Kentucky defeats REAL ID unfunded mandate

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has vetoed state implementation of the federal REAL ID Act, which would have forced all Kentuckians to get a federal standard drivers license giving the government enhanced tracking abilities of individuals.

"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."

America's largest individual health insurer dumps Kynect; media cheerleaders stunned into silence

United Healthcare, the nation's largest individual health insurer, made public the news they are pulling out of Kentucky ObamaCare in 2017 and the breathless media followers of all things health reform over the last six years have nothing to say about it.

"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."

Baby Beshear panics, cries partisanship too soon

It was only a matter of time before Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear would try for a return to the glory days of Greg Stumbo attacking Ernie Fletcher by accusing Gov. Matt Bevin of illegally firing state workers for political reasons.

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."

Kentucky Republicans unite against REAL ID

Nearly six hundred Republican delegates to Kentucky's GOP state convention this weekend voted almost unanimously to tell Gov. Matt Bevin to veto an ill-considered plan to accept unfunded mandate, national identification personal tracking device called REAL ID.

"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."

Steve Beshear's ObamaCare develops a limp

Frankfort Republicans invited former Governor Steve Beshear to appear last week to testify in favor of his illegal and ill-considered ObamaCare actions, but he declined the opportunity.

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."

Lexington Herald Leader owes Bevin apology

Back on March 29, the Lexington Herald Leader went hog wild with Kentucky's latest left-wing cause celebre, blaming Gov. Matt Bevin for early glitches in state online benefits web site Benefind. In an April 11 Senate Health and Welfare Committee hearing, we learned the truth which totally refutes Frankfort Obamacrats' smear tactics, but three days later the central Kentucky newspaper hasn't mustered the first word of clarity on the issue.

"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.

Democrats, media suck-ups fail to cast blame of Benefind mess on Bevin Administration

The real news from today's Senate Health and Welfare Comittee meeting in which Democrats and their media pets continued trying to pin the ongoing mess with former Gov. Steve Beshear's government benefits consolidation program called Benefind on Gov. Matt Bevin was that the paper trail clearly shows federal officials claimed the program was ready and the Commonwealth faced threat of significant costs if its launch were delayed further.

"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."

Frankfort Dems' suicide to be televised Monday

Kentucky's Senate Health and Welfare Committee will hear two ObamaCare bills Monday morning at 10 am in Capitol Annex Room 171 in the most momentous showdown of the 2016 General Assembly.

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."

Will Kentucky dodge REAL ID bullet?

Every year since the federal REAL ID Act passed in 2005, Americans have been bullied into believing their drivers licenses must be upgraded rather expensively with tracking devices or else residents of negligent states would soon be prohibited from boarding domestic flights.

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.

Baby Beshear can't read

Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear missed the mark in a failed political attack on Gov. Matt Bevin today in which Beshear attempted to redefine what a state appropriation is.

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.

What the Democrat Industrial Complex is missing in Bevin's higher education cuts move

As they so often do, the Lexington Herald Leader and Louisville Courier Journal failed in their reporting of Gov. Matt Bevin's order to cut state General Fund higher education spending by 4.5% in the current fiscal year. This poor reporting does not serve readers seeking to understand issues underpinning the move and allowed House Speaker Greg Stumbo (D-of course) to claim falsely that Gov. Bevin is violating state law.

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.

Jim Gray attacks Rand Paul

Lexington Mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Jim Gray claims Rand Paul and Senate Republicans "are refusing to do their jobs and consider (Obama's) Supreme Court nominee."

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.

Matt Bevin dead wrong about "REAL ID Act"

Gov. Matt Bevin pulled in support from lots of civil libertarians last year by better addressing concerns about government than his opponent did and by remaining silent on goofy, expensive, unfunded "security" mandates which do not make us safer.

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.

Frankfort Obamacrats: Medicaid expansion's best days are already behind Kentucky

Kentucky's House Democrats have now completely cast their lots with ObamaCare and the Medicaid expansion just in time for its decline as predicted by the consulting group they paid hundreds of millions of dollars to tell us how great it was going to be.

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.

Former Democrat dismantles Speaker Greg Stumbo

House Speaker Greg Stumbo has a long history of saying ridiculous, patently untrue things in Frankfort. Jaws dropped across the Commonwealth dropped today, though, when Stumbo said ObamaCare premiums have "stabilized" in Kentucky.

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 polyester pension plan passes House

House Speaker Greg Stumbo's HB 1 mandates full funding of the Kentucky teachers retirement system by pretending that money to pay the requirement exists. It doesn't.

"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 ObamaCare is DEAD

Former Governor Steve Beshear's Save Kentucky Healthcare online petition has gained fewer than 150 names from all over the world in the last two weeks. The only people who will miss ObamaCare in Kentucky when its bogus Frankfort bureaucracy is gone is Frankfort Obamacrats.

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.

House Dems "Jack Conway" themselves

In the last week before the 2015 election, outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear gave voice to Frankfort Democrats' belief that 500,000 angry ObamaCare recipients would storm the polls and give Jack Conway the Governor's Mansion.

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."

Bevin's brilliant "empty chamber" video

If you were a new Republican governor in Kentucky surrounded by a hostile opposition party and media eager to distort your message and stifle your efforts, what would you do? If you are Matt Bevin, you might make a video shining light on your message in a way that will cause your opponents to expose themselves as really not doing their jobs.

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.

Andy Barr and Thomas Massie could do this together to kill ObamaCare once and for all

When ObamaCare was being written, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was seen frequently working with Democrats crafting the bill. What resulted was a small provision in the final product which could now be used to neuter the entire federal takeover of healthcare.

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!