"I Wish We Could Be Transparent With the American Voter"

I don't want to live in a world that depends on my stupidity. I don't want to live in a world that survives on mediocrity. I don't want to live in a world that is dumbed down for it's average citizens. I want to live in a constantly curious, educated, and critical thinking world. Yet, economist Jonathan Gruber has proven that this world I envision does not exist. And he's disappointingly okay with it.

Gruber is one of the leading advisors for Obama's Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Last year in an interview shortly after the law for nationwide healthcare was passed, he held a conference explaining the technical and economical aspects of it. The conservative party, which as a whole is against the Affordable Care Act, got nitty-gritty and delved into some of the more questionable notions, one of which is the ACA text's purposeful over complication and ambiguity. Gruber faced this accusation head on, and unashamedly said his team used tortured, twisting, turing text in order to get the bill passed. Gruber expressed that if it openly stated that poor people pay nothing, rich people lose money, it never would've passed. He said, "Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage" It may be a political advantage, but who is to say it is okay?

On the world stage, blindly leading others under false precepts has proven to have grave consequences. Hilter did this, Mao did this, Stallin did this. Gruber said,"I wish we could make it (the ACA) all transparent, but I'd rather have the law than not." We cannot allow ourselves to be herded like cattle. In order for the US to stay the world superpower and stay free, we as citizens must take up the responsibility of having intelligence. Every vote does matter. Individual voices do matter.

The nation Gruber is described isn't free at all. It is enslaved to it's own ignorance. The fault doesn't solely lie on Gruber either- he was just gutsy (and maybe unwise) enough to say it. I believe the fault lies on every American citizen who has failed to care about his nation's affairs. I'd be surprised to find any politician that has always been 100% transparent. That is the game of politics. And, over time, we as US citizens have let that happen. We have let politics become the monster it is today.

I am glad that Gruber was open about the deceptive methods his team had to take to get the ACA passed. It's utterly disappointing that it happened and it's honestly shameful. But the firestorm his words caused across the nation also have cause people to think. And that is a good thing for our country.

Sources: Washington Post, YouTube