Trying to Slide One By

Ah, January! We sink into a post-Christmas torpor and watch an occasional football game, recuperate financially from Christmas, try to stay warm, and bemoan the gray skies. Life is put on semi-hold for awhile, almost like bears hibernating. Which is exactly why the Democratic Oregon Legislature set an election for one of their pet projects on January 23.

You should have received your ballot for Measure 101. This is a continuation of the Spendathon by the Dems and it proposes taxing health insurance premiums and hospitals  (who can pass it on to their patients) to fund the huge Obamacare expansion of Oregon Medicaid, including paying for abortions for anybody from anywhere at any time, no questions asked.  The Democratic Legisature put this on the ballot in January, aiming for a low turnout by hopefully catching Republicans napping in Hawaii or Arizona in order to bail the Dems out of their management malfeasance. Que? Remember the Secretary of State's audit report this Fall saying 37,000 people had received $191M in benefits they weren't entitled to receive? Then there is the $300M Oregon Obamacare website that never went on-line. But what's a half-BILLION dollars here or there? Coincidentally, just about the amount sought by Measure 101!

Leaving aside all the policy questions of how Oregon should spend its money, if Oregonians want to tax themselves into oblivion, then fine, but let's have elections designed to actually hear the voice of the people instead of quietly trying to slip one by. 

www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/07/oregon_finds_nearly_half_the_m.html