News reports of Saudi royal family members squandering billions in public dollars on ostentatious lifestyles may foreshadow coverage of the retirements of Kentucky politicians like House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President David Williams.
Reuters describes Saudi princes blowing through multimillion dollar stipends and going back to the government to demand more when their supply of cash runs dry. The source of their riches is the good fortune to be born into the House of Saud. Kentucky's political elite are set to reap a retirement bonanza by virtue of voting themselves multimillion dollar pension bonuses in Frankfort's House of Fraud.
Kentucky's HB 299 in 2005 made an instant pension millionaire of Stumbo, who, after serving one term, will get paid 100% of an Attorney General's salary for life in retirement thanks to his buddy Williams strong-arming the bill through the legislature. If Williams can get himself appointed or elected to higher office for as much as three years before he hangs up his gavel, he will reap millions in taxpayer-provided pension largesse as well. Williams is running for Governor.
The Tea Party was created to point out and to stop nonsense like this. Phil Moffett is the Tea Party Republican candidate for Governor and his entire platform is devoted to eliminating Kentucky's political ruling class, clearing out government incentives for waste and corruption and leveling the playing field so Kentuckians from all walks of life can earn an honest living and thrive in the Bluegrass State.
Check back often for news and commentary about Kentucky by David Adams. Contact via email: kyprogress(at)yahoo.com or Lexington area telephone 537-5372.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Kentucky requests ObamaCare waiver
With absolutely no fanfare, Governor Steve Beshear has admitted that ObamaCare won't work for Kentucky. Previously an unqualified supporter of Obama's policies, Beshear emailed the White House earlier this month and asked to delay some ObamaCare damage until after his term in office ends later this year.
With Kentucky quietly joining the growing list of states requesting exemption from part of ObamaCare, Kentuckians must fight harder for repeal of the whole thing, Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett said.
"Governor Steve Beshear is very slowly starting to realize ObamaCare will bankrupt Kentucky and Senate President David Williams has been too busy fattening his pension to notice," Moffett said. "Kentucky's elected officials are turning our state over to Obama one stimulus check at a time when we should be getting government out of our health care decisions and out of our lives. This moment is what the Tea Party is all about."
In the email requesting the waiver, Kentucky Department of Insurance Commissioner Sharon Clark mentioned Kentucky's failed experiment with big-government health reform in 1994, saying that we still have not recovered from that move which left the insurance market "completely destabilized." Interesting that she could recognize that but couldn't add it up to see that government meddling is what caused that problem and the ones ahead.
With Kentucky quietly joining the growing list of states requesting exemption from part of ObamaCare, Kentuckians must fight harder for repeal of the whole thing, Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett said.
"Governor Steve Beshear is very slowly starting to realize ObamaCare will bankrupt Kentucky and Senate President David Williams has been too busy fattening his pension to notice," Moffett said. "Kentucky's elected officials are turning our state over to Obama one stimulus check at a time when we should be getting government out of our health care decisions and out of our lives. This moment is what the Tea Party is all about."
In the email requesting the waiver, Kentucky Department of Insurance Commissioner Sharon Clark mentioned Kentucky's failed experiment with big-government health reform in 1994, saying that we still have not recovered from that move which left the insurance market "completely destabilized." Interesting that she could recognize that but couldn't add it up to see that government meddling is what caused that problem and the ones ahead.
Frankfort's Department of Oxymoronic Redundancy
The Louisville Courier Journal's Joe Gerth today describes "legislative productivity" in terms of the number of bills that become law in a General Assembly session along the way to suggesting Kentucky may not need annual sessions.
If I believed eliminating annual sessions would actually reduce government mandates or regulations or costs that do harm to Liberty, I might be more interested in going to the trouble of amending the state constitution again to remove them.
But before we even get into that, let's make clear that the definition of legislative productivity should not be seen as the number of bills passed but instead as amassed debt and distortive impact on economic activity. Putting it in those terms would more accurately describe the failure of Kentucky's political class.
It is worth mentioning here that in 2010 state government increased our debt costs by extending the terms on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bonds in order to make the current budget appear balanced. And they authorized bonding of an additional $2.855 billion.
If I believed eliminating annual sessions would actually reduce government mandates or regulations or costs that do harm to Liberty, I might be more interested in going to the trouble of amending the state constitution again to remove them.
But before we even get into that, let's make clear that the definition of legislative productivity should not be seen as the number of bills passed but instead as amassed debt and distortive impact on economic activity. Putting it in those terms would more accurately describe the failure of Kentucky's political class.
It is worth mentioning here that in 2010 state government increased our debt costs by extending the terms on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bonds in order to make the current budget appear balanced. And they authorized bonding of an additional $2.855 billion.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
David Williams' pension scandal is THE issue
Kentucky's Senate President David Williams wants to be Governor in the worst way.
