Politico trying to rewrite Obamacare history, on Obama’s orders

Commentary

By Kelly Riddell - The Washington Times - Tuesday, September 13, 2016

OPINION:

President Obama told the press Tuesday they should be harder on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, so they’ve taken his directive and run with it.

One of their first attempts? Trying to rewrite Obamacare history.

In a rally Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that Jonathan Gruber was the “architect of Obamacare.” You remember Mr. Gruber — the MIT economist who admitted in 2012 that the Obama administration went through “tortuous” measure to keep the facts about the Affordable Care Act from the American people, including hiding it was, in fact, a tax. He also, more famously, mocked the “stupidity of the American voter” for not understanding how the health care law concealed its true costs.

After Mr. Gruber’s comments surfaced, the Obama administration tried to deny Mr. Gruber’s centrality to Obamacare. However, 20,000 emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee proved Mr. Gruber’s role.

Still, Politico felt compelled Tuesday to preach the administration’s narrative instead of the truth.

On Twitter, Michael Grunwald, a senior writer at Politico Magazine, wrote of Mr. Trump’s comments: “Trump going after Jonathan Gruber, ’the architect of Obamacare.’ (He wasn’t).

Except he was — even according to Politico.

In December 2014, Politico Magazine wrote a story titled: “Will Jonathan Gruber Topple Obamacare?”

The subtitle was: “The health economist’s controversial remarks could undo him and the law he worked so hard to create.”

So — without reading any further into the article — Politico admits Mr. Gruber’s role as central to the legislation. Later in the article, they say: “Gruber is the man who developed an economic model that could basically work like a faster Congressional Budget Office — a huge help to congressional staffers and they drafted the Affordable Care Act, as well as the Massachusetts policymakers who wrote Mitt Romney’s health care reform law that preceded it.”

Mr. Grunwald’s comments were an interesting rewrite of his own magazine’s history. But Mr. Obama did say the press needed to be more vigilant in their coverage against Mr. Trump, so I guess he was just following orders.