Shut down Kentucky Dept of Insurance

A 2010 Kentucky Supreme Court ruling could be used to end the error of government regulation of private health care transactions and usher in freedoms many have forgotten ever existed.

Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Reinhold states that Kentucky can regulate anything that it finds to be "insurance." The Court further rules that agreements to shift risk constitute insurance. Taken literally, this could be applied to any interpersonal interaction. We shift risks between family members, neighbors, even strangers every day. Is a Boy Scout helping a little old lady across the street now her insurance company? Under the letter of the law, yes he is.

I hope this sounds as absurd to you as it does to me. The Commonwealth is using KRS 304.1-030, enacted in 1970, to arbitrarily limit healthcare options available to Kentuckians even under ObamaCare. Rather than suffer continued confusion under such unreasonable and capricious laws, we should instead repeal all statutes seeking to regulate insurance. Market competition is a much more efficient regulator than government decree anyway, and civil courts are available for dispute resolution at much less cost than big government.

It's completely understandable if you have to let this idea roll around in your head a while before taking action on it. We just need a few people willing to really fight for healthcare freedom in order to swing it back in our direction. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call me at 859-537-5372.

It's your baby: free market works in Kentucky

In Kentucky, only one individual health insurer covers maternity care. A 22 year old woman seeking health insurance with maternity coverage must pay premiums through a 12 month waiting period. The cost of this rider on an Anthem $2500 deductible plan with 0% coinsurance is $51.37 a month.

That's $1078.77 in premium for 12 months waiting period plus nine months gestation. Add on the $2500 deductible and you are over the market price Lexington OB/GYNs charge to deliver your baby.

It's clearly cheaper to skip maternity coverage and negotiate a cash price with your doctor. 

Incidentally, I called Dr. Blake Bradley in Lexington today. He delivered my fifteen year old son for a $2000 fee we negotiated at the beginning of my wife's pregnancy. His current price is slightly more than $2100.

Under ObamaCare, this free market success story will be a thing of the past. And if Governor Beshear intends to leave the free market intact in the event of a Supreme Court ruling against ObamaCare, he needs to make that clear right away. Otherwise, it certainly looks like he wants to push us to the left on healthcare regardless of what the Supremes say.

Kentucky healthcare reign of terror to expand

Governor Steve Beshear's insurance officials in Frankfort are preparing to expand discrimination against Christian health cost sharing programs that are actually exempt from ObamaCare.

The Kentucky Department of Insurance, already pursuing a contempt of court ruling against Christian Care Medi-Share, will widen its regulatory scope tomorrow to include sharing organizations Samaritan Ministries and Christian Healthcare Ministries.

A 2010 Kentucky Supreme Court split decision (Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Reinhold) against Christian Care Medi-Share will be used to shut down Samaritan and Christian Healthcare.

Kentuckians participating in these sharing programs or any others should contact their representatives and demand that state government leave this small corner of freedom in the health care marketplace alone. And since this applies directly to only a small number of Kentuckians, anyone who believes in freedom and opposes government tyranny in all forms should join them.

Next up in Kentucky: Craig Astor

Congressman Brett Guthrie has supported raising the debt ceiling, oppressive government and bad Republican candidates in primaries against tea partiers.

Just got this notice on my Facebook page:

Anyone know who Craig Astor is? It's just about time to find out.

Tea party should stop government broadband

The full U.S. Senate will be taking up the 2012 Farm Bill soon. When they do, Senator Rand Paul would do well to push for defunding the Rural Utilities Service Broadband Loan Program to get government out of the way and lower the cost of internet for consumers.

Kentucky has more municipal broadband projects than any other state on a per capita basis. In fact, only Washington state's twelve projects exceeds Kentucky's eight, but on a larger population.

A 2010 Reason Foundation report found that Kentucky had the tenth most competitive broadband market in the nation. Government involvement has been promoted as necessary to provide services in rural areas, but that line has been thoroughly debunked.

A group of government watchdog groups this week urged trimming back the federal loan program, but  I think we all expect Senator Paul to not stop at half-measures, nor can our state afford them.

Is David Williams done in 2014?

A quiet election in terms of statewide notice, yesterday's 15th Senate district race could have larger implications including the ouster of Senate President David Williams not just from leadership, but from office altogether in the middle of Gov. Steve Beshear's second term.

The race featured Chris Girdler, a Hal Rogers-backed establishment candidate who spent around $200,000 to win the primary. His three tea party opponents, Mark Polston, Todd Hoskins and AC Donahue combined to spend only a small fraction of that total.

Hoskins, the only Casey Countian in the race, dropped out late and endorsed Polston. He stayed on the ballot, though, and pulled 2% of the vote though he clearly was able to transfer much of his support to Polston.

Donahue refused to fall in behind Polston and held tough to draw 7.3% of the vote. Given Polston's 9.63% loss to Girdler, it's hard not to conclude that a united insurgent effort all along may well have been successful.

Conservatives ought to resist the temptation, though, to praise Hoskins and criticize Donahue. Both were outstanding candidates and both should be encouraged to stay heavily involved. The hollowness of moral victories aside, the quality of these candidates speaks well for the movement in a more rural part of the state. It's almost all good news and portends growth in the future.

Girdler, 32, will be very interesting to watch in the Senate. Protecting his right flank will be important as tea party strength continues to grow but he also has to be wary of a challenge from the left. Senate President David Williams tried to take Pulaski and Russell counties in redistricting and started showing signs of moving to Somerset. He clearly has Girdler in his sights.

Girdler supporters executed a fairly successful whisper campaign claiming that David Williams supported Polston in this race so that he could take Pulaski and Russell in 2013 redistricting and run against Polston in 2014.

If Girdler moves to embrace and be embraced by the tea party quickly, the pieces may fall into place for squeezing Williams out of the Senate in 2014.

Obama still targeting Tea Party

I use a web site called StatCounter that allows me to see where my traffic on this site is coming from. Sometimes this provides interesting information.

Just got this one:

If you can't tell, someone at the Internal Revenue Service wound up here after doing a Google search for "Kentucky tea party candidates." Sure would be interesting to know how they might justify doing that.

