A little deception goes along way — toward paying the bills, at least. The Daily Caller reports that Jonathan Gruber, MIT economist and Obamacare “architect,” has earned “at least” $5.9 million since he was recruited by the Obama administration to help craft its health-care law.
According to the Caller’s Chuck Ross:
The federal government has paid Jonathan Gruber at least $4 million since the year 2000, for his work as an expert witness, a legal consultant and for his consultation on Obamacare.
That comes on top of at least $1.6 million the MIT economist has been paid by several states to consult on their health care bills.
Fox News’s James Rosen adds other findings, reporting that Gruber and his firm have secured millions in consulting fees over the last decade and a half. Rosen reports a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services worth more than $2 million, and another two HHS contracts worth just under $400,000, taken together. Gruber contracted for consulting work with the National Institutes of Health for $2.05 million, and with the Department of Justice for $1.74 million. From the State Department, for his testimony as an expert witness, he received $103,500.
Moreover:
Fox News found that Gruber and his firm shared in a $481,050 contract with Michigan, a $400,000 deal with Wisconsin, and a contract with Minnesota worth nearly $330,000. Other contracts included deals with California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts – where Gruber notably worked with then-Gov. Mitt Romney – Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
According to the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, Gruber is in such high demand because his “Gruber Microsimulation Model” is very like that used by the Congressional Budget Office. “That means administration policy-makers could predict with reasonable certainty how CBO would score legislation,” writes Kessler. “Given that legislation in Washington often falls or rises depending on the CBO score, that made this model a very powerful tool for administration officials.”
In Vermont, where Jonathan Gruber has a $400,000 contract with the state for “policy expertise, research, and economic modeling related to the implementation of Green Mountain Care,” the senate minority leader is calling for his termination. If he is successful, Gruber will no doubt weep — all the way home to his many government millions.