Jim wallace here who can talk, i think who can inform what are sometimes dry policy debates with a prophetic voice. Hello, everybody. Im martha maccallum. President obama admitting that he sometimes stole ideas from jonathan imriewber, the economist who has repeatedly claimed that it was a lack of traps is i combined with the stupidity of the American Voter that helped the Obama Administration to get this bill of obamacare through the house and the senate. And republican representative kristi noem joins us now. Congresswomau with us tonight. Thank you, martha. Good to be with you. Poor Jonathan Gruber. A lot of people who knew him now pretending that they didnt know him. Thats what is so offensive about this situation is that the white house, nancy pelosi and the president talking about his objective analysis. Held it up as an example what they should craft their signature legislation after. Now when they see what a disaster it is and what comments truly in the arrogance of him trying to hide him and distance himself. American people are smarter than that and we are going to keep talking about the fact that this is the element in the environment in which obamacare was drafted. Thats why its so flawed. Do you think that americans deserve more of a response from the white house given the fact that we have seen all of these comments from various members of the white house and top democratic officials who said, you know, yes, that they admired his work. Why not just be honest with the American People . Absolutely. Americans deserve the truth. An apology would be in order. Althoughs thats not going to make anything right. Thats not going to help anybody struggling to pay healthcare premiums or those who dont have healthcare or lost it because of obamacare. It certainly wont fix anything. At least we have a president who will at least be honest and truthful rather than continuing to cover up the mistakes that he has made. So a lot of people look at the g. O. P. At this point and say what would you do . I mean, now you have got a lot of power on capitol hill. But we have heard time and time again that the bill really cant be repealed. It cant be clawed back at this point. What can we do. We have seen appear example of what republicans are willing to do. While we would love to see obamacare repealed we have been working to make it better for as many people as possible. Seven different bills have gotten through the house and the president that the president has signed into law recognizing that they were so big and so disastrous that they needed to be fixed in order for American People to be willing to try to survive with this healthcare bill as it is today. But, also, we have provisions and laws that we have proposed that really would reform our Healthcare System. Make sure more people get coverage that hadnt have it before and make sure more competitive environment for costs to go down. Those bills have been filed for months. People can look at them and read them and have experts give testimony on them and feedback and put together a bill thats actually going to work rather than one like this healthcare bill was put together in secret, behind closed doors, lies in committee hearings. You know, republicans just wont do that to the American People. We are doing in a very different manner. Frankly the Republican Party deserves credit for that. This is very uncomfortable situation to say the least thats going on here. I think a lot of people are reacting very negatively to this mans words unfortunately. Thank you very much kristi noem, congresswoman good to see you tonight. Thank you. Good to see you. In many ways it is worse than we ever imagined. Turns out Jonathan Gruber was paid almost 6 million in taxpair payer funded fees. While calling the American People stupid at the same time. Lack of transparency a huge political advantage. Basically call it the stupidity of the American Voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting this thing to pass. Yep. It was critical. Thats how he got it passed. The Washington Post political reporter aaron blake joins me now. Aaron, where did all this money come from for Jonathan Gruber . Basically about 2 million of this money came from project relating to obamacare. About 400,000 from consulting for the white house. And then about 400,000 for four states that we know of that were implementing their exchanges that were under obamacare in the years that followed. He also consulted with four other states. We dont know how much money he made from those states. At the going rate of another 400,000 per state, its safe to assume he might have made each more than a Million Dollars more from those states. Going back a little bit further, he consulted for the department of justice. Especially in some tobacco cases in the early 2,000s. He has also had a contract with the department of hhs over the last few years, focusing mostly on Medicare Part d and how elderly people are actually using that new Prescription Drug benefit. All right. So, the president sort of used some clever phrasing, i think on this. He said he wasnt part of our staff. So he wasnt part of the white house staff. But is it, according to your reporting, a stretch to say that he was not a huge part of working on this plan . He certainly made a lot of money working on it. Yeah. Look. Everybody is trying to get distanced from Jonathan Gruber right now. Nobody wants to be his friend. You are seeing both the left and the right really distance