If there's anything that makes me want to scream, it's the vast, tangled web of financial interests that make up the D.C. policy, advocacy and media
January 8, 2010

If there's anything that makes me want to scream, it's the vast, tangled web of financial interests that make up the D.C. policy, advocacy and media establishment. It's gotten to the point where, whenever I attend a conference or political event, my first question of people is: "So! Who's paying you?"

Great catch via Marcy:

MIT health economist Jonathan Gruber has been the go-to source that all the health care bill apologists point to to defend otherwise dubious arguments. But he has consistently failed to disclose that he has had a sole-source contract with the Department of Health and Human Services since June 19, 2009 to consult on the “President’s health reform proposal.”

He is one source for the claim that the excise tax will result in raises for workers (though his underlying study is in-apt to the excise tax question). He is the basis for the argument that the Senate bill reduces families’ risk–even if it remains totally unaffordable. Even Politico stenographer Mike Allen points to Gruber’s research.

But none of the references to Gruber I’ve seen have revealed that Gruber has a $297,600 contract with HHS to produce,

a technical memorandum on the estimated changes in health insurance coverage and associated costs and impacts to the government under alternative specifications of health system reform. The requirement includes developing estimates of various health reform proposals on health insurance coverage and cost. The alternative specifications to be considered will be derived from the President’s health reform proposal. [my emphasis]

Here's Gruber's response.

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