In 2012, Jonathan Gruber said that residents of states that refused to set up health exchanges would not be eligible for tax credits. This week, he said that he was talking about the possibility that the federal government would not set up its own exchange as a fallback, rather than denying that people using the federal exchange would be eligible for credits. Peter Suderman looks into this story at Reason:
For several reasons, it’s difficult to buy this updated explanation. For one thing, it conveniently ignores the question Gruber was asked in that January 2012 presentation, which was about the establishment of exchanges. “It is my understanding that if states don’t provide them,” the questioner says, “then the federal government will provide them for the states.”
In his response, Gruber doesn’t dispute this at all. In fact, he opens his response by saying, “yeah,” in agreement with the questioner. . . .