U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell continues to draw attention for trying to split the baby on ObamaCare/Kynect and LEO writer Joe Sonka is driving the bus for the other side. Both sides need work.
McConnell said: "If ObamaCare is repealed, Kentucky should decide for itself whether to keep Kynect or set up a different marketplace."
Kentucky has already decided. Gov. Steve Beshear attempted to create the ObamaCare exchange in Kentucky with a 2012 executive order. The 2013 General Assembly did not ratify the executive order, causing it to expire per KRS 12.028. Rather than follow the law at that point, Beshear wrote another executive order creating the exchange in violation of KRS 12.028(5). A bill was actually filed in the 2014 General Assembly to ratify the second, out-of-order executive order (HB 505), but that bill failed to even get a hearing in a committee chaired by the bill's sponsor, Rep. Tom Burch.
Then the legislature voted almost unanimously in HB 235, the budget bill, to defund the exchange, declaring Beshear is "prohibited from expending any General Fund resources on any expenditure directly or indirectly associated with the Health Benefit Exchange."
Two lawsuits are well underway to clarify Gov. Beshear's illegal actions. Both cases (13-SC-000652 and 13-SC-000667) are currently in front of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Sonka, for what it's worth, had a clever retort: "McConnell saying that Kynect can survive the repeal of ObamaCare is like saying that the Oklahoma City Thunder can trade Kevin Durant, but keep his jump shot."
But this cute analogy misses the point as well. But for the last desperate illegal moves of a rogue governor, Kynect already does not exist. The jump shot is already gone, as is the power forward. The only reason this issue hasn't been fully put to rest is that the Kentucky Supreme Court has been sitting on it for seven months.
Instead of embarrassing themselves with further misstatements on the issue of Kentucky ObamaCare, both the McConnell and Grimes camps should urge the Court to get off the dime so we can get started on the real work of cleaning up Beshear's mess.
