Reince Preibus is right. It’s not just Jonathan Gruber that thinks the American public is both gullible and stupid. Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid do as well. As do most left-wing liberals and progressives. As Rich Lowry of National Review writes:

This denies Gruber his due. He has done us all a favor by affording us an unvarnished look into the progressive mind, which values complexity over simplicity, favors indirect taxes and impositions on the American public so their costs can be hidden, and has a dim view of the average American.

Complexity is a staple of liberal policymaking. It is a product of its scale and reach, but also of the imperative to hide the ball. Taxing and spending and redistributive schemes tend to be unpopular, so clever ways have to be found to deny that they are happening. This is what Gruber was getting at. One reason Obamacare was so convoluted is that its supporters didn’t want to straightforwardly admit how much the law was raising taxes and using the young and healthy to subsidize everyone else.

This is nothing new. I think it was fairly apparent at the time that both the White House and the Democratic leadership knew damned well what was in the legislation and the reasoning behind it, just as they also knew that if the American public truly knew what was in the ACA, not only would the American public rise up against it, but also many members of their own party. Which is why in the end they had to throw so many goodies and promises at members of Congress both left and further left. It’s ironic that Nancy Pelosi’s priceless and inane comment that “we have to pass the bill in order to see what is in it” was probably one of the only truths spoken over the course of the entire debate.

So while Jonathan Gruber’s comments are shocking, they’re not nearly as outrageous as discovering that he’s earned millions of dollars championing the very same cause he admits was sold to Americans under false pretenses. It’s bad enough to be fleecing taxpayers while pushing your own agenda, but to do it so shamelessly knowing full well the legislative lies and sleight-of-hand involved with very little pushback from the mainstream media is in and of itself truly a disgrace.