Jonathan Gruber and the future of ObamaCare

Journalist Michael Kinsley famously said, "A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth." While not a politician, Jonathan Gruber is the most recent public figure to prove the point. Today, Gruber, a health economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Before a series of now-famous videos surfaced, Gruber was described by The Washington Post as a "key architect" of ObamaCare. President Obama called him one of the "brightest minds" whose healthcare ideas he stole from "liberally," and then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi cited him by name during the 2009 Obama-Care debate. Now, Obama calls him "some adviser," while Pelosi claims, "I don't know who he is."

And who can blame the president and former Speaker for throwing Jonathan Gruber under the bus? After all, Gruber took taxpayer dollars to help the administration deceive taxpayers, and after ObamaCare became law, he insulted us all.

Of course, Gruber's behavior isn't new. When it comes to ObamaCare, deception has been the name of the game all along. We were told if we liked our healthcare plan, we could keep it. We were told if we liked our doctor, we could keep our doctor. We were told the ObamaCare website would work smoothly and efficiently, and that the website would be secure. And we were told that health insurance premiums would go down by an average of $2,500 for families.

Of course all of these statements were false. PolitiFact said Obama's claim that you could keep your plan if you liked it was the 2013 lie of the year. Premiums went up, not down. People lost their doctors. And of course, we all know how smoothly the website rollout went.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration's pattern of deception shows no sign of stopping. Just last month, investigators discovered that a top official at the Health and Human Services Department, testifying under oath before the Oversight Committee, padded ObamaCare's enrollment numbers with nearly 400,000 dental plans so that enrollment would appear to exceed the administration's goal of 7 million paid customers.

Gruber's comments and the administration's actions simply confirm what Americans have suspected for a long time: This bad law is not only bad policy, it was passed in a deceptive manner. It needs to be repealed. We need to start over and put in place a model that works. We need to put legislation on the president's desk that reduces stifling federal mandates, offers Americans more freedom and opportunity, and encourages economic growth instead of stifling it.

Many such bills have already passed the House of Representatives, and are currently stuck in the Senate. With a new Republican majority, we will finally be able to advance solutions to the White House. Obama may veto such legislation because of his unending faith in Washington's bureaucracy and big government. But the burden will be on him, and his actions will frame the 2016 presidential election. At that point, American voters — whom Gruber said were "stupid" — will have a chance to prove him wrong.

This op-ed appeared in The Hill newspaper.