Gowdy Grills Gruber About His Serial ‘Glib, Thoughtless, Inexcusable Language’ (Video)

Rep Gowdy (R-SC) made MIT economist Jonathan Gruber squirm in his seat during the House Oversight hearing, this morning, as he questioned him about the a series of statements he made about the tactics used to sell ObamaCare to the public.   

Gowdy forced Gruber to repeat over and over again his humiliating, rehearsed talking points – that he was being “glib” and trying to make himself “look smarter” when he made all those statements about deceiving the American voters. 

“What did you mean when you said, we proposed it and it passed because the American people were too stupid to understand the difference?” Gowdy asked?

“When I said that, I was at an economic conference, being glib, and quite frankly trying to make myself seem smart by insulting others,” Gruber replied.

He would give that same basic answer to explain his other inconvenient statements about ObamaCare. 

Gruber also noted repeatedly that he’s not an expert on politics to explain away his past statements, but Gowdy was having none of that. He was able to decisively demonstrate that Gruber was more politically savvy than he was letting on, by reminding him of his past statements, like “that was politically unfeasible,” and the fact that he usually insults the American voter – not the American public.

“So you do factor in politics, don’t you?” Gowdy asked.

Gruber answered coyly that “I have tried on a number of occasions to pretend that I know more about politics than I do.”

“Do you think that not being a politician is a defense?” Gowdy asked. “Is that the best you can come up with?”

Gruber answered that “the best I can come up with is really is to apologize…”

Gowdy read off a few more statements, and became frustrated by Gruber’s repeated excuses that he was trying to make himself “seem smarter by conjecturing about something.” 

“So – you’re a professor at MIT and you’re worried about not looking smart enough? Gowdy asked incredulously.

“Yes,” answered Gruber – clearly sticking to a script that was designed to do the least amount of damage to the survival of the law.

 “All of these quotes that I just read to you,” the exasperated congressman continued,  “you didn’t mean a single one of them? Not a one?” 

Gruber stuck to his script. “What I said, congressman was I was using, glib, thoughtless, inexcusable language.” 

“Well you used them a lot,” Gowdy noted. “I just read to you about ten. You see why some people might think the apology was disingenuous? – Maybe?”