The Oregon Republican Senate candidate plagiarized her health care plan, again.
In a weird twist, Monica Wehby's new health care is also plagiarized — but even stranger, it's plagiarized from her primary opponent Oregon Rep. Jason Conger, whom she criticized repeatedly during the primary on health care.
BuzzFeed News previously reported Wehby's original health care plan, which went out in a press release in November 2013 and was scrubbed from her website sometime this year, plagiarized from a survey done for Karl Rove's group, Crossroads USA, on health care.
Wehby's new plan, which BuzzFeed News read in an Oregon Register Guard op-ed by Wehby (but is also available on her website) takes her former opponent in nearly-vertbatim sections.
During a primary debate tussle, Wehby criticized her opponent, saying Oregon needed "more MDs and less JDs."
In one instance, Wehby's campaign said Conger was "this career politician" who "had no credibility on this very important issue."
BuzzFeed News spoke to Conger, who said of Wehby plan "that is odd," noting his plan "was original authorship. It was our creation."
Conger told BuzzFeed News he was unaware Wehby copied from his plan and he didn't think any staff from his campaign went to hers, with the exception of a media vendor.
He added he was not upset about the copy job noting, "Maybe imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
The Wehby campaign told BuzzFeed News they had already addressed this matter.
"The campaign has already addressed this issue and taken the necessary steps to correct it. Dr. Wehby stands by the concepts and principles that are shared by a majority of Americans who recognize the need for reform of our broken healthcare system."
Here's Conger on his issues page:
Guarantee protection for Americans who remain continuously enrolled in insurance plans.
Broaden the criteria to form association health plans and individual membership associations in order to lower insurance costs and create more options for people with pre-existing conditions.
Allow people to buy insurance across state lines so there's more competition in the insurance market and consumers have more choices.
And here's Wehby:
Guarantee protection for Americans who remain continuously enrolled in insurance plans.
Widen association health plans and individual membership associations to lower insurance costs for people with pre-existing conditions.
Allow people to buy insurance across state lines to spur competition and give consumers more options.
Cut coverage requirements so consumers can buy less expensive catastrophic plans.
Here's Conger:
Provide generous tax benefit to all Americans to enable them to purchase at least catastrophic insurance coverage, and further policies to provide access to coverage for the sick and the poor.
And here's Wehby:
Offer tax benefits to enable Americans to purchase at least catastrophic coverage and to provide access to coverage for the sick and poor.
Here's Conger again:
Make real the guarantee that if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. Keep the promise that Jeff Merkley and Barack Obama made to Americans – and broke.
And here's Wehby:
It would start with two main goals: make real the guarantee that if you like your plan, you can keep your plan — in short, keep the promise that Merkley and Obama made and broke.
The op-ed also used language that BuzzFeed News had previously show to plagiarized from a survey for Karl Rove's group Crossroad.
On health savings accounts, here's Crossroads:
Expand HSAs that allow people to save money tax-free for use on out-of-pocket medical expenses."
And here's Wehby:
Expand Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs, which allow people to save money tax-free for use on out-of pocket expenses."
On eliminating medial device taxes, here's Crossroads:
Eliminate the new tax on medical devices like pacemakers, MRIs, and ultrasound machines to lower costs and help American manufacturing."
And here's Wehby:
"Eliminate the new 2.3% excise tax on medical devices (pacemakers, MRIs, US machines, braces) to preserve medical innovation and help American manufacturing."