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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Jackson County approves $339 million budget ... Hunting trophies could get price tags ... Oregon races to finalize rules for marijuana, issue licenses ... Jackson County approves $339 million budget ... Hunting trophies could get price tags ... Oregon races to finalize rules for marijuana, issue licenses ... OUR VIEW Our View: Cover Oregon report reflects partisan divide Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted May. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted May. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has issued a staff report on the failed Cover Oregon website. From this we can conclude essentially nothing about who was to blame for what was undeniably a fiasco from start to finish. The report from the Republican members of the committee put the blame for the failed project squarely on then Gov. John Kitzhaber, who was running for re-election at the time. Members of his campaign staff influenced decisions about Cover Oregon to benefit his political prospects, and state official misused federal money, the report said. Democrats on the committee issued their own report, blaming the failure on Oracle Corporation, the company the state contracted to produce the website. Oracle failed to deliver a functioning system and misled state officials, the minority report said. Oracle, predictably, hailed the GOP report as vindication of its role in the debacle. That role is the subject of a legal dispute between Oracle and the state, which is tied up in the courts. It is undeniable that the Cover Oregon project was a disaster from beginning to end. Other state exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act experienced serious problems, too, but Oregon's was the worst. The system never succeeded in signing up a single person for health insurance, and the state was forced to hire 400 people to process paper claims by hand. The problem with this latest report is that it reflects a dysfunctional Congress so divided that it cannot be trusted to render a clear-eyed assessment untainted by partisan considerations. Our own Rep. Greg Walden, who holds a senior position in the Republican leadership, bears some of the responsibility for that dysfunction. The dueling committee reports tell us nothing because it is in the Republicans' interest to make any part of Obamacare look bad, especially when the worst failure of a state system took place under a Democratic administration. The Democrats on the committee aren't about to let the GOP get away with that, and reflexively rise to the defense of a now disgraced Democratjc governor. The committee called for criminal investigations by the U.S. Justice Department and the Oregon Attorney General's Office. It's not clear whether the Cover Oregon failure was the result of criminal behavior, incompetence or some combination of both, but an investigation by the U.S. or Oregon justice departments would be more likely to reveal the truth than politically motivated reports from a dysfunctional Congress. Congress has become so partisan that its committee reports can no longer be taken seriously. And that's an indictment not only of the members of Congress, but of a system in which politics routinely trumps the common good. MailTribune.com Writer Posted May. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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