Could Have All Been Avoided

I will talk more about how Jonathon Gruber not seeing the full story of "unaffordable" health care for some unknown reason a little later (though the one and only Ms. Wheeler has the full perspective on that already).

But regardless on if you even agree with Gruber's premise on the Excise Tax being "good policy" in the final Health Insurance Reform bill, the Kos' astute policy reporter Joan McCarter says it exactly right here (bolded words from me):

Gruber received his first contract back in March, and didn't disclose these contracts publicly until last month, and that's a problem. Gruber's analysis has been used for public relations by the White House in support the plan. Using the excuse that "if anyone asked, I told them" is not the same as actual transparency, and opens Gruber and the White House up, unnecessarily, to criticism on the transparency front. This isn't to question Gruber's qualifications as an economist or to suggest that his analysis has been influenced by the money. It's to point out that by not disclosing that he was getting paid for these analyses, that he opened himself--and the White House--to those charges from the bill's opponents. The lack of disclosure for all these months was a boneheaded move by both Gruber and the White House.

Opening themselves up to easy attacks by Republicans and conservatives is the end result of this lazy and careless non-move by the Obama Administration here.

The transparency vows utter on the campaign take another hit. And it is even more of a blow because it sure was an unnecessary one.

Oh, and speaking of lack of transparency:

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show

Transparency for some withe the last name "G" is not fully prevalent in this post.