Videos showing Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber describing how he counted on the "stupidity" of U.S. voters to pass Obamacare only confirm the worst fears people have about the federal government, Sen. John Barrasso said Wednesday on
Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
A third video was released on Wednesday showing Gruber speaking in November 2012 at the University of Rhode Island.
"John Kerry said no, no, we're not gonna tax your health insurance, we're gonna tax those evil health insurance companies. We're gonna impose a tax that if they sell health insurance that's too expensive, we're going to tax them," Gruber says in the video.
"And conveniently, the tax rate will happen to be the marginal tax rate under the income tax code. So, basically, it's the same thing. We just tax the insurance companies, they pass on higher prices. That offsets the tax break we get. It ends up being the same thing. It's a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter," Gruber says.
Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican and orthopedic surgeon, called the remarks "clearly offensive," adding, "I think it just confirms Americans' worst fears about the government."
Gruber, an MIT economics professor, apologized on
MSNBC's "Ronan Farrow Daily" on Tuesday after the first video emerged over the weekend, saying, "I was speaking off the cuff and I spoke inappropriately, and I regret making those comments."
But another video followed later that day, and a third on Wednesday.
The videos were put together over the course of the last year by investment adviser Rich Weinstein after he said his family's health coverage doubled after implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Weinstein told
CNN he has more videos of Gruber speaking on the subject.
Barrasso noted that the videos are spread out over a couple of years, "so this is his deep-seated belief about how to deal with the American people."
Barrasso noted that Gruber was paid almost $400,000 by the Obama administration, and said Gruber tried to deflect the attention of the people, "and I believe intentionally tried to deceive the American people to try to get this healthcare law passed."
He said Gruber should give the money back.
Rep. Aaron Schock, an Illinois Republican, told Van Susteren that Gruber isn't the first to treat the American people as too dumb to understand the law, citing then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's quote that Congress had to pass the bill to find out what was in it.
"How much more of a talk-down to the American people can that be?" Schock said.
"You ask yourself why the American people don't trust government. It's because the government doesn't trust the hardworking taxpayers," Schock said. "And it is emblematic of a nanny-state government, which believes you're too stupid to figure out which healthcare is best for you and your family. You're too stupid to figure out how to educate your own children. You're too stupid to figure out what to put in your mouth and eat . . . And what it means is, less opportunity, less freedom, less individual responsibility."