Ask him why he deserves the promotion and he will tell you Kentucky is "adrift" and that he has experience to make us not "adrift." Of course, that's a funny approach to take since Williams has cut his teeth over the last quarter century mostly voting in favor of making government much bigger and harder to afford. Over the past decade, in which he has held de facto veto power over the legislature, state indebtedness has exploded from $3 billion to over $44 billion.
Williams refuses to apologize for raising taxes and debt, opting when pressed to list some taxes the legislature has reduced or eliminated in recent years. Great, only 240 more taxes, fees and surcharges left, too many of which Williams has supported and continues to support increasing.
The biggest issue personally for Williams is his government pension. He is set to receive an annual pension equal to 100% of his highest legislative salary when he retires. He will get that pension for the rest of his life. In 2005, Williams pushed through a bill that would make him a government pension millionaire if he can manage to get himself appointed or elected to higher state office. If he becomes governor, Williams' years as a legislator combine with his 2005 pension grab to instantly make him a government pension millionaire. We would actually wind up paying him a governor's salary in retirement for the rest of his life. Democrats are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to make this an issue this fall. Republicans should beat them to the punch and eliminate David Williams from consideration for the state's highest political office before this scandal messes up the party's chances in November.
Steve Beshear doesn't want to have to run against tea party leader Phil Moffett and his fresh approach to managing state government. He would much rather run against Williams, who will have a tougher time differentiating himself from the incumbent.
Williams can't answer questions about his pension scandal now and he won't be able to answer them this fall if he is still running. Kentucky Republicans can save themselves a big headache by encouraging Senator Williams to drop out of the race now.
Ask him why he deserves the promotion and he will tell you Kentucky is "adrift" and that he has experience to make us not "adrift." Of course, that's a funny approach to take since Williams has cut his teeth over the last quarter century mostly voting in favor of making government much bigger and harder to afford. Over the past decade, in which he has held de facto veto power over the legislature, state indebtedness has exploded from $3 billion to over $44 billion.
Williams refuses to apologize for raising taxes and debt, opting when pressed to list some taxes the legislature has reduced or eliminated in recent years. Great, only 240 more taxes, fees and surcharges left, too many of which Williams has supported and continues to support increasing.
The biggest issue personally for Williams is his government pension. He is set to receive an annual pension equal to 100% of his highest legislative salary when he retires. He will get that pension for the rest of his life. In 2005, Williams pushed through a bill that would make him a government pension millionaire if he can manage to get himself appointed or elected to higher state office. If he becomes governor, Williams' years as a legislator combine with his 2005 pension grab to instantly make him a government pension millionaire. We would actually wind up paying him a governor's salary in retirement for the rest of his life. Democrats are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to make this an issue this fall. Republicans should beat them to the punch and eliminate David Williams from consideration for the state's highest political office before this scandal messes up the party's chances in November.
Steve Beshear doesn't want to have to run against tea party leader Phil Moffett and his fresh approach to managing state government. He would much rather run against Williams, who will have a tougher time differentiating himself from the incumbent.
Williams can't answer questions about his pension scandal now and he won't be able to answer them this fall if he is still running. Kentucky Republicans can save themselves a big headache by encouraging Senator Williams to drop out of the race now.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wisconsin labor strife visits Kentucky
The Phil Moffett for Governor campaign is the only one seriously addressing abusive labor union issues.
Phil Moffett responds to Moveon.org stunt
Left-wing activist group Moveon.org held a rally in Frankfort today in support of left-wing activists in Wisconsin. They are trying to frame their effort as supporting union-provided worker rights, without which employees, they suggest, would have no rights at all.
This is absurd.
Kentucky's Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett cut through the nonsense.
"No one is arguing against workers having rights," Moffett said. "That's just rhetoric coming from the other side. We need to peel back the things we can't afford like prevailing wage laws. We need to make Kentucky a right to work state. And we need to end teacher tenure and the state merit system. These efforts to get politics out of state employment have failed. We need to try something else."
This is absurd.
Kentucky's Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett cut through the nonsense.
"No one is arguing against workers having rights," Moffett said. "That's just rhetoric coming from the other side. We need to peel back the things we can't afford like prevailing wage laws. We need to make Kentucky a right to work state. And we need to end teacher tenure and the state merit system. These efforts to get politics out of state employment have failed. We need to try something else."
Phil Moffett is the better choice
Kentucky Senate President David Williams has been very expensive to keep around in Frankfort with his votes to pile up more than $40 billion in debt on us over the past decade. And if he were to get elected governor, we would have to pay him more than $120,000 in retirement every year for the rest of his life because of pension language he slipped into the law books back in 2005.