State Rep. Russ Meyer's ten year old scheme to hand massive Democrat donor Clay Corman more than a million dollars for a vacant hole in the ground in Nicholasville deserves a closer look.
"Everyone knows about government waste and corruption but too many people don't do anything to stop it," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Russ Meyer has had ten years to set this right and he's still hiding in that little hole."
Meyer was the Mayor of Nicholasville from 2007 to 2014. In early 2007, Meyer conspired with some friends for the city to purchase lots 717 and 719 North Main Street at a quick $177,000 profit for one of the conspirators, supposedly to construct a new city hall. Meyer then broke state law KRS 424.260 by contracting for construction services in the amount of $37,025.66 and circumventing the competitive bidding process by splitting the work up into two invoices sent on the same day from the same address.
Nine years later, the lots still sit empty.
"ObamaCare fans like Russ Meyer have generally demonstrated little to no respect for taxpayers' hard-earned money," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The Meyer's Mugging on Main Street episode here should at the very least result in him being run out of office."
This is a great move by Gov. Matt Bevin in the aftermath of the Kentucky Health Cooperative disaster.
Bevin spokesman Doug Hogan explained that an administration actuarial review showed CareSource's rate request "would be insufficient" to pay claims and "would ultimately lead to a harmful scenario for consumers."
Former Governor Steve Beshear could have saved customers, medical providers and taxpayers money and a lot of trouble if he had taken such care at any point before Kentucky Health Cooperative's managers took the money from their bloated salaries and bonuses and ran, leaving the rest of us holding the bag when their shell game failed.
"I guess there aren't any decent Obamacrat actuaries out there or maybe Gov. Beshear was more interested in seeing his friends at the cooperative load up on market share they couldn't maintain so they all got paid bonuses before the music stopped," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Gov. Bevin deserves credit for stopping CareSource from playing the same game.
ObamaCare cheerleaders in the media keep talking about Gov. Matt Bevin's attempt to renegotiate Kentucky's abysmal Medicaid expansion deal into a somewhat less abysmal deal, but they continue to leave out the most important point. Gov. Bevin's claim that he might unilaterally withdraw from Medicaid expansion is not supported by federal or state law or relevant case law, but federal officials don't want to make that clear because they are still trying to suck other states in by letting them believe there is an escape hatch.
There isn't.
Medicaid is a federal/state partnership for government-run healthcare in which the federal government pays most of the bills and retains total control of how the program is run. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ObamaCare was simply a tax instead of an unconstitutional usurpation of individual and state rights by the federal government according to the plain language of the Tenth Amendment, it slightly trimmed back the usurpation by deeming the Medicaid expansion to be each state's choice rather than a requirement as previously stated in the "Affordable Care Act."
Some states blindly jumped in to the Medicaid expansion without asking any questions. Gov. Steve Beshear abused state law to add Kentucky to that number. Others negotiated slightly less horrible deals and accepted expansion, claiming falsely to have an ability to withdraw from the expansion later if it proved too expensive.
Obama and Hillary Clinton want to keep pushing holdout states to take the Medicaid expansion by keeping alive the falsehood that states have an ability to escape it later on if they choose. Kentucky would be the first to test this if Gov. Bevin's reform proposal is rejected and he then follows through on his threat to then reverse Kentucky's entrance into expansion. The feds' interest in suckering the holdout states may well inspire them to accept at least most of Bevin's requested reforms.
If, instead, they decide to fight, Bevin could drop excess Medicaid recipients and wait for the feds to sue. Presumably, a President Trump would not fight us and President Clinton would. (Good question to ask both of them.) President Clinton would win the lawsuit, but if Trump is POTUS and there is no lawsuit, Kentucky will win big by joining the states opting out of ObamaCare.
"Bratcher's resolution states clearly the General Assembly's demand to the federal government to take its proper place as a limited agent of the states with specific, limited powers spelled out in the Constitution," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Hillary Clinton Democrats in Frankfort will hate this and they should be asked that on the record as often as possible between now and November."
The one sticking point is Republicans must take a majority in this November's elections and then have the courage to follow through on the impeachment process.
The Kentucky Constitution Sections 66 to 68 governs how the process would work and it is not much different than the federal process, which you may remember being applied to Hillary Clinton's husband when he violated Paula Jones' civil rights.
One likely question in the process is the Constitution specifies that impeachment can result from "any misdemeanors in office." While Beshear may well be guilty of any number of crimes, what's interesting is that case law is overwhelming in affirming the Senate's ability to define terms and make its own rules for an impeachment process. In any event, neither prior nor subsequent court conviction for any crime is necessary for a constitutional officer to be impeached by the House and convicted and removed from office by the Senate. If the legislature wants him removed, they can do it.
