‘It’s a Scandal Much Worse Than New Jersey’
Posted by Jammie on Feb 11, 2014 at 8:28 am
Pray tell, what could actually be worse than a couple of days of ramp closures leading the George Washington Bridge? Psst, it embarrasses Democrats, so move along, nothing to see here.
The story behind the massive failure of the Oregon health exchange website continues to unravel as allegations of fraud and gross mismanagement mount.
Local news agencies have obtainedemails and other reports suggesting state officials lied about the progress of the website, possibly even creating dummy sites to present to federal officials.
“It’s a scandal much worse than New Jersey,” said state GOP representative Dennis Richardson, who is running for governor against incumbent Democrat Gov. John Kitzhaber.
The issue is starting to bubble up to Capitol Hill. Richardson is calling for an audit of the program by the federal Government Accountability Office. That push would likely come from Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.), the only Republican in the Oregon delegation.
A spokesman for Walden said the congressman is “aggressively pursuing” more information about the botched rollout of the website.
“Greg is very concerned about failure of Cover Oregon,” a spokesman for Walden said in a statement to the Free Beacon. “The breakdown of the exchange is unacceptable, and taxpayers deserve accountability for the more than $300 million the federal government has given the state.”
Oregon’s health care exchange recently announced it has enrolled more than 100,000 people, which is impressive considering not a single one enrolled through the exchange website.
The Cover Oregon site was supposed to be a model for other states launching health care exchanges. It received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for the program.
And it still doesn’t work. But good luck finding even a second of coverage from any of the networks on this scam, and nary a mention at Oregon’s largest newspaper. Meanwhile, Democrats are now reduced to chasing Chris Christie around the country. Yes, really. Just a bit of overkill.
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