Controversial Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber has been called to testify about "repeated transparency failures and
outright deceptions surrounding Obamacare," the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced Friday.
"From the outset, the health law has been the poster child for this administration's broken transparency promises," Chairman Darrell Issa said in a statement.
"[Gruber] publicly lauded the 'lack of transparency' that was necessary to pass the law and credited 'the stupidity of the American voter' that allowed the administration to mislead the public," said the California Republican, adding that he expected the MIT economist to testify about the "arrogance and deceptions surrounding the passage and implementation of Obamacare."
Gruber was
given until Nov. 24 to respond to the committee in the letter sent Thursday evening.
The committee also sent a letter Thursday night to
Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), requesting she appear on Dec. 9 to explain erroneous statements she made before the committee about the administration meeting its Obamacare enrollment goals.
On Thursday, CMS admitted it had overstated the number of individuals who had obtained coverage under Obamacare because it mistakenly included dental coverage sign-ups in its calculations,
The Wall Street Journal reported.
CMS officials confirmed to the Journal that when Tavenner testified before Congress in September that 7.3 million people had paid for coverage as of mid-August, she was using figures that included the dental sign-ups.
Issa will be stepping down as chairman of the committee at the end of the year and handing the gavel to Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
In an appearance Thursday night on Fox News before news broke about Issa's letter, Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, said it was "definitely in the realm of possibilities" that he would seek Gruber's testimony.
In the interview, he told host Greta van Susteren that he'd make a decision after consulting with other committees, including the House Ways and Means Committee, which may call Gruber.
"You can't have somebody that outrageous making those kinds of statements and expect Congress to just ignore it. Somebody is going to take this on," Chaffetz said.