Obamacare Architect Jonathan Gruber Sounds Off on CEO Job Loss Claims
Jonathan Gruber, a well-known architect of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, caused a ruckus two years ago after he was caught on tape saying “the stupidity of the American voter led us to hide Obamacare’s true costs from the public.” He told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that CEOs are wrong about Obamacare.
The MIT professor sparked a heated debate with Bartiromo after she stated that “businesses are not hiring workers because the legislation is too expensive.”
Gruber had a different take:
“Please don’t use the word ‘fact’ because you’re not saying facts, you’re saying antidotes.”
“I’ll tell you what is a fact,” said Bartiromo. “A fact is economic growth is 2% or lower and the fact is, one of the reasons that economic growth is as low as it is, is because businesses are not hiring workers and not doing activity because of the cost of Obamacare. That is a fact. Do you dispute economic growth?” she asked.
“Economic growth is as rapid as it’s been in eight years…We’re coming out of recession and Obamacare is irrelevant to economic growth. Please, there is no evidence at all, you are totally making a non-facts-based argument,” answered Gruber.
After a back and forth over his comments during the academic conference two years ago, which he said were “taken out of context,” Gruber maintained that “doesn’t excuse” Bartiromo from “denying true facts.”
“All I need are 10 CEOs to come on this show and tell me that’s the reason and then it becomes fact,” said Bartiromo.
“Who cares if some CEO comes on the show and tells you that’s the reason? Look at the data,” said Gruber.
“I don’t need data when I have the CEO telling me, ‘I’m not adding workers because of the cost of Obamacare.’ That is my data. I just spoke to the boss and he gave me the reason,” replied Maria.
“Well Maria, that is absolutely wrong. That’s not how you consider data,” he retorted.