themselves from this guy. The right didnt like him for a while there and now the left doesnt like him because they dont want to be associated with him. Seeing all kind of verbal games being played here. Nancy pelosi says i dont even know who he is. She has talked about him. She knows who he is. Everybody who watched this debate knows who jonathan griewber is and the role he has played in this. Whether you want to say a consultant to the white house who was in on some Oval Office Meetings, wasnt technically on staff, whether he technically wrote the bill, which is another line in the sand that nancy pelosi has drawn, i think its pretty clear that jonathan griewber is a pretty significant voice in the Healthcare System that we have crafted in this country right now. But i think the line that the white house is drawing right now is that he wasnt specifically involved in this strategy part of things. He wasnt specifically involved in, you know, feasting on the socalled stupidity of the American People. All right. Thank you very much, arab. Good to talk to you tonight. And over the week president obama insisted he did not mislead the public about obama care thats decide what Jonathan Gruber said over and over and over. No economist would ever set up a Health System with a tax provided terrible policy. Only way to take it on is first by mislabeling it. Calling it a tax on Insurance Plan rather than tax on people. We all know its a tax on people sphwhvment what mandate [inaudible] price controls. [ laughter ] what we did in that room is how to make this work. Really realistic guy. I just cant too this. Its not going to happen politically. Its not going to pass. Ted kennedy rip off the feds for 400 million a year. Very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American Voter. The American Voter is too stupid to understand. Transparency a huge political advantage. Basically calling call it the stupidity of the American Voter or whatever, basically that was really, really critical to getting this thing to pass. There you go. President obama also dismissed gruber as an advisor. He was never on our staff as i just said. And joining us now our Political Panel tonight the the Washington Post philip bunk, National Reviews rich lowry. Gentlemen, welcome. Its just disturbing on any level really to watch this. And to listen to this man sort of belittle the American People and act like, you know, we are all smarter than they are and this is what is good for them. If they sort of suck it up, they will realize we know whats going on and we know whats supposed to happen and its all going to turn out just fine for those dumb people in the end. Rich . Its devastating and i think its a window into the progressive mind. I dont think anyone is standing up in i of these meetings what are you saying im outraged by this. Nodding and laughing and chuckling. These denials from the administration, from nancy pelosi, basically, they are claiming that he just showed up in the Oval Office Meetings without anyone knowing who he was. And just there accidently. As if they forget there is historical record and videotape of all of them citing him and praising him because he was a key guru in this process and cited as such by the press for years. There is a reinstates were hiring him so much money to help set up their exchanges because this guy was the was central to the process all along. All right. So the white house tim to some extent loose cannon we dont know who he. Putting it off on him. Thats not what our bill is about. Thats not what we have intended. We want the American People to know we have been transparent throughout this whole process. Thats what the mouse is saying because they are trying to look forward. When i was invited on the show today we were going to ask is the white house going to talk about david gruber or obamacare . I think they should talk about obamacare if they want to get around. This the open Enrollment Period begun. Going pretty well. 70 of people on the Obamacare Exchanges like it. C about. O confirms its cutting cost. Down. This is obviously a distraction for the administration. I think the question is with the republicans in office right now senator michigan mcconnell now has the opportunity to push some of those bills that representative nome just told us about to fix it. I think the question for senator mcconnell is what is the best way to get my republican ideas into this bill . And i dont know if that is putting david cutler in front excuse me, thats another economist. Jonathan gruber in front of the senate i which. Do americans really care what an academic said in 2009 or fixing problems now. The problem is that its the underhighing elements that is he saying that is true. Which underlying elements. Pass it is a tax. If you want to cover everybody in america. Wrote a great column. This man has come prepared use my words against me. The administration has said when this bill was so contentious and having the such trouble getting it through big democratic majorities. Of this is a wide ranging tax increase on the American People. Involves enormous new spending. Dont necessarily get to keep your Healthcare Plan if you like it. It never would have passed. Never. Exactly. And i think that there is a very particular interpretation of what mr. Gruber is saying is the one that has caught the publics imagination totally justifiably. The reason distancing itself is incredibly stupid to say. Also interpretation of what he said that is