Clearing this bad actor out of the Attorney General's office to be replaced with a more serious public servant is a very worthwhile pursuit worth campaigning for this fall.
"The reality is that Medicaid expansion does not pay for itself as envisioned by the prior administration," Bevin's Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver Application says, "and the Commonwealth of Kentucky cannot afford the cost of the Medicaid expansion program without this demonstration waiver."
Bevin Administration officials will present their requested changes Wednesday in Frankfort to the Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare at 10am in room 129 of the Capitol Annex.
"Beshear abused Kentucky law KRS 205.520(3) to justify jumping into ObamaCare Medicaid, but the statute's admonition to take advantage of all available federal health funds would better have been followed by avoiding the expansion altogether because it was such an obvious trap to sink the state deeper into debt," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "We're trapped now and Gov. Bevin's attempt here is our best option, ObamaCare cheerleaders be damned."
With overheated fanfare, Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk announced the start of another attempt to reduce racial education achievement gaps, telling the Lexington Herald Leader "today we stand before our community to say we will no longer allow a child's demography to determine his destiny."
Caulk emphasized starting a volunteer reading program for elementary students, tutoring and leadership training in middle schools and drop-out prevention and college/career readiness in high schools. No one should be surprised to see the $600,000 won't last long funding these not-so-revolutionary ideas.
Twenty four years ago, when I was starting my career in Atlanta, I was also volunteering with ninth grade students in two area high schools. One day, I asked each group separately how many of them expected to one day play professional sports. In the poor, black, inner city group, about half the boys raised their hands. In the middle class, suburban, all-white-except-one-kid group, every hand pointed at one black kid sitting quietly in his desk. His hand was not raised, but a few years later he played some minor league baseball before starting a ten year career in the NFL. He was not a star and you wouldn't likely recognize his name, but he made it. None of the others did.
I appreciate any emphasis on lifting up young people, particularly any from disadvantaged circumstances, but participants in this "Boys of Color" scheme will become pawns in a political game to roll a $600,000 one time grant into a permanent spending spree for services of which most should have already been provided.
Mr. Caulk calls the $600,000 grant a "game changer," but he needs to demonstrate quickly that he isn't just playing the same old game. That won't happen. Education is a real pathway to success, but waiting around for government to give it to you is a sucker's game. If you want to help a young black child to succeed, teach him this:
The withdrawal is related to Humana's pending merger with Aetna, whose 5.6% individual market rate hike for 2017 has already been approved. That's bad news for Aetna's ObamaCare members because those former Humana members whose health costs necessitated a $33.7% increase now want to join up with them or one of the other companies with a relatively healthier insured base.
And that means higher costs for everyone.
Underlying dramatically increasing health insurance premiums, of course, are similarly rising healthcare costs and they have been made worse by Kentucky's burdensome regulatory impact on the industry, specifically its certificate of need statutes, or CON. CON keeps prices artificially high by limiting competition between healthcare providers. Gov. Bevin should take to his bully pulpit to encourage legislators to get government out of the way on this key issue. Resistant legislative incumbents deserve to be replaced.
Beshear's cartoonish repeated attempts to create "Kynect" with illegal and illegally reissued executive orders which were never ratified by the legislature and House Democrats' repeated attempts to ratify them anyway left Gov. Bevin entering July unable to shut down the illegal exchange immediately while negotiating with Obama officials to shut it down soon and no legal construct for keeping it going another day. So Bevin issued a carefully worded executive order creating "Kynect" long enough to shut it down with as little disruption as possible.
"Gov. Bevin deserves a ton of credit for walking behind Frankfort Democrats with a big pooper scooper to clean up this ObamaCare stuff," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "It's telling that after hyperventilating over every lie, bogus statistic and illegal Beshear ObamaCare move for years now, Kentucky's media is almost completely ignoring this responsible move by Bevin."
This policy has the effect of heavily increasing federal taxation on marijuana even in medical marijuana states, which costs are then passed along to patients.
"Kentuckians increasingly see past anti-marijuana scare tactics and Gov. Bevin's campaign pledge to support medical use of the plant provides solid proof of that," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Excessive federal taxation, at least while it lasts, should be met with a completely tax-free status of marijuana in the Commonwealth to help both our providers and consumers."
"Premiums are skyrocketing, doctors are quitting and people are suffering while politicians and their media-based pets who crammed this garbage down our throats illegally pretend everything will be fine if we throw a few more billion dollars at the problem," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Gov. Bevin should stop collecting the illegally transferred Kentucky Access tax and shut down Kynect right away."
That is, "you can check in, but you can't check out."
