On Sunday, Politico reported that Oregon, Nevada, Maryland, and Massachusetts have thus far spent $474,000,000 in taxpayer dollars on busted Obamacare exchanges.
“Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state Obamacare exchanges that are now in shambles – and the final price tag for salvaging them may go sharply higher,” reported Jennifer Haberkorn and Kyle Cheney.
Politico‘s figures include only the amounts each state has spent thus far, not the total taxpayer dollars granted by the federal government.
The Oregon Obamacare debacle has yet to enroll a single individual online. The Beaver State has decided to ditch its bungled website altogether and spend more taxpayer dollars switching over to HealthCare.gov. Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber continues to point fingers, and the FBI has launched an investigation into Cover Oregon, which was allocated $305,000,000 in taxpayer-funded federal grants.
Massachusetts now wants to spend another $120,000,000 above the already $170,000,000 in taxpayer monies it has blown on its busted “Connector” platform.
In Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blames contractor Xerox for his state’s disastrous Obamacare exchange mess. Nevada has already blown through over half ($51,000,000) of the $90,000,000 in federal grants it received.
To date, Maryland has burned through $118,000,000 in taxpayer money on its broken Obamacare exchange.
Maryland Democratic Senator Ben Cardin says he does not know who is to blame.
“There’s got to be oversight on how public monies are spent,” Cardin told Politico. “But I’m not trying to say who is responsible yet.”
The unpopular Obamacare program hit a record-low approval rating of just 41% in the latest Pew/USA Today poll.
Obamacare will cost U.S. taxpayers $2.6 trillion over the next ten years.