Did Obama Oppose The Excise Tax In July 2009? What Changed His Mind?

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Obama Administration
Posted on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 08:23:20 AM EST
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Via Greenwald, the NYTimes Ombudsman:

Jonathan Gruber, a prominent M.I.T. health economist, wrote an Op-Ed column in July supporting an excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans. Not long before, he had signed a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to analyze the economic impact of various health care proposals in Congress. He did not tell Op-Ed editors, nor was the contract mentioned on at least 12 other occasions when he was quoted in The Times after he was consulting for the administration. [. . .] He said he has long supported the tax and that the administration opposed it when he wrote his column, so he was hardly bending his views to a government paymaster.

(Emphasis supplied.) Did the Obama Administration oppose an excise tax in July 2009? This is news to me. My recollection is that Peter Orzag, Obama's head of OMB, has always been a proponent of the excise tax. I know of no statements by the Obama Administration opposing the excise tax. If Gruber is right, who opposed the excise tax and what changed their minds?

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Did Obama Oppose The Excise Tax In July 2009? What Changed His Mind? | 20 comments (20 topical)

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Taking a chicken noodle soup break (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by Militarytracy on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 10:16:36 AM EST

I'm shocked to find this thread uncluttered. Everyone else must up their armpits in daily life too today. I have read your observations of Cass Sustein in the past and everything you have pointed out in the past has panned out. Application of law doesn't make it into my daily life much, sadly application of combat zone "laws" seem to better understood in this house than our homeland laws. This is haunting though and has me asking self many many questions about voices who attempt to look "independent" yet can only wave Pom Poms for Obama. Some "independent" bloggers have some pretty impressive instant phone connections to National Security Council advisors too the minute the internet finds out we are going big in Afghanistan and is so ticked nobody can see straight. I'm seriously seriously beginning to question the credibility now of certain "leftwing" voices who can't seem to have an honest day about Obama or any of his Congressional majorities. And Cass Sustein is one of Obama's best buds in the whole world. Obviously President Obama has different ethical standards than almost anyone on the left who isn't being "influenced" by the administration to use their "independent" voices.

And Kos said to kill the Senate bill (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by Militarytracy on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 10:17:49 AM EST

Either Kos is straight up, or he's a triple agent :)


David Corn knows a lot of people (none / 0) (#7)
by Salo on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 10:56:20 AM EST

In the CIA. For some reason. Someone joked that crossfire on CNN represented the leftwing and right wing of the CIA. I'm pretty Christopher Hitchens is an on again off again SIS mouthpiece.


: Are you doing that Kos is CIA thing? (none / 0) (#8)
by Militarytracy on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 10:57:25 AM EST

Lies, lies, and more lies. (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by Cream City on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 10:26:28 AM EST

So, clean as this administration seems, I now am resigned to expecting sex and videotape, too.

Such potential lost to such hubris.

It may be the cynic in me, (5.00 / 2) (#9)
by Anne on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 11:17:29 AM EST

the one who keeps being presented with evidence that whatever "the administration" says on any given day is likely to be contradicted outright or via leak the next day, but depending on when Gruber said the administration opposed the excise tax at the time he wrote the column, I'm inclined to think this is damage control designed to rebut the growing conclusion that Gruber was hired specifically because the administration knew about his support for excise taxes and would be able to rely on Gruber to make a case for it.

I seriously do not have a clue why the administration, and Obama specifically, should have any credibility at all on this, or pretty much any other issue. They lie as easily as they breathe.

Perhaps (none / 0) (#11)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 11:30:31 AM EST

But is there a record somewhere that supports Gruber's assertion?


: Been looking - haven't found anything yet. (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by Anne on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 11:56:34 AM EST

The last time I recall Obama speaking about this issue in a negative way was during the campaign, when he blasted McCain for wanting to tax Cadillac plans; Obama didn't expressly say that he, himself, was opposed to it, just that McCain was for it, and Obama milked voters' expected opposition to it for all it was worth.
It was a "this is what John McCain wants to do" kind of rhetoric, but I don't recall Obama ever following it with, "that's not what I want to do" - ever.

: Since Obama campaigned against it, I assume (none / 0) (#17)
by steviez314 on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 01:08:03 PM EST

that was the "default" position, until told otherwise (ie., when the Baucus bill came out in September)

: if there was, (none / 0) (#20)
by cpinva on Mon Jan 18, 2010 at 03:18:41 AM EST

you'd think gruber would have provided some actual evidence (a cite) to support his claim. that he didn't suggests to me that there isn't one.

But is there a record somewhere that supports Gruber's assertion?

Another important question: (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by Robot Porter on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 11:32:45 AM EST

Did the Obama administration have equally high-paid experts who made the counter-argument?

A good question. (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by KeysDan on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 03:33:09 PM EST

But if Mr. Obama did, in fact, take a turn-about based just on Gruber, the hired gun, to sell the ideas of Peter Orzag or Ezeikiel Emmanuel, it sure calls into question his analytical skills. Of course, it is easier to connect the dots when there is only one.


: Heh. "Connect the dot!" (5.00 / 1) (#19)
by oldpro on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 08:19:50 PM EST

Great slogan/bumpersticker.

Boy, as I read (none / 0) (#1)
by KeysDan on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 10:10:18 AM EST

Clark Hoyt's public editor column your bolded lines also jumped out at me Maybe Gruber was trying to nuance the difference between the "administration" and Baucus's staff and friends--the most charitable interpretation. My sense is that the $400,000 consult was to organize his data around the Orzag et al policy. By the way, the NYT sure fell down on this one: Steven Greenhouse, the Times reporter, said he did include Gruber's gig in a draft but deleted it because the column was too long. Greenhouse would have reconsidered if he knew that the pay was as great as it was as if that really changed the conflict. Meanwhile, the expert outsider opinion cascaded through the Times pages and beyond.

here ya go (none / 0) (#5)
by TeresaInPa on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 10:48:04 AM EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8wmN3wvhNM

Ha, already there is videotape (5.00 / 1) (#10)
by Cream City on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 11:29:20 AM EST

vindicating my expectations (see comment above) of what would come with the lies, lies, lies.

But, frankly, if there is sex, too, I don't wanna know.


The campaign was what I was thinking of too (5.00 / 1) (#13)
by ruffian on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 11:37:06 AM EST

when trying to think if I had ever heard him oppose the excise tax. I don't remember it being called 'excise tax' at the time, but McCain certainly supported it, and Obama opposed it.

I'm sure McCain opposes it now, just as Obama supports it.


: Makes one dizzy (5.00 / 2) (#14)
by Militarytracy on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 11:39:32 AM EST

The insanity of the reality.

: By the summer (none / 0) (#15)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 11:50:16 AM EST

I am pretty sure Peter Orzag was supporting the excise tax.

Does the video discuss Obama views in (none / 0) (#6)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 10:53:43 AM EST

July 2009?