Senator Rand Paul should file a bill to explicitly give states the right to reverse acceptance of Medicaid expansion and start campaigning for this right away. Such a bill would pass the House and Senate and force Obama and Hillary Clinton to either confirm the trap ObamaCare puts states in or to reverse it.
Either way, freedom is advanced.
"The more people learn about ObamaCare, the more they understand the disaster it is," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Obama and Hillary need to decide if they want to go down fighting for power most Americans won't want them to keep."
Today is a big fundraising deadline for the presidential race, so the generic email request for money I got is not a surprise. But I would like to state publicly why I won't respond positively to this one.
"With your help today," the email reads, "we can turn our great country around and Make American Great Again. We can secure our borders, create jobs and keep our families safe."
Making America Great Again is an effective campaign slogan for lots of people, as is leading with policy proposals to attack illegal immigration, spur economic activity and pursue a strong national defense, especially since Hillary Clinton's campaign appears focused on raising taxes, matching small dollar campaign contributions with tax dollars, abortion and "strengthening regulation of 'puppy mills.'"
Nevertheless, the campaign I want to support would seek to restore greatness by getting government out of commerce and out of education and out of the wealth redistribution business. Donald Trump will get plenty of votes and lots of campaign contributions being slightly better than Hillary Clinton. But I'm not investing a dime in slightly better than Hillary Clinton.
A political sea change appears underway in Frankfort which could be very bad news for Kentucky Democrat operatives accustomed to ruling the roost.
It seems the largest voting block in Franklin County, Democrat state employees, appreciates Gov. Matt Bevin's keen interest in reversing the Gov. Steve Beshear policy of using public pension money to pay off political cronies. They also like the competence of Bevin political appointees, which represents another dramatic shift from the prior administration.
This could prove to be very bad news for the eager but inept Attorney General Andy "Baby" Beshear and we should know that pretty soon.
"The person to watch is Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The last time he ruled on a governor's reorganization powers, he had no problem ignoring the law for ObamaCare to benefit a Democrat governor because his own Franklin County constituents were pro-ObamaCare. I think his constituents want Gov. Bevin treated fairly on KRS 12.028 in the University of Louisville Board of Trustees case which would involve Judge Shepherd following a law he abused the last time it came in front of him. If Gov. Bevin wins his U of L case in Franklin Circuit Court, things start to look very bad for Democrat operatives Baby Beshear and Greg Stumbo."
You couldn't make this stuff up.
"One must wonder if Gov. Beshear would have twisted so many arms raising money for Baby Beshear if Baby sued him for doing the same thing for which he is now suing Gov. Bevin," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "These guys are such a clown show. Expecting Stumbo and friends to stage a sit-in any day now to demand Bevin stop cleaning up pension corruption."
"Big government types claim forcing Americans to carry a federal ID card will somehow make us safer but they are never specific about how it accomplishes that because it doesn't," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Hal Rogers needs to get on the right side of this or explain in detail why he won't."
"Marijuana has been deemed a 'Schedule 1' drug by the feds, meaning that it has no medicinal value and only hurts people but we know that isn't true and already half of states have enacted medical marijuana laws to reflect reality," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "They could keep it illegal but call it 'Schedule 2,' allowing medical research for things like epilepsy and multiple sclerosis where we have seen benefits and the DEA has already conceded they may do that this summer."
She wants to pretend that it's 2010 all over again by resetting and expanding federal bribes to states to entice them all to accept Medicaid expansion. She wants to spend billions of dollars to paper over two of the most visible problems with ObamaCare: high premiums and unaffordable deductibles. She wants to increase by $500 million a year marketing expenses to advertise ObamaCare at everyone, expand coverage subsidies to everyone regardless of immigration status and restart the public option "cooperatives" back to the beginning with more money.
"Now we know why the mainstream media has gone suddenly deaf and dumb to all things ObamaCare," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Hillary Clinton's big idea for healthcare is to start all over with much more money and more federal control as if no one has learned anything from the massive failures of the last six years of ObamaCare experience."
"ObamaCare is taxing and spending now solely because congressional Republicans allow it to persist and there is simply no good reason for it," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Gov. Bevin deserves credit for keeping his campaign promise and Sen. McConnell deserves to have language from the United States Constitution Article 1, section 9, clause 7 tatooed backwards across his forehead so he can see it in his bathroom mirror every day."
"The language chosen by Judge Shepherd more closely resembles the remarks of a partisan, political operative yammering on incessantly on the 24/7 cable news cycle than a respected member of the bench," Goettl said in his complaint filed with the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission, which Goettl asked to issue a public reprimand of Judge Shepherd.
In his complaint, Goettl compared Shepherd's actions to those of former Attorney General Greg Stumbo in his attacks against former Governor Ernie Fletcher.
