White House: Gruber’s Obamacare ‘Transparency’ Remarks Were ‘Simply Not True’

The White House has sought to distance itself from MIT professor Jonathan Gruber‘s controversial comments about how it took a “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” to get the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010.

Video surfaced of Gruber making such remarks in 2013, several years after playing a key role in developing the health care legislation. Following uproar, he appeared on MSNBC and said he spoke “inappropriately,” though he avoided denying his underlying point.

In a statement provided to TPM, the White House said: “Transparency is a key goal of the ACA: consumers now have more access to information about their health insurance than ever before.” The bill was debated publicly for 14 months, the spokesperson added. More from TPM:

“The tax credits in the law that help millions of middle class Americans afford coverage were no secret, and in fact were central to the legislation,” she continued. “Not only do we disagree with those comments, they’re simply not true.”

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