It's hard to view this as anything other than an improper use of federal power.

Sure fix for ObamaCare in Kentucky

The federal Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) explicitly grandfathers in religious based health care cost sharing programs and allows people to use them to pay for their medical expenses while everyone else is forced into government-run payment vehicles.

Kentucky is unique among states in its dogged determination to deny its citizens this last freedom. This is an old fight, but it is time we got everyone engaged.

The last legislative session would have been a perfect opportunity to restore this freedom to Kentuckians.

Please "like" this post and share it with any Kentucky Christians you know who are concerned about ObamaCare. This is so important we should demand Governor Beshear call the legislature into special session in June to pass a law specifically permitting religious-based medical cost sharing programs to operate without government interference in Kentucky. It is our most realistic defense against ObamaCare, it would present a cost-savings for Kentuckians while allowing a desperately needed free-market solution.

Christian Care Medishare has operated very successfully in the state for years. Spreading their success would benefit Kentuckians financially and by teaching a much needed lesson in free markets.

Please alert your legislators to this critical issue.

David Givens' opponent cites Enron-style scheme

Kentucky state Senator David Givens continued to use his office to benefit himself financially by operating a questionable "agriculture" business until the state quietly shut it down last September, Republican state Senate candidate Don Butler said.

Senator Givens is Co-Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The name of Givens' company, of which he was described alternately as an officer or owner, was Green River Cattle Company.

"It is tough to track it all down but after taking some hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and producing nothing, Green River Cattle Company looks like the Enron of Kentucky agriculture," Butler said. "It wasn't much of a company, there were no cattle, no river and the only green was the taxpayer money going into David Givens' pocket." 

Givens showed income from Green River Cattle Company on his Legislative Ethics reports through 2010. Givens has also come under fire in his re-election bid for claiming falsely to have never voted to raise taxes.

Real health reform road show starts Monday

Two weeks ago, the Beshear administration tried to sneak a bogus "public" hearing on ObamaCare past the people of Kentucky.

It failed.

Monday night, May 21st, a different kind of public hearing will be held. Please join a public discussion at the Jeffersontown Public Library at 10635 Watterson Trail in Louisville.

We will talk about what the Beshear administration is doing to us, how it is more important to fight the battle on the state level than to wait for a favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling next month. We will talk about what you can do to help protect the state from another brush with socialized medicine and why Frankfort Republicans are fighting for the wrong team.

We will talk about real free market solutions. Hope to see you there.

Republican Party of Kentucky attacks conservative

On Thursday afternoon, a recorded telephone call from Republican Party of Kentucky headquarters defended incumbent moderate Senator David Givens for his bad votes on taxes, spending and healthcare. The call urged Republicans to ignore criticism of Givens' record and to re-elect him anyway.

Givens faces conservative Tea Party Republican challenger Don Butler in the primary election on Tuesday, May 22.

Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Steve Robertson said the call went out to approximately 2000 voters in the 9th Senate district, according to a local party official.

The call in support of Givens represents a new low for the Republican Party of Kentucky, which continues to unnecessarily prolong the battle between establishment moderates and conservative Tea Partiers.

Chris Christie shows Republicans how to sell out

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will be in Lexington on Saturday to address Kentucky Republicans. He will surely talk about his May 10 veto of a bill to set up an ObamaCare health insurance exchange in his state.

What he won't tell us is that his veto was just for show and that he was already -- and still is -- setting his state on the path to socialized medicine.

As always, the trick is to follow the money.

Governor Christie applied for and received a $7.6 million Affordable Care Act Establishment grant and is spending it readying his state for ObamaCare. The law explicitly allows states to forgo this activity and, in fact, returning the federal money forcing the federal government to set up the exchange is the only way to go.

Like several other Republicans, Christie appears to have fallen for the idea that a state-run exchange is either required or somehow allows states to maintain a form of local control.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has expressed the same position. Both the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute have urged states to return Establishment grant money as the surest way out of ObamaCare's clutches.

Why this message hasn't gotten more traction would be a real mystery if politicians in both parties had not so clearly displayed their addiction to federal money, with or without strings attached.

And make no mistake, the strings attached to the federal money already accepted by many states will become very heavy ropes before 2015 when states will be responsible for all the costs of exchanges regardless of who is "running" them.

At best the states are being set up as scapegoats for when ObamaCare fares poorly. Worse, opponents banking on a favorable Supreme Court ruling will be surprised at how much of ObamaCare will survive in states that have cooperated and have accepted federal money.

States like New Jersey and Kentucky. 

 

Funniest Kentucky political ad ever

Tea Party Republican Don Butler is running a radio ad against his incumbent opponent David Givens that has people talking down around Glasgow, Kentucky. Click the link below to listen to it.

Funny political ad

David Givens suffers 40-point ObamaCare swoon

Powerful incumbent Senate Republican David Givens, chairman of the Senate Agriculture committee, was cruising to a 20-point win two weeks ago. In the past week, though, Givens got skewered by the Kentucky Club for Growth for raising taxes and then lying about it in a newspaper ad.

Also last week, his opponent, Tea Party Republican Don Butler, started running a radio ad pointing out Givens' support of ObamaCare in the state legislature.

Now two different sources who have polled the race tell Kentucky Progress that Givens is losing by twenty. And Butler reportedly has an even harder-hitting ad in the can for the final week.

If you haven't already joined the movement to stop Frankfort's quiet effort to implement ObamaCare, please do so now.

Is Steve Beshear lying or just lazy and stupid?

Last week when Governor Steve Beshear came clean about quietly setting up ObamaCare in Kentucky he repeated a canard that apparently still needs to be debunked. Beshear wants you to believe that if Kentucky sets up its own ObamaCare health insurance exchange, that we will maintain some kind of local control.

Setting up a state-run exchange, Beshear said, "also guarantees we don't have the federal government running our insurance market."


But page 8 of a federal Health and Human Services ObamaCare document summarizing the law on Kentucky's Department of Insurance web site clearly explains that if the HHS Secretary isn't happy with the state's activities, then the feds can step in and take control.