"Judge Shepherd's remarks seem to fit that political strategy, whether he intended them to or not, in that they fed the Democratic narrative and the news cycle of a news organization whose editors openly oppose Governor Bevin."
The Lexington Herald Leader published an Associated Press article about Shepherd's remarks under the headline: "Judge: Bevin's executive order is like a 'neutron bomb'."
"The Frankfort spin machine runs like this all the time," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The difference this time is Jessamine's County Attorney Brian Goettl is protecting the public and the rule of law better than this rogue judge and these leftist reporters who didn't see any bombs going off when Gov. Beshear abused his executive order authority four times to saddle us all with his ObamaCare mess."
No one fell for it.
Associated Press reporter Adam Beam called up the largest remaining ObamaCare insurer -- Anthem -- and they told him the same thing they reported in their 22.9% rate increase filing, that rates are going up because Obamacrat claims of "bending the cost curve downward" continue to be false and that shutting Kynect has nothing to do with it.
"When even loyal Frankfort reporters stop short of carrying ObamaCare water, it's clear things have gone completely crazy," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Steve Beshear belongs in jail for going around the Kentucky General Assembly to illegally force us into ObamaCare and he deserves a strait jacket for his increasingly bizarre displays."
Anthem, by far the largest remaining ObamaCare insurer, has filed a 22.9% rate increase and Humana filed 33.7%. CareSource filed 20.55%.
"Whether they admit it or not, everyone recognizes now that Kentucky politician Steve Beshear illegally forced Kentucky into ObamaCare and this latest evidence confirms yet again we should have fought it every step of the way," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Shutting down Kynect, as Gov. Bevin has promised to do, and repealing certificate of need, which he has not yet addressed, start the long process of fixing what politicians have destroyed in Kentucky healthcare."
"Under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the federal government has no authority to interfere in local school districts' bathroom policies," Bevin said. "The President is not promoting unity. In fact, he is doing quite the opposite."
"Obama's insane predilection for expanding government's jurisdiction and Steve Beshear's habit of routinely hounding Gov. Bevin's moves create the perfect storm for Beshear to be made to weigh in on this," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "On the issue of exposing your children for political points at their most vulnerable moments, is the Commonwealth's highest ranking leftist a Kentuckian or a Democrat?"
"Big government types insist that Kentuckians won't be able to board an airplane without a federal identification, but we called their bluff and exposed their lie," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "This is a good day for Kentuckians to have a governor who will listen to them."
"The dominoes are falling hard with the Kentucky Health Cooperative dropping out last year and now United Healthcare, the sickest Kentuckians have been treated like political pawns and now will be forced into even fewer choices and necessarily causing more skyrocketing premiums," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Silence from the media enablers in Frankfort is deafening."
But now?
Beshear has asked the Democrats who run the Executive Branch Ethics Commission to "investigate" Bevin for politically motivated firings. Baby Beshear would probably have preferred to wait until closer to the election so his baseless charges might still be hanging over Republican heads as people go the polls in November, but Bevin's own investigation of former Gov. Steve Beshear's pay-to-play government stands to mess up the preferred narrative.
"Beshear played his empty hand too soon in a clumsy attempt to distract from his father's misdeeds," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Little Andy's misadventures will be fun to watch."
"This is ObamaCare for TSA agents that goes away if the states stay strong against it," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Accepting REAL ID pleases a few federal bureaucrats, but most Democrats and nearly all Republicans who understand it oppose it."
Beshear has declined also to comment on his unwillingness to go to bat for his signature debacle.
"After four failed executive orders attempting to legally create Kynect, massive health premium increases and an explosion in unsustainable Medicaid costs, the Beshear legacy of failure and mismanagement has been solidified," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The 2017 General Assembly should pass 'Beshear's Law,' criminalizing future violations of Kentucky's temporary reorganization executive order statute and jailing governors who violate the law in this fashion."
"One of the biggest changes (to Benefind) made by the Bevin administration effectively excludes kynectors from helping Medicaid patients," the Herald Leader charged.
That's false. The Bevin administration hasn't changed the Beshear-created Benefind program, an online update intended to improve the application process for some federal benefit programs. Bevin delayed the rollout of Benefind to limit confusion during the ObamaCare open enrollment period, then went ahead with it on February 29 amid a written promise from federal authorities that Benefind was bug-free and ready to go as well as a clear threat that further delays could result in the state being fined more than $300 million.
The only way to know these facts is to have talked to Bevin officials or attended the April 11 committee meeting. A Herald Leader reporter was at the hearing.
Again, the evidence is in writing. From federal officials.
