November 22, 2014
Governor Shumlin, It’s Time to Actually Terminate Jonathan Gruber’s Vermont Contract
Montpelier, VT – On November 12th, Vermonters for Health Care Freedom was the first to call for the Governor to terminate Jonathan Gruber. Gruber is the MIT professor who was the architect of ObamaCare, and the self-admitted purveyor of deceptions and lies which he perpetrated in order to get the law passed. He is also the consultant hired by the Shumlin Administration to advise the Vermont legislature on how to pay for single payer come January 15, 2015.
After more than a week’s delay and more calls for the Governor to terminate Mr. Gruber, Lawrence Miller, Shumlin’s health care reform chief, made a hasty announcement at a legislative briefing that was both confusing and deceptive. Miller announced that to help assuage some of the criticism of Gruber, Vermont would withhold the rest of Gruber’s payment while still relying on him to complete the financing work, At that time, VHCF President Darcie Johnston asked members of the Vermont Press Corps for a copy of Mr. Gruber’s amended agreement with Vermont stating that he would not be paid for any further work.
Today we learned that despite many requests from national and Vermont media, the Shumlin administration has yet to produce a new or amended agreement with Jonathan Gruber.
Vermonters for Health Care Freedom again calls upon Governor Shumlin to fully terminate Mr. Gruber’s contract immediately, as the State of North Carolina did this week. The administration is called upon to make any and all communications and single payer work product available to Vermont legislators, Vermont media, any Vermonter who makes a public records request, and the Congressional Oversight Committee that has subpoenaed Mr. Gruber to appear before them on December 9th.
Further we call upon Governor Shumlin terminate Lawrence Miller for his claims that Jonathan Gruber would no longer be doing work for Vermont, and Robin Lunge for failing to manage the terms of the Gruber contract requiring detailed proofs of work in the invoices he submitted for payment.
As we all know, 54% of Vermonters recently voted against reelecting Governor Shumlin. Clearly Vermonters have lost confidence in him. Most, if not all of the negative vote was a referendum on Shumlin’s single payer scheme.
“By firing Jonathan Gruber, Governor Shumlin had an opportunity to take the first step in restoring Vermonters’ confidence in him and his administration. He failed to do so. VHCF believes he was intentionally trying to deceive Vermonters and the Vermont Legislature withWednesday’s announcement that to date has not produced a revised agreement signed by both parties and publically disclosed,” added Darcie Johnston.
“Governor Shumlin, Vermonters are watching you and we don’t believe you’ve changed. If you truly want to lead this state to better days and want the confidence of Vermonters that you are worthy to be our Governor, you must terminate Jonathan Gruber, Lawrence Miller and Robin Lunge immediately,” concluded Darcie Johnston.
As we said last week, Governor Shumlin can begin the process now of introducing the transparency he always talks about, by getting rid of Jonathan Gruber, Lawrence Miller and Robin Lunge and fully disclosing all documents related to his much-awaited financing plan for single payer/government run health care.
A Message from Vermonters for Health Care Freedom (VHCF)
There is no doubt that the well-funded single payer groups and Governor Shumlin would like to see VHCF go away. But we cannot - and, with your help, we will not.
VHCF is the sole voice of public dissention - in a sea of single payer government-run health care advocates. We represent folks like you, who have not “drunk the Kool-Aid”. No other Vermont organization is dedicated solely to this work. There are many well-funded groups on the other side, spending a lot of money to bring about single payer. But VHCF receives no funding from the big-money groups. We are a grass-roots organization that relies completely on supporter donations to remain in business.
We are grateful for the support we have received, but without continuing support from grassroots Vermonters, we cannot continue to be effective at preventing Governor Shumlin and his like-minded friends from implementing a single payer health plan by 2017.
Please take a moment now to give generously, by clicking the link below, or sending a contribution to: Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, PO Box 1515, Montpelier, VT 05601.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Darcie L. Johnston
Founder, VHCF
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