Will it be sedate and serious, an uncomfortable spell on the hot seat or news we can use? Many wonder what will be on the agenda when Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber appears before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to explain his comments about the “stupidity” of American voters, among many things.

“Expect members to go after Gruber on whether premium subsidies apply to Federal exchanges. Although Gruber claimed in an amicus brief that excluding subsidies from Federal exchanges was irreconcilable with ObamaCare’s purpose, in earlier videos he said that ObamaCare was designed to do just that. It will be fascinating to see how he tries to wiggle out of that,” says David Hogberg, healthcare analyst for the National Center for Public Policy Research.

The Congressional Budget Office offers a few dynamics as well.

“Look for some confusion over Gruber’s comments on the individual mandate.A lot of people think Gruber was saying in the video that the CBO didn’t score the mandate as a tax. What Gruber was probably referring to is that the CBO didn’t score the insurance people would have to buy as a tax - thus making the numbers look better. The CBO did exactly that during the debate over HillaryCare which was a big reason it failed,” the analyst adds.

A National Review analysis of public documents reveals the health-care economist received $5,886,150 in taxpayer-funded consulting fees from federal agencies and four states; the hearing itself is titled “Examining ObamaCare Transparency Failures”.

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