"If (Health and Family Services Cabinet Secretary Vickie) Glisson and her new team hadn't been so distracted by Bevin's irrational demand to dismantle Kynect, could they have done a better job managing Benefind's rollout?" the Herald Leader asked.
Oh. So that's what this is all about: leftist angst over a candidate running for governor against the ObamaCare debacle becoming Governor and keeping his promise to start limiting the damage. And no, management of the Benefind rollout was rushed by federal promises and threats. We know that now. The Herald Leader knows that.
Suck it up and apologize to Gov. Bevin, Herald Leader. And if you wish to continue pretending to have a shred of competency, please rein in the embarrassingly baseless attacks in the future.
"Gov. Bevin did these idiots a favor by not unleashing the Benefind disaster on Kentuckians during the ObamaCare open enrollment like the Obamacrats wanted, but they are so hellbent on attacking him they missed an excellent opportunity to shut up and keep their stupidity hidden for another day," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "They will all pretend evidence against their failed tactic is not readily available because they have so little else to attack with, but this fight is over."
House Bills 5 and 6 were rushed through the lower chamber last month in a clumsy attempt by Frankfort Democrats to replay a public referendum on ObamaCare.
"The fantasy that half a million worshipful ObamaCare beneficiaries will storm the polls and elect Democrats would have already made Jack Conway Kentucky's governor if it held any water," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "House Bill 5 would keep Kynect open at Kentuckians' expense and House Bill 6 would force us to stick with the most expensive form of Medicaid expansion available. Gov. Bevin was elected on a platform of cleaning up these messes just five months ago and Democrats are determined to lose the next election in November on the same issue. We will let them."
Until this year, very few Kentuckians fell for it. That seemed to change when state Senate leaders rushed SB 245 through their chamber March 22 in an attempt to sign Kentucky up for the nonsense.
With just one day left in the 2016 General Assembly, it appears cooler heads are about to prevail.
Please contact your state Representative before April 12, the session's last day, and inform him or her that falling for the stupid, obtrusive unfunded federal mandates thinly disguised as a plausible threat in SB 245 need not happen this year or any.
In a statement to the Louisville Courier Journal, General Beshear got smart alecky in threatening a lawsuit against Gov. Bevin for ordering current year cuts in the state's higher education budget. "In fact, the governor's position would mean the General Assembly merely suggests how the governor might spend money if he so chooses," Beshear told the Courier's Tom Loftus. "A budget passed by the General Assembly is a mandate, not a recommendation."
But Beshear is wrong.
KRS 48.010 defines "appropriation" as "an authorization by the General Assembly to expend a sum of money not in excess of the sum specified." That means spending in excess of projected revenue is prohibited. Spending less is not. He should ask his dad, former Gov. Steve Beshear, who was forced to file an unprecedented six General Fund Reduction Executive Orders and an additional five Road Fund Reduction Executive Orders for overspending available revenues, mostly on Medicaid.
Actually, Baby Beshear, a budget is indeed a recommendation unless you are an overspender.
KRS 48.605(1)(a) gives Gov. Bevin all the authorization he needs to cut spending in the current fiscal year. If his father had ever tried voluntarily restraining his urge to expand government, maybe he would understand.
The statute related to appropriation reductions is KRS 48.600, which would indeed prohibit Bevin from ordering midyear spending cuts in this instance. But Bevin isn't ordering spending cuts in the sense of an appropriation reduction which that statute governs. He's ordering a revision of the allotment schedule, governed by KRS 48.620, which is within his power.
The difference is an appropriation reduction is deemed necessary in statute in the case of a revenue shortfall and an allotment reduction within an appropriation, which this is, can be authorized by the state budget director pursuant to KRS 48.605(1)(a). The legislature can object to the move, but KRS 48.500 clearly gives the Governor the upper hand in such a dispute.
Who is Mayor Gray kidding?
Refusing to confirm another Obama appointee is the very least Senator Paul and his colleagues in Washington D.C. can do to serve the interests of their constituents. If Jim Gray can't be bothered to understand the Appointments Clause in the U.S. Constitution, how could Kentuckians expect him to represent any of their individual rights which might be in conflict with his political party's political agenda, such as the Right to Life, the RIght to Bear Arms or the Freedom of Speech?
Easy answer: we can't.
Like REAL ID.
The federal unfunded mandate known as REAL ID is a national identification card program mandated by the federal government but mostly ignored by states because it makes no sense. States -- particularly Kentucky -- are not set up to create the massive bureaucracy necessary to put everyone's personal information into a centralized database.
And even if we could, we couldn't afford it. And even if we could afford it, there is no way to demonstrate that it would do anything to keep us safe.