There are lots of myths, distortions and outright lies surrounding the ObamaCare mess. It would be great if more of Kentucky's Republican officials got on board with the effort to fight this nonsense back. Those sitting on the sidelines now are just going to look sillier and sillier as this goes along.

KY Club for Growth blasts David Givens

The Kentucky Club for Growth today ruled a campaign ad for incumbent state Senator David Givens "blatantly false" just as Givens prepares to face tea party challenger Don Butler in the May 22 Republican primary.

The Club's statement mentioned and linked to a post from Kentucky Progress.

During Sen. Givens four years in the Senate, there has really only been one significant tax increase brought to the Senate floor - 2009's HB 144, a $160 million annual tax increase.  While Thayer and eleven other Senators opposed it, Sen. Givens voted for it.  HB 144 increased tobacco taxes and created a new tax on alcohol, double-taxing the industry and giving Kentucky one of the highest alcohol taxes in the country! (Don't try to argue that 'families' are unaffected by these taxes.  Families throughout the Commonwealth are involved in growing, producing, distributing, retailing and consuming these products.)
Additionally that year, Givens voted to create a tax on "Internet Protocol Television (HB 236), create new taxes on digital property (HB 347) and hike the gas tax by $0.04 (HB 374).

Club Executive Director Andy Hightower concludes his dressing down of Givens by referring to Givens' advertising claim that he supports "open and honest government."

This probably also puts to lie his claim of 'Honest Government.'

Bob Damron, closet ObamaCare supporter

Less than two weeks after Kentucky House Democratic Caucus Chairman Bob Damron lied to voters through the Campaign for Liberty survey about his position on ObamaCare, he has now publicly stated his support for Obama's federal healthcare takeover.

On his Facebook page, Damron expressed support for keeping the more than $60 million in federal grant money we have received so far, which obligates Kentucky to set up an ObamaCare bureaucracy in state government. He has since removed that post from his page, though this image was captured:

A self-styled pro-business conservative, Damron should have to explain how his sneakiness and prevarication on this issue squares with his desire to be re-elected to represent increasingly-conservative Jessamine County.

In the November election, Damron faces Republican Matt Lockett, who has consistently opposed ObamaCare and supports forcing state government to return the federal ObamaCare money.

Did you see this establishment scam?

An unidentified Washington D.C. organization has mailed to Kentucky very conservative-looking flyers touting establishment candidates who have refused to be pinned down specifically on key issues. I'm not nearly as concerned about any possible campaign finance violation (mailing organizations should identify identify themselves) as I am curious to know why the secrecy was thought to be necessary.

Slippery establishment types posing as rock-ribbed conservatives have damaged the Republican brand enough. If you have seen a mailer like this touting your local establishment politician, please let me know.

Where are our Republicans on BeshearCare?

The most striking aspect of Kentucky's self-destructive dalliance with ObamaCare is the silence of the state's Republicans.

Are we so addicted to federal grant money (more than $60 million so far for health "reform," and counting) that even our elected Republicans can't see the strings attached?

Talk to your Republican officeholders at the state and federal levels about this. With very little effort, Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell could capture the attention of the overwhelming majority of Kentucky voters who oppose ObamaCare. It will take that to force corrective action out of Governor Beshear and the lethargic Republican leadership in the state Senate.

All of our U.S. House members but Reps. John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler should be eager to come to our aid, as should the small army of Republican candidates running in the May elections.

Where are these people, now that we need them?

Frankfort incumbent senator's ad tells the tale

Kentucky state Senator David Givens has voted to raise your taxes repeatedly in Frankfort. But in a newspaper ad he purchased for his re-election, he says he "consistently opposes tax increases." That's like Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who said he was personally opposed to abortion but voted for it anyway.

Then Givens said he is for open and honest government. He is probably talking there about his vote for Senate Bill 7 in 2011, a toothless "transparency" bill that hasn't changed anything in closed, secretive Frankfort. Voters may well conclude he "believes taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent," but only until they read and understand the next bullet point in the newspaper ad.

Givens' biggest whopper in the ad is his claim that he "has voted to cut billions in government spending." That only works if you can ignore the many billion more in spending that he voted for regardless of our state's ability to afford it. Givens voted to spend every dime of the $3.4 billion in Obama stimulus funds the federal government sent, the $2.4 billion in general fund appropriation-supported debt he voted for and the untold billions more in unfunded pension liabilities he will helped create by failing to properly fund the Kentucky Retirement Systems. Given these facts, the the slogan "A true conservative we can count on to protect our liberty" really doesn't make much sense, does it? David Givens had four years to come up with a better ad, but his sorry record dictates that he try to get by on subterfuge and slippery language.

Fortunately, Givens is opposed in the Republican primary by tea party candidate Don Butler, the former county judge in Metcalfe County. Butler has campaigned on a pledge to never vote for a tax increase, to never vote for an unbalanced budget and to refuse a legislative pension. Notice the difference between that and just stating that he opposes tax increases, debt and unbalanced budgets and our state's pension mess? 

Steve Beshear saw his shadow yesterday

Governor Steve Beshear yesterday called a halt to what was to be a series of open-to-the-public meetings on ObamaCare implementation in Kentucky. This came quickly after a team of his bureaucrats met substantial public resistance at a Frankfort meeting to discuss ObamaCare.

The Tea Party needs to step up and have them for him. Across the state and as soon as possible, we need to have citizen-run ObamaCare public hearings at which we seek to answer the following questions:

1- Do Kentucky citizens want ObamaCare or to participate in the excessively expensive federally controlled state-run exchanges when the law clearly makes participation optional? Why or why not?
2- Should Governor Beshear return the more than $60 million in federal grants for setting up a health insurance exchange?
3- Which legislators will demand that Governor send the money back? Do we need a special session of the General Assembly to address this issue?
4- What real solutions do we want to problems in the health care industry?

Setting up a public event is easy. Public libraries and schools have meeting rooms that can be used with little or no cost. A sponsoring organization is sometimes necessary and may be a good idea anyway. Teaming up with local civic groups can help spread the word about an event.

Lots of help is available if you are willing to get the ball rolling. Just ask.

Tea Party resurgence in Kentucky

The Tea Party came to prominence in the wake of ObamaCare, the federal takeover of American healthcare starting in 2009. State implementation of the federal law stirred up the movement again today.

