White House: Hey -- Gruber Wasn't Really Obamacare's Architect

Jonathan Gruber’s “stupid” comments have sent the Obama White House into a spin.

When this White House gets under fire, it naturally turns to the press outlets that it has used as tools for years, including Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo.

The name ought to give that site away: It’s not about facts, it’s about spin. Talking points.

So the under-fire Obama White House turns to the talking pointers to deliver some talking points on Gruber’s “stupid” remarks.

To wit: We were transparent the whole time we were working backroom deals and holding votes at midnight and on holidays! Honest!

The Obama White House now also suggests that Gruber wasn’t really the Obamacare architect.

An administration official also noted to TPM that — while Gruber is often described as an “architect” of Obamacare because he was a key consultant to the administration and was heavily involved in developing the Massachusetts health reform law that served as a starting point for the ACA — “he did not work in the White House or play the same role in developing the Affordable Care Act.”

About that. They’re lying, again.

Gruber had a total of about $400,000 in contracts with the Obama White House in 2009 and 2010 to provide “Technical Assistance in Evaluating Options for National Healthcare Reform.” Gruber had previously designed Romneycare in Massachusetts. He was brought in to design a similar system by the Obama White House after it took power.

That’s all according to a January 2010 ABC News story. According to that story, Gruber wasn’t disclosing his monetary relationship with the Obama administration while he was offering public comments and editorials supporting Obamacare, until some leftwing bloggers sniffed his relation out and reported it. The mainstream media followed.

So yes, he was the architect of Obamacare. The Obama White House still thinks that its supporters are too stupid to figure that out.