Shumlin says he heard people during elections... his actions in this issue (and others yet to come) prove otherwise!!! From Vermonters for Health care Freedom Vermont Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning is calling on Gov. Peter Shumlin to terminate the contract of Jonathan Gruber following the release of videos showing the MIT professor intentionally deceived the public in drafting the Affordable Care Act. “I join with my Senate colleague, Sen. Kevin Mullin, in urging the governor to terminate his contract,” Benning, R-Caledonia, told Vermont Watchdog. “If the powers that be attempted to trick them like that, then those people should be immediately removed from positions of authority, be they elected officials or hired contractors.” Benning is the second member of the Vermont Senate to call for Gruber’s termination. Last week, Mullin, R-Rutland, a member of the Health Care Oversight Committee, told Vermont Watchdog the governor should “terminate his contract immediately. State Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, said Vermont’s single-payer health care law also would not have passed if the public had been told the truth about its cost. “Gruber was involved in the original study by Dr. (William) Hsiao. The Legislature and the governor pushed for passage of Act 48 even though it did not have a financing plan. Dr. Hsiao’s report had possible financing plans, but the governor chose not to specify a financing plan. If he had, that bill would not have passed,” Browning told Vermont Watchdog. “They’re being practical politicians, and the ends justify the means, according to them,” she said. According to Act 48, the governor was required to provide the Legislature with a plan for financing single-payer health care by January 2013. When Shumlin chose not to comply with the law, Browning filed a public records request in March 2014, and later sued when the governor claimed executive privilege. “The governor keeps saying, ‘We don’t have a plan.’ He may not have the final plans, but alternative plans exist, and professor Gruber is using them, and I think those should be shared with Vermonters,” Browning said. Browning said Gruber was provided with draft financing plans to do his economic modeling work for the state. When asked if Gruber’s views against government transparency may have influenced Shumlin’s decision to conceal his financing plans, she said, “The governor and the legislative majority are the ones who endorsed this approach. Whether it was Gruber’s idea or not I don’t know, but it’s extremely disappointing, and it means that anything they come out with is probably going to be compromised in the eyes of Vermonters.” “You need to be clear about what you’re doing. And if people can’t support the benefits of a program and the way you’re going to pay for it, you can’t do it,” Browning said. Read more at: watchdog.org/183491/benning-terminate-gruber/
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 01:20:21 +0000
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