It all started last week when a Kentucky ObamaCare official, Kris Hayslett quietly scheduled an auditorium in the state Transportation Cabinet building for a "public" meeting discussing state activity in setting up a health insurance exchange in the state.

A tea party activist uncovered the event and noted the almost eery lack of publicity behind it. With barely 72 hours notice, a Facebook event page was established. By Monday at 1pm, more than 100 tea partiers joined about three dozen state employees, contractors and lobbyists for what became a two hour long wake-up call for anyone who thought there would be no public resistance to socialized medicine.

"Unbelievable," said Candice Franklin of Lincoln County. "No one in Frankfort can answer where the money will come from to pay for this free stuff for everybody."

Kathy Linzy of Anderson County enjoyed watching the bureaucratic panel's shell-shocked reaction to public opposition to their scheme.

"Clearly their eyes were glazing over when the folks at the mic asked questions," Linzy said. "The panel did say these were not the questions they were looking for. What they were looking for was info and ideas on how to implement the health care exchange."

Kentucky has already accepted more federal money to establish a state run health insurance exchange than any other state but New York. Last week, Governor Steve Beshear claimed that he had no choice but to prepare to set up a state run exchange should the U.S. Supreme Court find the law constitutional. The panel today repeated his claim, despite the fact that the law clearly says it is optional.

Further, common sense says that not getting the state involved in this nonsense is the cheaper way to go.

"This is the camel's nose, head and three-fourths of its body already in the tent," said Dan Blanchard of Jefferson County. "If centralized government imposes its will on us here, it sets all the precedent they need to go after any vestige of liberty in any other areas we have left. This is not about affordable health care. It's about a pseudo-intelligent elite trying to control 'We the People.'"

The strong showing of tea partiers clearly frustrated the bureaucrats, but left conservatives wondering what would come next.

"Other than a show of force, I wonder if we accomplished much," said Ann Prothro of Woodford County. "I found them very parental, patronizing. It felt like they thought we were all talking in study hall."

Indeed, what comes next is critical. A single, simple demand is necessary. Conservatives and tea partiers should call Governor Beshear and demand that he return the $60 million in federal grant money Kentucky has received to implement an ObamaCare. His number is (502)564-2611. Further, please call your state Senator and Representative and demand that they publicly call on Beshear to send the money back and discontinue all efforts to create an ObamaCare health insurance exchange in Kentucky.

Attend Beshear's public ObamaCare meeting

Kentucky has already budgeted more money for implementing ObamaCare than any other state but New York. Governor Beshear has been working behind the scenes to set up an ObamaCare health insurance exchange in Kentucky while most people are distracted by the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the ObamaCare mandate.

If he is not reversed quickly, Beshear will be able to run ObamaCare in Kentucky even if the federal law is overturned by the Supreme Court.

The legislature has failed to stop him. We must do it and the time is now.

On Monday, May 7 in Frankfort, the Beshear administration is holding a public meeting about the future of ObamaCare in Kentucky. As many of us as possible must attend. The Beshear Administration tried to keep this meeting quiet; the idea was to bus their people in and make it look like everyone loves ObamaCare. If you can make it at 1pm on Monday to 200 Mero Street in Frankfort (Transportation Cabinet Building Auditorium C105), please come. Even if you can't attend, please spread this invitation as widely as you can.

Printing (or cutting) what doesn't "fit"

From the Associated Press (Printed in the Bowling Green Daily News):

Beshear's announcement raised concerns in Kentucky among opponents of the federal care reforms.

Tea party activist David Adams said Kentucky shouldn't have accepted the federal grants, and that Kentuckians should be outraged that Beshear has been working behind the scenes to plan the health insurance exchange.
"This is the most important thing state government will do to us this year," he said.
It's noteworthy that the Lexington Herald Leader chopped this off the online version of this story.

And here is my original statement:

"If the legislature had any guts they would have prohibited Governor Beshear from spending even a penny setting up the enforcement bureaucracy for ObamaCare. They don't need to have meetings to discuss how great socialized medicine is going to be in Kentucky; they should have already sent the $60 million in federal funds back to Obama. The way the federal law is written, we can ignore ObamaCare mandates if we just refuse to set up an exchange. The purpose of the exchange is to blame the insurance companies and go straight to single-payer when the whole thing proves disastrous. They have to schedule this thing during the day so we can't get a crowd there, but this is the most important thing state government will do to us this year. If you thought the failed General Assemby session was bad, this is Armageddon." David Adams

Steve Beshear comes out of closet on May 7

Kentucky will be Ground Zero of the national battle against ObamaCare on Monday, May 7 in Frankfort when  Beshear administration officials forcing us into government-controlled healthcare will hold an open meeting in Frankfort to discuss their progress.

Though some reports have been online and the state budget gives Beshear free rein to ram ObamaCare down our throats, this is his first time publicly admitting his involvement in this disaster.

The meeting will be held at 1pm ET in the auditorium (C105) at the Transportation Cabinet in Frankfort, 200 Mero Street. Beshear has continued to insist, despite the evidence, that he is not setting up an ObamaCare health insurance exchange -- the state enforcement bureaucracy for socialized medicine.

Kentucky has already budgeted more ObamaCare spending than any other state in the nation besides New York.

If you care about stopping ObamaCare and can make it on Monday, you won't want to miss this.

Who are Kentucky's Tea Party candidates?

In an email this morning, Louisville Courier Journal political writer Joe Gerth asked me who the Tea Party candidates are running in the state House and Senate this year. Below is my response. What's yours?

"Good question. I think it's a 'many are called, few are chosen' kind of thing. I hope they all wind up supporting tea party principles, but for now they are mostly running their own races. I hope voters ask the candidates where they all stand on tea party issues and why. Our state officials have underfunded state employee benefits for so long we have about three years left before we won't be able to pay benefits out of KRS funds. That's a tea party issue because taxpayers will be on the hook, but the establishment figures won't even talk about it. Our elected officials have left the door wide open for Obama and Beshear to destroy healthcare in Kentucky with a federally-controlled but state "run" health insurance exchange. Only a handful of candidates have pledged never to raise taxes. I think the candidates who will talk directly to these issues and keep talking about them will be the tea party candidates."

