Gruber: ObamaCare quote in court case 'taken out of context'

[alp227]

Source: The Hill

The embattled ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber made a rare public appearance Wednesday to say that his controversial remarks about healthcare subsidies have been taken out of context.

Gruber's remarks had become a key part of the GOP-led Supreme Court case against ObamaCare, which could erase subsidies in 34 states that use the federal exchange.

The MIT economist told an audience in 2012, "if you’re a state and you don’t set up an exchange, that means your citizens don’t get their tax credits.” Conservative lawyers said his remarks proved their argument that tax credits are only legal in exchanges that were “established by the state," as parts of the law say.

Gruber said Wednesday that his words had been twisted by the plaintiffs.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/237644-gruber-obamacare-subsidies-quote-taken-out-of-context

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Also covered by Bloomberg. On Sunday, the Boston Globe published an op-ed co-written by Joseph Doyle, John Graves, and Gruber: In-hospital care saves money — and lives.

[Fred Sanders]

1. Cons twisting words to mean things they double scouts honor never intended them to mean?

Can we get a large corporation to decide the issue for all of us?

Walmart?

Apple?

Mike's Pizzaria?

Most of you paid to be the judges of all things, step up to the public plate and take a swing, let the social media Court of Public Opinion judge the issue - verdict unappealable, verdict rendered within 72 hours - we know you have excellent lawyers. After all most of you funded ALEC to draft up these masterpieces of legal jargon that could fool almost anyone but....independent lawyers.

There is something wierd about all of this where the corporations are angling in on the credit due mainly to social media news.

And lawyers.

[4139]

2. The 'context' is worse...

" The federal government has been sort of slow in putting out its backstop, I think partly because they want to sort of squeeze the states to do it. I think what’s important to remember politically about this, is if you’re a state and you don’t set up an Exchange, that means your citizens don’t get their tax credits. But your citizens still pay the taxes that support this bill. So you’re essentially saying to your citizens, you’re going to pay all the taxes to help all the other states in the country. I hope that’s a blatant enough political reality that states will get their act together and realize there are billions of dollars at stake here in setting up these Exchanges, and that they’ll do it. But you know, once again, the politics can get ugly around this."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/07/25/libertarians_think_they_ve_found_a_smoking_gun_in_the_halbig_case.html

[frylock]

3. what's funny is seeing conservatives using Gruber as both a verb and an adjective on facebook..

You Grubering Gruberites got Grubered.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

4. The reporter sucks

How about asking: "In what way, exactly, was it taken out of context?" I would have like to hear his answer!!

[MrModerate]

5. Right. Because the casual comments of one of hundreds . . .

Of people who worked on the language of the bill should be the center about which the Supreme Court's consideration turns.

[quadrature]

6. would all this be happening, if there was only one 'holdout' state? ...nt