Jonathan Gruber and health care deception

Last week, Jonathan Gruber testified before Congress. He's of course the MIT professor who, in a now-famous series of videos, called American voters stupid. Or, to state it plainly, he's the guy who took your tax money and lied to you about Obamacare, and then when it became law he made fun of you and bragged about it.

Of course this is nothing new. In fact it's just another sad chapter in the story of deception that surrounds the 2010 healthcare law. You might remember some of these statements: The Obama administration and its allies said that if you liked your health care plan, you could keep it. They said if you liked your doctor you could keep your doctor. You were told the Obamacare website would run smoothly and efficiently, and that it would be secure. And you were told that health insurance premiums for families would go down by an average of $2,500 annually.

Each of these statements proved to be false. PolitiFact named President Obama's statement about keeping your healthcare plan as 2013's lie of the year. And of course we know about the website and health care costs. Time has shown that the American people were deceived.

Democrat Elijah Cummings said Gruber's statements were "unforced errors." The American people have a different name for them: they call it lying. And the sad fact is, the lack of transparency continues. When Gruber was asked how much he was paid by state and federal taxpayers for his work on Obamacare and later for his help setting up state healthcare exchanges, he refused to give an answer. He takes your money, deceives you, insults your intelligence, and doesn't have the decency to tell us how much he was paid.

And he's not the only one who continues to deceive. On the heels of the Gruber videos came the revelation that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) padded its Obamacare enrollment numbers with almost 400,000 dental plans to push the law's enrollment numbers over the goal of seven million the first year.

Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of CMS, was also at the hearing. She told the committee that she hasn't informed the millions of Americans who've enrolled in Obamacare that their premiums may increase dramatically and they may see a tax increase this summer. This is, of course, due to the case before the U.S. Supreme Court, King v. Burwell.

The question in King v. Burwell is whether citizens in states that have not set up a state exchange can still receive a federal tax subsidy. Gruber said on tape that the language in Obamacare does not allow it.

Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, the next Congress must put in place a healthcare model that works. We need to send legislation to the White House that reduces oppressive federal mandates, increases American freedom and opportunity, and encourages economic growth.

The House of Representatives has already passed legislation that accomplishes this. Those bills are stuck in the Senate. Next year, a Republican-controlled Congress will finally be able to advance its solutions to the President's desk. President Obama may veto such legislation due to his faith in big government to solve our nation's problems. But the burden will rest on his shoulders, and his actions will frame the 2016 presidential election. That November, Gruber's "stupid" American voters will have the chance to prove him wrong.