Bob Damron has a Campaign for Liberty problem

Kentucky state Representative Bob Damron (D-Nicholasville) is one of only two Democrats in the General Assembly who completed a Campaign for Liberty survey with 100% affirmative answers.

He might have a problem or two with that.

Interested voters who haven't already written off Damron for bad votes might want to ask him which federal official he wants to arrest first.

Question 4 on the survey asks if the candidate would support nullifying ObamaCare and "authorize state and local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement the unconstitutional health care scheme."

Damron answered that he would do these things. I would like to see him say that on camera.

While he could certainly claim that he would take this approach to stopping ObamaCare since the opportunity has never come up, question 7 is a different story.

Question 7 asks "Do you oppose taking federal money to create a state health insurance exchange?" Kentucky has taken more federal money for this purpose than any other state except for New York. Damron has been there through the entire ordeal and has never objected once.

Steve Beshear hiding latest ObamaCare plans

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services officials are sitting on at least two periodic reports detailing state implementation of ObamaCare.

The most recent Health Benefit Exchange Planning Grant quarter report made public on the state's Division of Certificate of Need is dated July 15, 2011.

Kentucky has budgeted more money for setting up the state bureaucracy for ObamaCare implementation than any state other than New York.

Kentucky paints itself into ObamaCare corner

A little-noticed provision in Kentucky's 2012 budget bill exposes a problem to be faced by states dumb enough to enact any part of ObamaCare.

Section 10 on page 296 of Kentucky's HB 265 would enable Kentucky to set up a state health insurance purchasing compact with contiguous states to allow for cross-border buys of health coverage.

Kentucky is actively setting up ObamaCare and is in the process of spending more than any other state in the nation other than New York on ObamaCare.

Kentucky has seven contiguous neighbors. Six of them have expressed an interest in a similar purchasing compact with their neighboring states. Of those six, five have taken specific legislative steps to protect themselves from at least one element of ObamaCare. They would have nothing to gain by combining with Kentucky on health insurance starting in 2014, when ObamaCare kicks in.

That leaves Kentucky and West Virginia, two ObamaCare states, to set up a multi-state health insurance purchasing compact. The way to avoid becoming an ObamaCare state is to avoid setting up a state-run health insurance exchange. Kentucky is too far into that process, with the legislature enabling and Governor Beshear expected to issue an executive order after the elections in November. Even a favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling later this year may not prevent that from happening if the individual mandate is invalidated but the rest of the law survives.

Our fearless leaders should have at least tried to avoid the insurance exchange trap when they had the chance.




 

Beshear slams shut bogus "Open Door"

After the Tea Party shifted Frankfort's discussion in 2012 toward the massive accumulation of debt in state government, two weeks ago we noticed Beshear had scrubbed state sites of significant data related to that debt.

It never occurred to me to check out the silly, but award-winning state transparency site but when I did, I found the state's vaunted Open Door has been closed.

If you click here and look at "Kentucky's Transparency Portal," the link labeled "State Debt Report" takes you to an error message.

Might be an interesting news story for some intrepid Frankfort reporter. No doubt if Governor Ernie Fletcher had tried this he would already have been drawn and quartered. 

Would Missouri jail Kentucky lawmakers?

Missouri's state Senate is considering a bill -- already passed by the state House -- to make it a crime to  help set up ObamaCare in that state. Kentucky's General Assembly just voted to spend $50 million to help set up ObamaCare in Kentucky.

And the really good news is the politicians prosecuted under this law wouldn't be subject to the Steve Nunn Exception and could lose their government pensions.

In all seriousness, Kentucky should return every dime of federal ObamaCare money and follow Missouri's lead in fighting against it. Granted, we would need more Republicans to go that far, but we should have had plenty to avoid getting in deeper than any state other than New York.

Legislative pension issue enters KY primary

One issue gaining traction this year in Kentucky legislative races is whether or not a candidate will accept a pension for serving in the legislature. It has finally become a point of contention in a Republican primary in Lexington's 76th state House district.

Richard Marrs is a conservative Republican who ran in this district in 2010 against Democratic Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo. Marrs holds the distinction in Kentucky of being the only House candidate for whom then-candidate Rand Paul campaigned by knocking on doors in his neighborhood. Marrs has pledged to reject a legislative pension if he is elected.

Marrs' opponent, Lavinia Theodoli Spirito, is taking the opposite approach by saying she will not refuse a pension.

In what might be a competitive race between conservative Richard Marrs and his opponent Lavinia Theodoli Spirito, this could be a defining issue.

Obama hopes you still don't read very well

I wonder how many people will send $3 (or more!) to President Barack Obama after reading this email, thinking that he is then going to fly them to Los Angeles to hang out with George Clooney. 

Probably a lot of the same people who still believe ObamaCare will lower their medical costs.

You may laugh, but your state representatives are just about ready to come home and tell you how conservative they are despite just setting up a ticking time bomb on Kentucky's health care system.

Kentuckians can ignore Supreme Court ruling

A lot of people will be watching the U.S. Supreme Court this summer to see if the justices rule ObamaCare to be unconstitutional or not. Thanks to Governor Steve Beshear and the state legislature, Kentuckians need not bother paying attention at all.

The General Assembly have authorized expenditures of over $50 million dollars to set up ObamaCare in Kentucky. That's more than any other state but New York. It would have been better for our health and finances to refuse that money and let the whole sordid scheme wither from neglect.

Unfortunately for us, our representatives in Frankfort took the money and bureaucrats are working to set up ObamaCare for Kentuckians. Worse, they granted the state's Insurance Commissioner open-ended powers to take control of healthcare in the state.

So even if ObamaCare is overturned and other states are spared, Kentucky won't be off the hook. The legislature did their dirty work in House Bill 265.

Tim Kline, a rock star in the making

Tim Kline is a 34 year old Owensboro, Kentucky attorney running for state House of Representatives in the 7th district.

A former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, Tim is a solid conservative and exactly the kind of person we need more of in Frankfort. Expect to hear a lot more about Tim in the weeks and months ahead.

