Obamacare Dishonest Affront to Constitution

The Professor Gruber Obamacare scandal reminds me of what Sir William Blackstone wrote about the paramount importance of honesty at the time when our founders were pledging “to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” in the Declaration of Independence.

It has now come to light that MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber, a paid consultant to the Obama Administration during the legislative process that ultimately produced the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2009, has admitted that the only way to pass Obamacare at the time was to deceive the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and ultimately the American People.

Professor Gruber said,“I mean, this bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the [individual] mandate as taxes. . . . If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay, so [the law is] written to do that.”

Gruber also said this about Obamacare, “In terms of risk-rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in — you made explicit that healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed, okay. Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.  . . . Look, I wish . . . we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not.”

Contrast Professor Gruber’s disdain for honesty and transparency with what Sir William Blackstone said about the importance of honesty in his 1765 "Commentaries on the Laws of England" — published eleven years prior to our Declaration of Independence:

"These are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the creator himself in all his dispensations conforms; and which he has enabled human reason to discover, so far as they are necessary for the conduct of human action. Such among others are these principles: that we should live honestly, should hurt nobody, and should render to every one it’s due; to which three general precepts Justinian has reduced the whole doctrine of law."

For our founders, honesty was paramount among the three general precepts for the whole doctrine of law. For the proponents of Obamacare — honesty was and still is a problem.

On the other hand, for the American People, the dishonesty that is at the core of Obamacare is a problem that needs to be corrected — and until that dishonest core is corrected, Obamacare will continue to be an impediment to any constitutionally sound and meaningful health care reform.

The dishonesty of Obamacare began with its origination as Senator Harry Reid’s “Senate Health Care Bill.” The problem, recognized by Senator Reid’s staff at the time, was that the Senate Health Care Bill was designed to raise $500 billion over ten years. The Constitution requires that, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives” (Article I, Section 7, Clause 1, aka the Origination Clause).

While the Origination Clause does include a provision allowing Senate amendments to House “Bills for raising Revenue,” the Supreme Court has never approved a total gut and replace Senate amendment of a House Bill akin to the dishonest shell game hatching  Obamacare.

It’s time to acknowledge that the entire Affordable Care Act was and still is a dishonest affront to our Constitution. Nothing the Republicans in Congress propose to replace Obamacare should be built upon such an unconstitutional foundation.

The entire Obamacare debacle is dishonest to its core and needs to go. The sooner Obamacare goes, the better for the American People, our Constitution — and the whole doctrine of law.

Joseph E. Schmitz served as inspector general of the Dept. of Defense from 2002-2005, and is co-founder of Schmitz & Socarras LLP. Read more reports from Joseph E. Schmitz — Click Here Now.