RED ALERT: WaPo Op-Ed Columnist Paid to Promote ObamaCare

On 28 December 2009, The Washington Post published a staunch defense of government-run health care written by an MIT economics professor named Jonathan Gruber. The gist of Gruber's op-ed: the tax on 'Cadillac' health care plan isn't really a tax -- it's simply "a plan to finance real health reform":

...The Senate assessment on high-cost insurance plans doesn't walk like a tax or talk like a tax -- because it is not a tax. It is an innovative way of financing the health reform we so desperately need.

What the WaPo failed to disclose is that Gruber was awarded a 'sole source' contract by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contract is called "Technical Assistance in Evaluating Options for National Healthcare Reform", which would explain Gruber's strenuous language.

Today Ben Smith of Politico engaged Gruber in the following Q&A:

"[D]on’t you think it’s rather, um, dubious that the guy evaluating the heath care reform–for $300,000–is also the package’s single biggest champion? And no one has been transparent about this contract?"...

...at no time have I publicly advocated a position that I did not firmly believe - indeed, I have been completely consistent with my academic track record... Every position I have advocated on this topic is completely consistent with these reports.

In short, Gruber was battling critics of Obamacare in friendly media outlets like The Washington Post without any disclosure of his conflicts-of-interest.

...while he was being paid to provide his services to HHS, he was also fending off health care reform critics in the media. Gruber was one of the prominent analysts to rebut an insurance industry report from PricewaterhouseCoopers in October saying premiums would shoot up if a health care bill passes. And he has recently written columns defending specific provisions in the House and Senate bills, particularly the "Cadillac tax" on high-cost insurance plans...

But a column in The Washington Post on the Cadillac tax just a few days later did not disclose his relationship with the administration. Gruber was listed merely as a "professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

Government documents explaining the terms of his contract say that he was "uniquely positioned" for providing analysis for the health department's assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, describing him as a "recognized expert in health policy in economics."

That's what we call an infomercial, kids.

These are the depths to which "mainstream newspapers" like WaPo have been reduced.

While you're reading, can I interest you in some ShamWow™?