Professor Gruber and the Progressive Dream Team
Nothing makes the nation’s political class more discomfited than when one of its own is caught speaking the truth. As L’Affaire Gruber shows, were it not for the ubiquity of cheap video recording, the power of modern search engines, and the tenacity of citizen journalists, conspiratorial guidance spoken in private would remain private, safe from the prying eyes of the public. Gone are the days when the Legacy Media might be counted on to serve up smoking gun evidence of lies and deceit used to turn one sixth of our economy over to government central planners.
The tortuous passage of the inappropriately named Affordable Care Act was shepherded through Congress thanks to a phalanx of lies now being revealed. One of the legislation’s key architects, MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, has been on the stump for years earning hefty fees promoting the eponymous Gruber Microsimulation Model upon which claims of the Act’s economic sustainability were based. Problem is, honesty got the better of him, lecturing his colleagues on how the whole program was a carefully crafted exercise in deception.
It’s not the duplicity that’s news here. Lying to the electorate is a long-established tradition of both our major political parties. What’s new is the chortling professor’s gleeful disdain for “the stupidity of the American voter,” whom he is proud to have deceived because “I’d rather have this law than not.”
Of course, this raises some uncomfortable questions.
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Bill Frezza 
Hi, Bill â itâs been a while since our dinner in Miami. Your show has certainly taken off since then. I hope youâre feeling good about how things are progressing..
One of our dinner topics concerned the increasing power of Washington vis a vis our state and local governments. In view of the paucity of potent responses available to Congress re Obamaâs executive action on immigration, I wonder if we may be looking in the wrong place for relief.
You are probably familiar with the old adage: âin politics, two wrongs donât make a right, but they do make a precedent.â I think it might be interesting if you were to put your fine mind to work on the following question:
What would happen if some of our Republican Governors (and perhaps the mayors of, say, Oklahoma City and Indianapolis) were to announce their intention to follow the well-established precedent â as currently practiced in San Francisco, Philadelphia and elsewhere — of creating âsanctuary states or citiesâ that would officially and openly disregard the federal requirements concerning the rights and treatment of illegal aliens? The only difference would be that these new âsanctuariesâ would be created not to protect the rights of illegal immigrants, but to protect the rights of legal immigrants and natural-born citizens. As a consequence of this action, the Governors would explain, the civil servants within their jurisdictions will be instructed not to take steps to implement Obamaâs executive order and not to take action against any violations thereof.
I cannot begin to guess how busy you must be, so please donât feel any obligation to respond to this note. Perhaps Iâve been reading your columns for too long, but I just got to thinking about what a good Libertarian response to Obamaâs latest overreach might be, and I thought Iâd share it with you.
Best regards,
Steve