Tim has the courage to campaign against the abuse and fraud in Kentucky Retirement Systems and pledges that  he will not accept a legislative pension.

Expect Tim to be an energetic leader among the new Republican wave coming in to augment Frankfort's decrepit legislature. The 7th district seat is currently held by a Democrat.

Ready for Kentucky's bankruptcy?

While Kentucky's political leaders mostly clown for the cameras in Frankfort, the smart money is watching the show but they aren't laughing. They are apparently, however, exploring ways to capitalize on our state's insane recklessness. The graphic below comes from www.statcounter.com, a site which tracks IP addresses of site visitors to Kentucky Progress.

Lazard Freres is a top financial restructuring advisory firm. In fact, Lazard Freres worked on the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy at the start of the banking crisis. It appears someone at the firm's New York office has been reading on this site multiple times. If you want to know what they know, you should read two of the pages they read most recently here and here.

 States can't legally declare bankruptcy, but that may be of cold comfort to bondholders and/or pensioners when our fiscal situation gets so bad there isn't enough money to go around.

Long memories, short pencils and Bob Damron

Kentucky state Representative Bob Damron (D-Nicholasville) is the only incumbent legislator this year who voted in 1994 to destroy Kentucky's individual health insurance market, subsequently apologized for it and then turned around and voted to spend $50 million we don't have to speed up ObamaCare implementation in Kentucky.

Damron called his vote for HB 250 in 1994 a "rookie mistake" and has claimed, correctly, that public backlash against Kentucky's attempt at creating "HillaryCare" here resulted in reforms that eventually enhanced what was left of our health insurance market.

Surviving his "rookie mistake" and then falling again under the spell of Barack Obama suggests strongly that it's time for Damron to call it quits. Damron's Republican opponent this fall is Nicholasville's Matt Lockett.

Barney Frank lives on in Frankfort, Kentucky

Massachusetts liberal Congressman Barney Frank is retiring in Washington D.C. but his thinking on ObamaCare seems to have taken hold in Frankfort.

Frank blamed the Democrats' loss of the House of Representatives in 2010 on President Obama's push for ObamaCare. It's not that he disagreed with the concept, he says they should have just waited until after the election because of the divisiveness of the issue.

Kentucky's politicians Steve Beshear, David Williams and Greg Stumbo appear to have taken to heart Frank's advice that Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi ignored.

Our Kentucky bunch waited until after the 2011 election to screw Kentuckians with a health insurance scheme that will haunt Kentuckians for years whether the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down ObamaCare or not.

Almost immediately after Beshear and Williams completed their uninspiring general election campaign -- in which Williams focused on calling Beshear a closet Hindu and Beshear focused on reminding people he was running against David Williams --  they set about passing a state budget that spends more money than every state but New York on ramming ObamaCare -- and worse -- down our throats.

If you liked how Frankfort destroyed Kentucky's individual health insurance market in 1994, you will love how they destroy it for everyone in the 2012 general fund budget. Oh, and you can thank Barney Frank for the political advice that helped make it happen.

Ron Paul money bomb stokes hopes, fears

Ron Paul has raised nearly $800,000 in the last 25 hours and is shooting for another $1.5 million or so by Tuesday.

Congressman Paul has essentially gotten his wish of a head-to-head race against Mitt Romney and with this fundraising support has to be close to putting Romney in a box of hoping Paul goes away but not daring to blow him out of the water for fear he will bolt the party and launch a third-party campaign in the fall.

Recent polls show Ron Paul offering a stiffer challenge to President Barack Obama than Romney would.

Why doesn't Kentucky have a Republican like this?

A New York state senator showed more guts with his opposition to ObamaCare this week than any Frankfort Republican has managed in a long time.

From LifeHealthPro:

Sen. Greg Ball, R-Patterson, Putnam County, does not see cost savings but more spending the state can ill afford. He issued a statement that said “any rush towards enacting ObamaCare is more political than reality. The promise of federal funding is not without strings and the program itself will ultimately, if enacted, cost New York taxpayers billions of additional dollars that we do not have. …. We can and should make landmark reforms, including reigning in big insurance in New York, but moving forward now to enact ObamaCare is simply not prudent.”

This was in response to a gubernatorial executive order setting up an ObamaCare health insurance exchange in New York. After telling Frankfort reporters for months that he had no plans to issue a similar executive order, Governor Steve Beshear stuck ObamaCare in his budget proposal and Kentucky's legislature pushed it on through without a peep.

And there hasn't been a single news article about it, either. The Democrats and big government Republicans are kicking our butts so hard they don't even bother to send out celebratory press releases any more.

Go directly to jail. Yes, you!

After the messy, expensive, wasteful General Assembly session ended Thursday and before the requisite "special" session starts on Monday, Kentucky taxpayers may want to check KRS 529.020 which prohibits paying someone who subsequently screws you.

Who is to blame for budget failure

It's not a question. Both sides are to blame for the 2012 General Assembly blowing up last night.

The rush to pass a general fund budget with too much debt and no solutions to our short, intermediate or long term problems in order for legislators to go back to their districts congratulating themselves on all the bipartisanship and compromise now means nothing to anyone.

Well, there is someone who comes out ahead in this ordeal: the tea party.

We have been telling anyone who would listen that the problem lies with both Democrats and Republicans and here it is again for everyone to see.

Do they not realize what will happen in three years when the state pension funds start to need $600 million a year just to pay their bills? We aren't the only state to destroy our finances by using public employee pension money as a slush fund for vote buying. We are just among the worst.

In any event, those expecting a federal bailout for Kentucky Retirement Systems are certain to be sorely disappointed. When that time comes, remember that the ensuing chaos was created by a lot of polticians on both sides. The great shame is that none of them in a position to do so put a stop to this before it was too late.

Frankfort's foolproof plan to eliminate debt

Kentucky's Office of Financial Management web site has been a rich source of state debt information that I tried for many months to get people to pay attention to with limited success.

It appears that ship has sailed. The only report left on the site with any debt data is apparently the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, which pretty much requires the patience of Job to find useful information.

