If you are thinking about commenting in "private" or in class or at conferences on public issues, think carefully

Some blog readers may recall that before there was "Obamacare," there was Romneycare in Massachusetts (and still is) from which the federal idea came.  Then, before there was Obamacare, there was Schwarzeneggercare here in California in 2007 which was ultimately not enacted.*  Both of the state plans - the one that is in MA and the one that might have been in CA - had, as an expert consultant, Professor Jonathan Gruber of MIT who prepared forecasts of costs and how many people would be covered.

From the Washington Post:

The Republican Party’s ardent campaign against President Obama’s health-care law gained new momentum Wednesday as lawmakers reacted angrily to assertions by an architect of the policy that it was crafted in a deliberately deceptive way in order to pass Congress. On both sides of the Capitol, leading conservatives said they may call economist Jonathan Gruber to testify about his remarks, which were made last year and surfaced this week in a video on social media. In the video, Gruber suggests that the administration’s signature health-care legislation passed in part because of the “stupidity of the American voter” and a “lack of transparency” over its funding mechanisms. “The strategy was to hide the truth from the American people,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who is slated to chair the Senate Budget Committee next year. “That is a threat to the American republic.” Gruber has been a complicated figure in the history of the health-care law. He helped the Obama administration craft the measure and has been a leading advocate of it, but he has also made sporadic comments sparking political brush fires that have been problematic for the law’s supporters. The White House sought Wednesday to distance itself from Gruber and his comments...

Full story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gops-anti-obamacare-push-gains-new-momentum-in-wake-of-gruber-video/2014/11/12/e0d6b4d2-6aa7-11e4-9fb4-a622dae742a2_story.html

In short, you, too, could be a TV star! (But maybe you don't want to be.  If you don't, assume the cameras are rolling when you voice opinions.)


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*http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/documents/areas/fac/hrob/Mitchell_WUSA-Health.pdf