Gov. Bevin has been sucked into repeating the lie that if we don't start implementing REAL ID then Kentuckians won't be able to board an airplane at some point in the future. Right now, the story is that this would happen to all REAL ID-deprived Kentuckians in 2018. Until late last year, the same Department of Homeland Security folks telling us this were saying that we had until December 31, 2015 at which time our outdated drivers licenses wouldn't allow us to fly. Guess what?
The simple fact is that the 2018 deadline will be moved further out sometime next year and they will be telling us we need to sign up for REAL ID quickly or we can't fly in 2020.
Gov. Bevin should stop spreading false information for DHS right away. Some political opponents will criticize him for flip-flopping, but he will be okay if his final position is the right one. We have been through this before.
Deloitte's pre-ObamaCare study predicted an $864 million positive fiscal impact from the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion through 2020, when the impact would immediately turn negative in need of increasingly greater funds, just like Medicaid has consistently performed throughout its history. The current fiscal year was found to be the high water mark, with the fiscal impact predicted to drop $28 million in the fiscal year starting in July and dropping precipitously thereafter.
"Frankfort Democrats blew the last election lying about the impact of ObamaCare and now they have already fallen on their swords for the upcoming election just to protect the rapidly deteriorating status quo," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.
But the best part came when former Democrat and current Republican Rep. Jim Gooch called him out on his lie.
Are any media types watching this willing to report the truth here?
"Kentuckians have been crushed by wild premium increases, obscene service failures and official lies under ObamaCare in general and Kynect in our state, but all we can shut down here and right now is Kynect," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "We won't fail to do that."
"Stumbo's fake teachers retirement bill fits Kentucky like a cheap suit and should fool no one who can do basic math," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Kentucky teachers who aren't blind Democrats should be the angriest people in America after Stumbo has shown he thinks of them only as brainless political pawns."
Beshear, Stumbo, Grimes and all the rest should admit now that the 2015 Kentucky Lie of the Year was a lie and that they are the only ones who stand to lose when Kynect is shut down later this year.
By now we all know that didn't work out for them.
Frankfort Democrats continue to delude themselves about ObamaCare's efficacy and popularity and just today probably lost their House majority in the upcoming November elections with their overzealous cheerleading.
House Democrats voted for House Bill 5 today, to require state taxpayers to continue funding Steve Beshear's expensive, failed Kynect ObamaCare exchange despite our just electing a new governor on his promise to get rid of it.
"Kentucky's House Democrats can't stop misreading the causes of the ObamaCare disaster or the political fallout from this mess," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Their Republican opponents will do well this fall to remind voters in districts across the state about Obamacrats' continued politicization of the federal takeover of Americans' healthcare."
That's what Gov. Bevin did Monday.
His Facebook video has attracted nearly a million views as well as widespread media attention, mostly because he taped his comments in Frankfort's empty House chamber on Monday morning to complain about House Democrats dragging their feet on the budget. Democrat and media criticism has focused on the fact the House of Representatives' daily session does not convene on Mondays until 4:00 pm.
All this turned a white hot spotlight on Bevin so he could again point out the dire fiscal circumstances he inherited from Gov. Steve Beshear and the need for action from hesitant Frankfort Democrats.
It was a shrewd ploy that is working to keep attention on the need to reduce Frankfort spending. House Speaker Greg Stumbo and friends are stuck harrumphing around acting like the Governor can't tell time and he is getting needed attention to the fact that real time is wasting on real issues while the other side is playing politics as usual.
Grassley inserted into ObamaCare a religious health sharing exemption to the "Affordable Care Act's" mandates and restrictions against Americans' ability to manage the purchase of healthcare services sensibly. The best thing about the exemption is that it forced the federal government to leave alone three small groups of Christians in existing health sharing groups who collectively set aside a few dollars each month to spent only on medical needs of people in their group. It's real health insurance as it was intended to be, which avoids the term "insurance" merely because preexisting regulations prohibited it. Of course, it's significantly cheaper and more effective than ObamaCare coverage.
The worst thing about Christian health sharing is also where the greatest opportunity lies. That is, if you aren't an active Christian, you don't qualify.
Christian health sharing has seen significant growth among healthcare consumers desperate to escape skyrocketing premiums, narrow and unpredictable provider networks and imploding government-created insurers. But for the huge segment of the American population which does not attend a Christian church regularly, the exemption has no value.
If you would like to gain exemption from ObamaCare but don't regularly attend a Christian church -- or just know someone who fits this description -- please ask Congressmen Thomas Massie and Andy Barr to work together to amend ObamaCare to allow for the creation of non-religious health sharing groups without ObamaCare mandates, designed merely to cover real medical needs of members and not some politician's idea of worthy social engineering.
