberate deception. He notes that some of the law's complex wording was added only because the American public would be "too stupid" to figure it out (his words).
Well the public is listening now and is not too dimwitted to grasp the message. That's bad news for the Obama administration and worse news for a health care law already in deep trouble.
Gruber's admission should be old news since we already knew the president sold the program in misleading ways. So what's new here?
Until Gruber's videos appeared, it was hard to prove the administration actually intended to deceive voters when it rammed through the legislation on straight party-line votes. Perhaps the president was simply making statements he believed to be true but later turned out to be false. That's not lying. That's an honest mistake.
The Gruber videos are devastating because they say flatly that the deception was premeditated and was used self-consciously to pass the law. The professor goes further and says the law would have been defeated if its central provisions had been known to voters.
Obama and 'the stupidity of the American voter'
Obama and 'the stupidity of the American voter'h
by Kathleen Parker
Assuming Gruber's message is true, it means the Obama administration deliberately evaded our democratic process to pass its signature legislation. Its justification, which Gruber makes explicit, is not only that "we know what's best for you," but also that "you are too dense to know that yourself."
This arrogant, condescending approach extends far beyond Obamacare. It is an essential feature of progressive politics for the past century. From the outset, progressive politics yoked expert advice to expansive state action, especially redistributive policies to help the poor.
It says, "We are experts who want to help you, the great unwashed. You are too stupid and uneducated to know how to know what's best for you. Since we do know, and since we have your best interests at heart, we will handle those complex choices for you."
It's an intellectual's version of noblesse oblige.
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