What embarrassing things have you done to impress a significant other? Wear pungent cologne? Exaggerate your resume? Rest easy, because it could be worse — like Oregon governor Dr. John Kitzhaber, you could’ve extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxpayers just to please your sweetie pie.
Fiancee with a criminal history.
Kitzhaber’s fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, boasts a long criminal history. Earlier in her life, she was paid $5,000 to have an illegal secret marriage with an immigrant. She then purchased a $245,000 piece of land with the intent of forming an illegal marijuana grow operation.
Hayes confessed to these past wrongdoings, saying in 2011, “I said then, and I’ll say again…I was associating with the wrong kind of people and making mistakes.”
Governor cash-cow.
Unfortunately, it is clear that Hayes hasn’t learned from these egregious judgment errors. She cares more about making quick money than her character. That’s why Hayes began associating herself with the then corrupt governor of Oregon. She knew he could be used as the cash cow for her next get-rich-quick scheme. Hayes’ expectations were exceeded. Governor Kitzhaber wasn’t just any cash cow, he was a meaty Holstein that honored more favors than she could have imagined.
Over the top green campaigns.
A pinnacle of Kitzhaber’s governorship was his over-the-top go-green campaign.
This push had little to do with the governor’s interest in the environment and everything to do with the fact that Hayes was a political consultant specializing in renewable energy. The First Lady was paid over $200,000 in consulting fees during Kitzhaber’s tenure as governor, and she recently admitted to failing to disclose at least $118,000 of that on her IRS returns.
Healthcare debacle.
Kitzhaber’s pulpit was working so well for Hayes, but then came the 2014 Oregon’s healthcare exchange debacle — a debacle so large that it risked destroying the governor’s re-election campaign and ending Hayes’ money wheel. After the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Governor Kitzhaber promised Oregon that he could make something more effective than the federal healthcare exchange.
The state legislature obliged, allowing the former doctor to take the matter into his own hands.
State exchange riddled with problems.
Unfortunately, things did not work out the way he planned. Kitzhaberused $300 million worth of taxpayer dollars to build a state exchange that was riddled with problems. The governor was given countless memos and e-mails which detailed how the issues could be fixed, but in the heat of a competitive re-election campaign, Kitzhaber couldn’t risk putting another question mark on his resume. Voter uncertainty could potentially boot him out of office and put an end to his fiance’s corporate welfare payments. So instead of making a few adjustments, the governor decided to scrap the entire state exchange and roll Oregon onto the federal one, flushing $300 million in taxpayer money down the drain in the process.
Rife over-spending.
Things did not improve for Oregon after joining Healthcare.gov. Kitzhaber allowed the state’s coordinated care organizations to spend lavishly, wasting a combined $250 million in federal taxpayer dollars. A federal audit unveiled that 11 of the 16 CCOs exceeded the 15% cap on administration costs. In fact, just one CCO alone overspent by at least $50 million and is busy agreeing to a settlement with the state.
The quest for love fail.
Kitzhaber’s lack of judgment in his quest for love resulted in his state receiving an F grade in the 2015 State Integrity Investigation. He was forced to resign from office, all while insisting that he had not violatedany laws. Kitzhaber is under federal investigation for many of these pay-to-play schemes.
So far, Washington. has only scratched the surface of hisscandals. Congress should continue to collaborate with the courts for answers because there’s one thing that we can all agree on — taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s love.