Obamacrats would be horrified by accurate claims that they supported special treatment for Christians but are now standing in the way of equal health freedom for non-Christians. Such a bill would surely sail through Congress with veto-proof majorities and then everyone would have the ability to avoid ObamaCare.
Call your Congressman!
Amid the decidedly unconvincing fanfare back in the early afternoon of February 11, Beshear claimed to have picked up a quick 2500 names on the online petition in support of his ridiculously named "Save Kentucky Healthcare" web site. The funny thing is that a month later the petition's counter says there are 11,221 names right above a convenient form for followers to add their name to the list by divulging email address, street address and selecting their country of residence from a drop-down menu which defaults to the United States but includes such Obamacrat hotspots as Azerbaijan, Djibouti and Tunisia.
The lack of energy evident in Beshear's search of Planet Earth for a few remaining ObamaCare believers would make big news in an age of less leftward media bias.
"This minimum wage tax increase hits consumers where it hurts by necessitating higher prices and is further evidence of the fact state government bureaucrats have no business trying to manage our economy," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "It's just more redistribution games from people who can't accept that the best thing for them to do is get out of the way."
"I am going to miss UK Senior game festivities and the opening tip because of the poor planning by the Boone County GOP in implementing this caucus," Grayson posted.
The really stupid thing about this is Grayson should have known that the caucus was squeezing 62 precincts of Boone County Republicans into one polling place today and if he had only planned ahead he would have had plenty of time to vote and get to all his "festivities."
Grayson's time working at Harvard after losing to Rand Paul in 2010 certainly didn't make him any smarter and -- if possible -- seems to have made him an even bigger crybaby than he was then. Grayson lost every single Boone County precinct in his U.S. Senate bid.
Republican establishmentarians deserve blame for feathering their own nests at the expense of effectively combating Obama in the marketplace of ideas and allowing authoritarianism to flourish, but it's the same failed urge for a shortcut that inspired millions to welcome "Hope and Change" by any means necessary which now seems to generate no curiosity about how exactly we are going to make things "Great."
Trump's primary opponents have failed to pin Trump down with the simple question: How? Hillary Clinton made the same mistake in 2008. Don't expect her to repeat that failure.
America desperately needs a president who will voluntarily limit the power of his or her office to its constitutional boundaries and fight to end government's fantasies about managing our economy whether through currency manipulation, industry regulation or subsidization. America desperately needs a president who will champion state and local experimentation with education policy and social welfare. America desperately needs a president who understands national defense doesn't begin with groping grandmothers in airports and doesn't end with bombing people who fire back missiles purchased by proceeds from our own multi-billion dollar aid checks.
Time grows short.
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"People across Kentucky are using a mild, natural product called kratom to step down from heroin addiction while Senate Bill 136 would ban kratom and throw people in jail for using it," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "If this stupid bill becomes law, heroin deaths will only increase. Politician tossing should be a sport."
Beshear spoke to a half dozen nodding supporters at the Hyatt Regency hotel with a somber Crit Luallen and an utterly miserable-looking Audrey Tayse Haynes nearby. He told them ObamaCare is not a disaster. They looked like they really wanted to believe him.
"The picture of Beshear's Magical Misery Tour says a thousand words about what's left of Kentucky's Democratic Party in the wake of Obama and ObamaCare," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Beshear's effort here serves as an admission that the proper forum for this discussion, Jack Conway's gubernatorial campaign, was a huge failure and that Speaker Greg Stumbo's evaporating House majority is even less equipped to make a case for ObamaCare when reality is too clearly in opposition."
"There is nothing in Senate Bill 6 which protects consumers or lowers healthcare costs and the idea of asking a panel of doctors if you can hold another doctor who hurts you responsible is like asking Nancy Pelosi if you can buy a gun," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.
"The divide between people of different races comes down to lack of communication and we need to continue talking to bring people together," Eddings said. "Freedom for all still needs to be won and we can not afford to ignore Senator Paul's color blind message of putting the individual first in the 21st Century."
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield took another big step toward dumping its Kentucky ObamaCare customers today, announcing they are practically eliminating insurance agent commissions on their health plans.
"With today's action, we get one step closer to the planned total destruction of health insurance in America and the time when ObamaCare and total government control of healthcare mean the same thing," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Customer service at health insurance companies was already bad enough, but this is a huge nail in the coffin."
"This is the legal equivalent of throwing the baby out with the bathwater," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The Kentucky and U.S. Constitutions guarantee a plaintiff's ability to sue for losses caused by another person and once in a while someone may try to abuse that right, but we can't pretend that gumming up the works and delaying or preventing a legitimate day in court does anything but make that worse. Senate Bill 6 must be withdrawn or defeated."
