Former Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney attacked one of Obamacare’s key architects, Jonathan Gruber, as a man who “speaks from the ivory tower with remarkable hubris.”
Mr. Carney told CNN’s Jake Tapper Friday that the White House seems to have taken a step back and recognized that it could not ignore the media firestorm bubbling up around the MIT economics professor’s repeated statements about the behind-the-scene motivations of Obamacare supporters.
“I think they are doing what they have to do which is, say, look, forget about what this player in the drawing of the bill has to say about it and his opinion about it,” said Mr. Carney, Real Clear Politics reported Friday.
Speaking at the University of Pennsylvania in October 2013, Mr. Gruber told an audience that “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” and that “the stupidity of the American voter” helped give Democrats the cover they needed to pass the Affordable Care Act.
At the Honors Colloquium 2012 at the University of Rhode Island, Mr. Gruber also said, “It’s a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter,” was partly responsible for the bill’s passage.
Mr. Gruber apologized for his remarks during an appearance on MSNBC on Tuesday, saying he was speaking “off the cuff.”
SEE ALSO: Nancy Pelosi caught lying: Never heard of Gruber despite citing him in 2009
The Washington Post reported Friday that the MIT professor made close to $400,000 advising the Obama administration during the creation of the Affordable Care Act.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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