Long-time readers may recall last summer I was trying to draw attention to a clear, concise debt report on a web page the Beshear Administration had failed to update for three years as state debt soared. That site now no longer exists. (See for yourself.)

So the brilliant plan to get rid of the state's impossible level of debt is to simply take down the web sites.

Historians will point to this despicable behavior and the complete lack of mainstream media coverage of it some day. For now, you need to know we basically have three years till the state's finances implode due to exactly this kind of deceit and mismanagement.

Kentucky House tea party tidal wave forming?

The Kentucky Right to Life (KYRTL) organization endorsed Democrat Kentucky House Majority Caucus Leader Bob Damron against his Republican opponents for years until 2010. That year, Damron escaped with a narrow win when Peter Kerr got a C- from the NRA.

This year will apparently be much different. The KYRTL has already endorsed Damron's 2012 opponent Matt Lockett. Damron has already shredded his fiscal conservative facade voting for a series of tax increases and horribly irresponsible budget bills. He has angered the most conservative part of his Jessamine County constituency by trying to jettison them away in the House's unconstitutional redistricting scheme.

The Barack Obama effect combined with Damron's self-inflicted difficulties set Lockett up for what would be the highest profile Republican pickup.

Kentucky in way over our heads on ObamaCare

Not only has the Kentucky legislature given the state Insurance Commissioner unchecked powers to regulate your health care, the state has received and written into our budget more ObamaCare funding from the federal government than all states except for one.

An analysis performed by LifeHealthPro found that only New York's federal health insurance exchange grant total of $88 million exceeds Kentucky's $66.6 million take.

What an obscene mess. And Senate Republicans could have stopped this, but did nothing. Disgraceful.

Because of the way HB 265 was written, even if the Supreme Court overturns ObamaCare Kentucky already has what it needs to push us all the way into socialized medicine.

Ron Paul rocks Kentucky Republican RINOs

State House and Senate candidates in Kentucky are getting loaded down with surveys from various organizations asking their positions on a wide variety of issues. There's one in particular that is not to be missed.

Ron Paul-founded Campaign For Liberty sent out a 7-question survey. Six of the questions should be pretty easy for any candidate to handle, dealing with personal liberties and fiscal responsibility. But the seventh question zaps everyone who voted for the state budget late last month.

The question reads as follows: Do you oppose taking federal money to create a state health insurance exchange? Standard operating procedure for Kentucky politicians might dictate that they try answering yes even though they voted for the 2012 budget bill, which accepted more than $50 million and spent it as well as obligating taxpayers to spend much more.

The smart thing for those politicians to do instead will be to just throw the survey in the trash and go hide under their desks. In a low turnout primary election, it will be somewhat better to be nailed by Campaign for Liberty for being too chicken to answer the questions than it will be to get nailed for trying to lie their way out of the mess they got themselves (and us) into.

Go ahead. Make our day.

If you know and support any good conservative candidates running against big-spending incumbents in Kentucky, please share this post as widely as you can.

I guess that's a "no"

An Ohio-based tea party group suggested to Kentucky 4th district congressional candidate Alecia Webb-Edgington today she should return her legislative pay for the days she spent last month raising money in Washington D.C.

Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) said she should reimburse "the Kentucky taxpayer" for whatever pay she received on her trip. COAST was an early supporter of Rand Paul in his run for the United States Senate.

The funny part about this is Rep. Webb-Edgington responded to this request by attacking primary opponent Boone County Judge Executive Gary Moore.

What would you rather talk about?

A Frankfort reporter asked me yesterday if there was anything going on except for the state's debt problem or the legislature slipping ObamaCare into the state budget or the KRS going bust in three years.

Yes, I told him. The GOP establishment is still distracting itself with trying to kill off the Tea Party.

There is time to stop this from being the big news story on Monday, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for a handful of too-powerful Republican leaders to get with the program before then.

Don Butler takes on GOP tax hiker

Edmonton Kentucky Republican Don Butler tells voters in the state's 9th Senate district he will never follow the crowd in Frankfort in voting to raise taxes. On Thursday, he put that promise in writing.

Butler signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), committing to "oppose and vote against any and all tax increases." So far, only four other state Senate Republicans have signed the ATR pledge. Butler's opponent in the May 22 Republican primary is not one of them.

"Most people don't realize what Frankfort has done to us in the last four years in terms of overspending and debt," Butler said. "The new legislators going up there next year will be under great pressure to raise taxes on Kentuckians and they just have to know that I won't be supporting that."

According to Kentucky's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, state government in the last year has increased General Fund debt by $1 billion. Earlier this week, a federal whistleblower on the Board of Trustees of the Kentucky Retirement Systems said the state pension system will run out of money within three years, costing $600 million a year. Butler said the state's fiscal problems will only be fixed by cutting spending.

"In the last four years we have had enough overspending and tax increases to last us several lifetimes," Butler said. "We can't afford anymore to elect or keep politicians who buy our votes with our own money and pretend that everything will just work out fine." 

Butler faces incumbent Senator David Givens in the GOP primary.

More bipartisan Frankfort "hanky panky"

When the Securities and Exchange investigation of Kentucky's pension plan pay-to-play scandal finally blows up in a few short years, state Rep. Mike Cherry's comment about the legislative coverup will look particularly silly.


Rather than ban the practice of "placement agent" middlemen wasting millions of public dollars in the moribund Kentucky Retirement Systems, the legislature just made them permanent fixtures in Frankfort's political swamp. 


Cherry, the House State Government Committee Chairman, spoke to the Frankfort State Journal about his bill, HB 300, which didn't ban the wasteful practice. Instead the bill requires them to register with the toothless Executive Branch Ethics Commission.


“Having them register as lobbyists precludes any hanky panky regarding contributions and the like,” Cherry said.


This is a completely absurd thing to say because registering them in this way doesn't even require them to report their placement agent income, much less preclude in any way the vast amounts of contribution hanky panky that now gets to continue with state sanction.


Former KRS Board of Trustees member Chris Tobe says the state pension system will require $600 million annual payments starting in about three years. Enabling this waste and corruption will loom much larger when that happens.


The problem is that our representatives in Frankfort should be taking steps to correct this mess. Covering it up will just make it harder to fix later.

