ACA Architect Says Republicans Setting Up A ‘Scam’

March 13--MIT economics professor and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber said that any healthcare replacement law the GOP has in store is a "scam."

"Any replace[ment] that they would pass would result in millions of Americans losing health insurance, would result in higher premiums, and would result in a huge redistribution from the poor to the rich," Gruber said on Boston Herald Radio's "Herald Drive" show with John Sapochetti and Rick Shaffer. "Now if they are happy with that and they are willing to do that, I wouldn't call that a replacement, I would call that a scam."

Gruber has stirred up controversy on a number of occasions after videos surfaced of him calling the American public "stupid" for allowing the Affordable Care Act to pass in the first place while being the public face of the legislation. Despite being a public backer of Obamacare, and an antagonist of Republicans' efforts to repeal the landmark legislation, he doesn't see much room for the law to improve, such as the single payer system, with the current political climate.

"I am not a politician or really a great political economist, but if you just look at the history we have tried to reform healthcare about every 17 years in America, going back to Teddy Roosevelt and every time we failed, we moved to the right," Gruber said. "What Nixon did was to the right of what Johnson proposed and what Clinton proposed was to the right of what Nixon proposed and what Obamacare is to the right of what Clinton proposed. So if Obamacare doesn't survive, it's not like we're suddenly going to go way to the left, we are only moving to the right, so I think single payer is a real political challenge."

Gruber explained, "The law -- honestly -- has never been given a fair chance. I know I am a supporter and I know that sounds whiny, but look, the law never really had a fair chance to succeed because the minute it passed there was massive opposition to it even being implemented."

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