Obamacare Economist Regrets 'Stupid Voter' Remarks

Jonathan Gruber has become the face of Obamacare for comments he made about the "stupidity" of American voters.

"Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage," Gruber said in a newly unearthed 2013 clip. "Call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever. But basically, that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass."

Speaking before the House Oversight Committee Tuesday, the MIT economist apologized for those words, calling them glib and insulting. 

"It's never appropriate to make oneself seem more important or smarter by demeaning others," he told the panel. "I knew better. I know better. I'm embarrassed and I'm sorry."

What happens when politicians attempt to practice medicine? Michael Daughtery is president of LabMD, an Atlanta-based medical laboratory, and author of The Devil Inside the Beltway, reacts to Gruber's back tracking.

Both political parties had a special fury for Gruber.

"You made a series of troubling statements that were not only an insult to the American people, but revealed a pattern of intentional misleading the public about the true impact and nature of Obamacare," Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told the economist.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., was also displeased, saying Gruber's comments were a public relations gift to Republicans wrapped with a bow.

"As far as I can tell we are here today to beat up on Jonathan Gruber for stupid, I mean absolutely stupid comments he made over the past few years," the ranking Democratic committee member charged.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said, "Mr. Gruber in a strange way I kind of appreciate what you said in the videos because it seems to me that for the first time someone came clean and told the truth."

Meanwhile, Gruber insisted he was unqualified to comment on the politics behind the legislation he helped to craft.

"I'm not a politician nor a political adviser," he said.

But Republicans weren't buying that claim, and they pressed him to detail just how much he was paid to help put together the president's healthcare plan.

"What I'm asking you is how much money did the taxpayers, state or federal, pay you to have you then lie to them -- that's what I want to know," Rep. Jordan asked.

During some five hours on the hot seat, Gruber worked hard to promote the legislation he helped to create.

"I behaved badly and I'll have to live with that, but my own inexcusable arrogance is not a flaw in the Affordable Care Act," Gruber testified.

Many Americans, however, have already found the flaws.

The latest Gallup poll shows a record low 37 percent approve of Obamacare, while a record high 56 percent disapprove.

It's one reason why the Democrats took such a beating in this year's mid-term elections, why Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called passing Obamacare in 2010 a mistake, and why the political theatre around Gruber just magnifies what has become a significant political problem for Democrats.