Jonathan Holmes Gruber is a prominent American economist specializing in public finance and health economics. He has been a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 1992, where he currently holds the title of Ford Professor of Economics and serves as Chairman of the Economics Department. He is widely known as a key architect of both the Massachusetts health care reform of 2006 (often called 'Romneycare') and the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), serving as a technical consultant during its drafting (2009–2010). Gruber previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department (1997–1998) and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), where he previously directed the Health Care Program. In 2014, he became embroiled in controversy when video footage from 2013 surfaced showing him making remarks about the ACA's legislative strategy, including comments about 'lack of transparency' and the 'stupidity of the American voter,' which led to political backlash, congressional hearings, and public apologies. He holds numerous professional affiliations, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Social Insurance, and Econometric Society, and is a former president of the American Society of Health Economists. He was raised in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and is the son of Martin Jay Gruber, a professor emeritus of finance at NYU Stern.