A close friend once told me that if he were king for a day, he would end income tax withholding (forcing everyone to actually write a check to the government for taxes owed) and reschedule election day to the week after this payment was due.  Tax withholding employs the tactic so eloquently revealed by Johnathan Gruber recently.  Speaking about the Unaffordable Care Act (UCA), he basically said that a lack of transparency provided the otherwise un-passable and un-workable law a distinct advantage.  Those in control of the regime counted on  the stupidity of the average voter, according to Mr. Gruber.  

Why in the world is everyone so shocked that a government regime that would lie to us about surveillance (and wars and everything else!) would lie to us about healthcare?  I would argue that a lack of transparency in government has been the standard for quite some time.  

Back to taxes.  A young person recently opined about the amounts Medicare and Social Security withheld from his check.  He actually knew what FICA was!  When I told him that what he saw on his pay stub was only half of what was truly deducted (he wasn’t aware of the employer “contribution”) he was shocked.  This was not known to him and I would argue that this lack of transparency is deliberate.  

Ask an employee how much their employer-provided health insurance costs.  They’ll answer with the amount deducted from their paycheck, not knowing that this is just their contribution, usually having no idea what balance is paid by their employer.  This, too, is deliberate and the reason insurance companies have worked so hard to maintain the tax deductibility of employer health insurance purchases, while fighting the individual deductibility of these expenses.  Hiding the true price provides a certain advantage to those who would like to increase their charges from time to time.  

You know where I  am going with this, don’t you? Should we be surprised that hospitals, hardly transparent in their pricing, are inclined to see what they can get away with?  Is it accurate to claim that this lack of transparency has provided them somewhat of an advantage?

Mr. Gruber is an arrogant central planner, the personification of Hayek’s fatal conceit, one who knows what is best for the rest of us.  Now and then the tyrants of the world and their Grubers reveal their unvarnished ideas, having found it impossible to maintain their lack of transparency continuously.  We should always think the worst of those in power and should embrace arrogant gaffs as truly characteristic of who these people are and what they think of the rest of us.  

Those who would continue to support the implementation of a law like the UCA should