The real idiots in Grubergate were Democrats in Congress

Danny Vinik correctly argues that Gruber is right about how Congress views policy-making. He’s also right that both parties do these sorts of things all the time. But he’s wrong to suggest that it’s the stupidity of American voters at work here — it’s Congress, and to a lesser extent, the political press, that have brain problems.

The root problem of the negotiations over ObamaCare was that Democrats were obsessed with Beltway political neuroses. They strained mightily to ensure the policy didn’t increase the deficit. They delayed implementation for two whole years to make the policy look cheaper than it really was (because the Congressional Budget Office traditionally scores laws over 10 years). They twisted themselves into knots to avoid the individual mandate being labeled as a tax (which the Supreme Court forced on them anyway).

Nobody outside the political elite cares about this kind of stuff. At all. Indeed, it’s fair to say that most American voters aren’t even aware of these machinations. Most Americans barely know which party is in charge of which part of government, whether the deficit is going up or down, which presidential candidate has which platform, etc., let alone the tortured negotiation details of hugely complex piece of legislation.

But that’s ignorance, not stupidity.