"My opponent, Rep. Tom Burch, has a 21% rating from the National Rifle Association, but his being an opponent of self-defense rights has not made anyone safer and only makes crime worse," Eddings said. "Working to improve public safety while also protecting individual rights will always be my top priority."
"Criminals are not known to comply with KRS statutes so then my opponent's approach simply imposes even more restrictions on my law abiding neighbors in Louisville. Gun control is a bureaucratic gesture, not a solution. So, I intend on engaging the community to find the true answers. These answers will be responsive to the unique dynamics of violent conflict in an urban environment while not penalizing the lawful citizen for the actions of the criminal element."
"Tort reform is politician-speak for 'I don't know what to do, let's just kill some lawyers,'" Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "It's a well-worn Republican buzzword, but tort reform not only runs afoul of the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Section 7 of the Kentucky Constitution, it simply fails to deliver what its advocates promise. In fact, as ObamaCare blew up healthcare for everyone while trying to fix it for a few, tort reform threatens to do the same thing to a citizen's right to seek redress in court."
"Gov. Bevin should speak clearly about his vision of tort reform without delay and that includes the bad idea in the legislature to force injured parties to go before a medical review panel in Senate Bill 6, which will only hurt consumers."
"Gov. Bevin has already documented we spent $58,341,000 in federal funds on our ObamaCare exchange last year when we weren't supposed to have any according to the law and in excess of the $19,916,000 we supposedly had left over from Obama's $253 million in establishment grants, so if they now want back all the establishment grants for the failed exchange which no one else has had to return and the law doesn't require returning plus $38,398,000 the law specifically prohibits the feds from sending to us, the response they deserve is to drop dead," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.
The Cooperative reported $176.2 million in losses in 2014 alone, before losing even more money in 2015. It was created and maintained with $123.8 million in federal loans. That means unless they bought a bunch of office furniture which is now somehow worth more than $50 million more than they paid for it, any remaining unpaid claims cannot possibly be paid by "selling assets."
"If Kentucky officials had listened to me last summer, they could have ended the Cooperative charade before any more innocent Kentuckians were harmed by this ObamaCare nonsense," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Buying ObamaCare insurance remains a crapshoot and is not worth the risk."
"Obamacrats -- or whatever they are calling themselves these days -- continue to depend on the media not telling you both sides of the story and this is a perfect example of the disconnect between their government takeover fantasies and the people they need to fool," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "If we take their numbers at face value, it looks like we save four million the first year and about a quarter billion in the first decade without Kynect."
"Republicans have been trying to undermine the Federal Reserve mandate to strive for full employment," Reid said today after leading the effort to defeat Sen. Paul's bill which would have brought needed oversight to Fed activities.
The Federal Reserve operates under two main congressional mandates, maximizing employment and maintaining stable prices. It is not particularly good at either, but the idea that monetary policy can or even should be charged with creating jobs is absurd.
"Big Government types in Washington D.C. melt when you throw water on them and Rand Paul soaks them every time they cackle," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.
The same people who are losing their minds over ObamaCare melting down will lose their minds over this. Good.
"Gun free zones are not consistent with the need to protect our children in the real world because every loose nut knows when they see that sign they will meet next to no resistance," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Our schools and government buildings are infested enough with leftist ideology but now Kentuckians are ready to start pushing back hard."
Despite his illegal creation of the exchange and the legislature explicitly forbidding him from spending state funds on the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange and refusing his attempt to create a tax to fund it, Beshear said he would run the exchange on less than $33,937,400. According to information compiled by Bevin, Beshear spent $60,524,000, which is 78 percent above the budgeted amount.
This same report also showed Beshear's falsely claimed budget surplus was actually a deficit of $603 million.
"This is another Obama fraud which shouldn't have been possible," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Federal funds for state-run exchanges dried up in 2014 and were not legally permitted past then under the ACA. Gov. Bevin can end this charade by shutting down the Kentucky exchange without further delay."
Bevin is currently a defendant in a Court of Appeals case, 13-CA-1590, which would force the exchange to be disbanded.
Kentucky's General Assembly should move quickly to start dismantling the Common Core scheme here without further delay.
"One of the big lies out of Frankfort is that Senate Bill 1 of 2009 mandated acceptance of Common Core, but if you read the bill you know that isn't true," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "We need to put this embarrassing chapter behind us now, before it gets any worse."
And, of course, since it's a holiday the advice to call customer service is no good either.
"Kentucky's disastrous dalliance with ObamaCare can't end soon enough," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The only voices they have left are Steve Beshear on his Twitter page and Greg Stumbo barking about elephants in Bethlehem. Let's put them out of our misery soon, please."