Governing by Google Alert

The federal whistleblower in Kentucky's ongoing pension investment placement agent scandal learned earlier today from an email Google Alert that Governor Steve Beshear prefers covering up the issue rather than dealing with it.

Chris Tobe, the whistleblower, had to read on the internet today that he has been replaced on the Board of Trustees of the Kentucky Retirement Systems.

Several other members of the Board have been subpoenaed recently to testify to the Securities and Exchange Commission in their ongoing investigation of the placement agent scandal.

Tobe says the state pension system will run out of money in about three years, necessitating annual payments of $600 million dollars to be made from other revenue sources.

The legislature failed to draw any attention to this situation by allowing scandal-enabling legislation (HB 300) to fly past them last week. The deafening media silence on this issue would not be happening if a Republican were Governor. This fact makes it all the more troubling that no Frankfort Republican could be bothered to speak out on this at all.

Kentucky goes whole hog for ObamaCare

Whether the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down some or all of the federal health insurance law known as ObamaCare may not make much difference in Kentucky thanks to language slipped into the budget bill by Governor Steve Beshear and approved by majorities of the House and Senate.

The last fifteen pages of the just-passed Kentucky budget bill (HB 265) creates a small business health insurance subsidy program, adds new ObamaCare style regulations and empowers Kentucky bureaucrats to seek and accept federal money and implement new regulations without limit. With all that, who needs ObamaCare?

The worst part of the new language goes far beyond Kentucky's 1994 flirtation with HillaryCare which destroyed our individual health insurance market and fit perfectly with Governor Steve Beshear's desire to implement ObamaCare in Kentucky without legislative approval. The two most horrible aspects of this health care power grab is that it, first, actually got legislative approval and, second, that it could create havoc in both individual and group health insurance markets in Kentucky even if ObamaCare is repealed.

Section 7(2) in the ICARE enabling language reads as follows:

(2)           The provisions of this section shall not give rise to, nor be construed as giving rise to, enforceable legal rights for any party or an enforceable entitlement to benefits other than to the extent that such rights or entitlements exist pursuant to the administrative regulations of the executive director of insurance.

 That means the executive director of Kentucky's Department of Insurance just became your health care czar. If your legislator voted for this mess, you should ask him or her to explain why. Some of us tried to warn you (here and here and here).

Shut up and eat your talking points

The Lexington Herald Leader's news article called it a "compromise budget" but couldn't find anyone to quote who recognized that Kentucky's final budget agreement still spends more than we have.

The Louisville Courier Journal's news article quoted Rep. Stan Lee saying the budget spent too much money, which was good, but also called the budget "lean," which is at best inaccurate.

The Associated Press news article called the budget "lean," "bare-bones," and said it includes "sharp cuts," which it does not and also couldn't find anyone who noticed that spending exceeds revenue way too much for any unbiased observer to use any of these terms.

Meanwhile, we are two days past final agreement on the budget and one day past final passage by both chambers of the legislature and the bill is still not available online.

Some "transparency." And what a disgraceful display of media bias at the conclusion of a three-month long disgraceful display of legislative arrogance and ineptitude. It would have been better to just skip the whole charade and have Governor Steve Beshear, Senate President David Williams and House Speaker Greg Stumbo issue a joint statement urging Kentuckians to shut up and eat their talking points.

Hold your wallet and your Constitution

As the clock runs out on Kentucky's legislative session, a brief encounter among budget negotiators Monday evening sheds light on the need for constant vigilance in protecting citizens from out of control politicians.

At 44:50 of this video, repeated Americans for Tax Reform pledge violator Rep. Bob Damron claimed that an unconstitutional spending provision he wanted in the budget wouldn't be a problem if no one actually fought it in court.

"It only is a problem if somebody challenges it," Damron claimed.

This is not only false, but dangerous and clearly emblematic of the mess our nation is in. The language Damron tried to get in the budget would let legislators create additional spending without going through the legal appropriations process.

In an era of huge public debt, structurally imbalanced budgets and enormous unfunded mandates allowing politicians like Damron to so casually dismiss the Constitution is something we can no longer afford to do.

Webb-Edgington strains at gnat, swallows camel

Kentucky 4th congressional candidate Alecia Webb-Edgington went on CN2 last week claiming that she had to vote against the House version of the state budget because of "fluff" in the bill. Asked to define the fluff, she explained that she couldn't vote for a budget that included a $14,500 appropriation for a curtain divider at a state park.

The amount of waste in both the House and Senate bills goes so far beyond $14k that it is incredible this example was all she could come up with.

I couldn't find the curtain divider in the Senate budget, but the last fifteen pages of both versions of HB 265, the executive branch budget, contain a framework for implementing ObamaCare in Kentucky through the Department of Insurance. That's a whole lot more than fourteen thousand dollars and much less useful than a curtain divider.

Also, both bills spend hundreds of millions of dollars we don't have and both do next to nothing to address the oncoming public employee pension system bankruptcy. Rep. Webb-Edgington should have to explain in greater detail how her incomplete lurch to the right on budget bills qualifies her to run for Congress.

Whether she votes for the final budget bill or not, Webb-Edgington missed a great chance to be a voice for fiscal reason before it is too late.

Kentucky Rep. John Tilley on drugs

CN2's Ryan Alessi asked Rep. John Tilley if this year's legislative session would be a success if the General Assembly passed several bills "cracking down" on drug abuse in Kentucky. Tilley said yes.

"I think so because considering the drug abuse problem, this scourge in Kentucky is the biggest problem we have period," Tilley said.

As someone who doesn't even like to take aspirin, much less anything hallucinogenic, I'm almost tempted to ask   for a hit of whatever Tilley is smoking. If the legislature does manage to pass a budget, it is certain they will do so without addressing the state's growing health care, debt and pension problems.

In fact, they seem poised to make them all worse.

The legislature has no apparent concern that Kentucky Retirement Systems should run out of money in three to five years or that bad health care regulation policy on both the state and federal levels or mismanagement in our public education system combine to cause problems that totally dwarf the public effect of a few people's substance abuse issues.

And again, if you want to start really addressing irresponsible drug use in Kentucky, then drug test welfare recipients.