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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Oregon's Health Exchange Gets Subpoenas

The federal criminal investigation of Oregon's health insurance exchange took a step into public view Tuesday when the U.S. Attorney's office issued broad subpoenas seeking information from Cover Oregon and the Oregon Health Authority.
While the Federal Bureau of Investigation's interest in the exchange debacle had beenpreviously reported, the legal demands dated May 13 indicate things may have moved beyond a preliminary inquiry to a full-blown investigation.
It appears that Oregon government spent at least $250 million to build a non-functioning online exchange.  My guess is that the subpoenas are looking for evidence of criminal behavior.  It is quite entertaining to read the comments from readers, overwhelmingly furious at what looks like money passed to political buddies.  There is nothing quite as entertaining as watching Democrats who actually work for a living getting livid at the discovery that their beloved party redistributes wealth to the billionaires to produce a useless website.

2 comments:

  1. I'm beginning to think that Michael Walsh's characterization of the Democratic Party ("a criminal organization masquerading as a political party") has real merit

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  2. It's even more surprising as an Oregonian.

    The State leans Democrat (not a strongly as one might think from outside), but mostly in a not-too-horrible way.

    (Jeff Merkley, who unfortunately represents me despite my best efforts to vote for Anyone Else, is the exception, not the rule.

    Ron Wyden, while I often disagree with him, doesn't obviously simply toe the Party Line.

    And our governors likewise aren't typically just Democrat apparatchiks.)

    That level of incompetence or graft is not the perceived norm here, unlike, say, parts of the East Coast.

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