about how it is difficult to convey the complex is is. People did get it. They are not stupidity. Rich says they were mislead but you said they quote it. It it wasnt that it was so hard to explain this complex law they made the law more complex to make it difficult to understand. Thats why there are no direct taxes on anyone. Thats the point is he making. You say its on Insurance Companies and employers and you hide the ball and you deny all the way all it did, that you are taxing Insurance Plans for individuals because it gets passed down. In an attempt to make bipartisan bill didnt work. Very food reasons it didnt work. Political reasons and economic reasons it didnt work. I totally accept that the position we are in now is there are three states of questions around obamacare. There is the existent current question we are discussing now to what extent did the great lakes work with gruber on obamacare act. Aca. Different question related to the first one. Then there is the question of how much good is obamacare doing. Supreme court ruled it was a tax. They substantiated everything griewner said in this it would be passed on to the American People and it would be a tax. Thats how they judged it to be legal in the end. Gruber is saying thats what we knew all along we couldnt present this it that way people didnt like it. They didnt want their cost to go up. Want everybody to have cheaper healthcare which hasnt turned out to be the case. Both of you agreed were going to raise everyones income taxes. 2. income tax increase. We have to lee it there. If you thought jonathan griewber was insulting to americans before, listen to this. He also says that older americans, seniors, actually do a terrible job in his opinion of choosing their Healthcare Plan. According to a presentation slide that he wrote last year and representative Michele Bachmann joins us now. Representative, good to have you tonight. Thank you. Good to be with you. Is this just about Jonathan Gruber . He is unappealing and saying things that upset people and doesnt have effect on underlying law. It absolutely has impact on underlying law. Thats what the underlying law is it says we are big government. Were going to make the decisions. You go stand in the corner and you pay the bills. You get whatever it is that we say you are going to get. What this really shows, these commence from Jonathan Gruber is what leftist really think about the American People when they are behind closed doors the mask came down and now they think that Senior Citizens are stupid. They arent capable of making their own choices on Prescription Drugs. Again, this gives us more fuel, martha Going Forward for repeal. The night that obamacare passed i was on the floor of the house of representatives. I went back to my office. The next morning we introduced the repeal of obamacare. Thats the heart of the American People. We believe in freedom and choice. Whatever happened to the old mantra womens lives and womens freedom its all lost in this bill. Women, millennials, senior stipulates, americans of all walks of life want the highest quality healthcare at the lowest possible price and the best access for everyone. Thats not obamacare. Leftist dont give americans that option. Thats why this will be rejected in when we have a new president in 2016. We will finally get good quality healthcare. You heard perhaps one of my previous guests who said the Enrollment Period is opened. Its going well. They are getting more and more people to sign up. He feels that this Jonathan Gruber issue is something thats going to wash away because a lot of people are going to be really happy with what they have. Thats all happy pink fog because its not true. Its not whats happening on the ground. We have a lot of people that have trouble getting into these web sites. The other thing, martha, is sticker shock. We are seeing huge increases in these premiums. Not only in the Obamacare Exchanges. But in the private market. Remember, a lot of times its the private market where we are getting healthcare through our employers. Its the private market offset Government Programs medicaid or whatever government program. The costs are going through the roof. Everything president obama offered is to me the biggest one people need to remember. Remember, president obama promised us that our Health Insurance premiums would reduce 2500 a year. Put your hand up. If your healthcare premiums reduced 2500 a year. No ones did. Thats why im confident this will be repealed one day not now but after 2016 its going to happen. People should hold on to hope. We will see. Congresswoman thank you. Good to have you with us tonight. Thank you. What does Jonathan Gruber have to say about all of this today. Today Shawn Hannity sent a crew to mit to ask him that question. Do you really think the American Voters are stupid . What about the obamacare . Is that just a hoax on the American People . Very chatty before but didnt have much to say. At that moment we will she show you more of that hannity exclusive come up tonight on hannity. And straight ahead right here, you will hear from the parents of the third american who was beheaded by isis, an awful, awful story and this poor family as they are dealing with this today. What the Obama Administration is doing to combat isis before more americans are murdered. Former congressman alan west will join us to talk about that next. Plus, we have this treat for you tonight. Got his interview with president bush 43 in his chi