• Kitzhaber: Obamacare focuses on wrong issue: Former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who has re-emerged locally and nationally to discuss health care, says the Affordable Care Act addresses the wrong issue.

“The problem with the Affordable Care Act … is that it was health insurance reform, not health care reform,” Dr. Kitzhaber told the Salem City Club. “For all practical purposes, the Affordable Care Act is not affordable.”

The ACA did enable about 400,000 Oregonians to gain government insurance — Medicaid — through the Oregon Health Plan. “I would say from an access standpoint, this has been a tremendous success,” Kitzhaber said.

However, that still leaves both ends of the political spectrum arguing about the wrong issue: ending vs. preserving Obamacare, instead of figuring out how to hold down the costs of health care while improving the care itself.

Kitzhaber said that as president, Donald Trump won’t have the votes in the U.S. Senate to actually repeal the ACA, but Congress could eliminate the money that pays for the ACA. One option being considered is for Congress to “repeal” the ACA but not have the repeal take effect until after the 2018 congressional elections. Although such a “repeal” could create chaos, Kitzhaber said, he remains optimistic: “I just don’t think we should despair.”

• Will the Legislature pass a transportation package? After being sworn in as governor, Kate Brown said she is “absolutely committed” to working on a transportation-finance package in the Legislature: The state must invest in upgrading roads and bridges to withstand earthquakes, in improving mass transit and in reducing congestion.

People across the state have asked for better transit services, she said. And to help reduce congestion in the Portland area, transit there must be made “more exciting.”

However, key legislators have said that even a statewide transportation-funding package will be inadequate to solve all of Portland’s traffic woes.

• Oregon’s new state treasurer: Incoming Treasurer Tobias Read and state Senate President Peter Courtney seemingly were the only high-profile Democrats present when Republican Dennis Richardson was sworn in as secretary of state. In contrast, Gov. Kate Brown and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, along with Courtney and other legislators, were among the Democrats at Read’s swearing in.

Read’s speech was refreshing. He didn’t make a bunch of promises.

“Humorist and writer H.L. Mencken said once that ‘for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, and simple — and wrong,'” Read said. “My friends, the best answers will almost never fit into a tweet.”

PERS costs continue to rise, and they will be a key issue in the 2017 Legislature, which starts Feb. 1. Read told me he does not expect to advocate any particular PERS legislation; instead, his role will be to inform legislators about the implications of the various proposals. The State Treasury’s job, he said, is to ensure that the Public Employees Retirement System earns as much as prudently possible.

• Biblical oaths: For his swearing-in, Richardson borrowed a Bible from Courtney. Richardson got a kick out of that ecumenical bipartisanship. He is a Republican and a Mormon, Courtney a Democrat and a Catholic.

• Power of the press: “I ask for your support and your prayers,” Rep. T ina Kotek, D-Portland, said after being elected last week to a third term as speaker of the Oregon House. “I’m sure you’ve all been reading the papers and have a sense of the enormity of the challenges before us.”

• Opening gifts: Kotek gave each House member a commemorative letter opener featuring the Oregon State Seal and with the representative’s district number engraved on the back.

“My hope is this letter opener will provide a symbolic reminder of all the communications we receive from Oregonians, no matter how they are relayed to us — and how it is our duty to listen to their hopes, fears and ideas and serve them to the best of our abilities, for the good of the entire state,” she said.

• Legislative themes: Kotek’s remarks to the Legislature last week centered on “every Oregonian deserves equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity.” She went on to say, “Oregon is both a leader — and a work in progress — when it comes to ensuring equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity in our neighborhoods, our schools, and our places of work. In the coming year, the Oregon Legislature has the chance to make more progress in ensuring these fundamental rights.”

Courtney’s comments were about the importance of the legislative process: “Laws are what stand between us and anarchy.”

Dick Hughes has been covering the Oregon political scene since 1976. Contact him at TheHughesisms@Gmail.com.