Who Needs Liberals: We Have ICARE!

The ICARE Health Bill is supposed to come up for a vote in the Senate early this week.

This is just another government give-away program that will be demanded as a right of citizenship in a few short years. The idea is to subsize with tax dollars group health insurance plans for small business. This is HillaryCare in Kentucky II. What a mess. Kudos to Rep. David Floyd (R-Bardstown) for being the only House member with the courage to vote against this thing. With any luck, Sen. David Williams and Sen. Tom Buford will prevail as cooler heads in the Senate.

Eastern Kentucky Vote Buying Indictments?

Rumors are swirling that more indictments in the Eastern Kentucky vote buying scandal are imminent.

Could it be just about time to come up with an official name for this shameful affair?

Kentucky Sues Over Medicare Drug Plan

Good grief. The disastrous Medicare drug plan that President Bush had to campaign on because Al Gore campaigned on it, is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is bad liberal politics smacking us across the face yet again. Not only are we faced with a very expensive entitlement that has been poorly conceived and very poorly implemented, we now have the Republican Governor of Texas serving as point man for the five state team fighting the plan in court. Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, and New Jersey joined Texas in the effort.

From what I have been able to glean from the coverage of the case so far, the states may have an uphill climb demonstrating they have been wronged the way they say they have. They say a "clawback provision" is making states pay for the drug benefit, when actually the plan calls for states to shares some of their savings with the federal government. Big difference. And it should come as no surprise that Greg Stumbo is

Right to Work Announcement Coming Monday

Supporters of Employee Choice legislation will be gathering in Frankfort Monday at 10 AM.

But the real fireworks will be on Tuesday, when the House Labor and Industry committee will vote on Right to Work and Prevailing Wage. There will be expert testimony from the good guys and gnashing of teeth from the other side. Expect to see thousands of union folks trucked in from every direction for this. Make sure you clock out first, boys.

We Need The Fair Tax

Here is my latest newspaper column.

The Best Governor In America?

Probably Mark Sanford. Expect him to be widely touted soon as a possible candidate for President in a weak '08 field.

Someone has to show America how to free itself from its addiction to government spending. Sanford is taking a lot of abuse at home for doing so on the state level. Keep an eye on him.

KY Department of Education Hates Sick Private School Kids

If your child gets hurt or sick and can't attend school, he or she can get private tutoring services at home, provided with taxpayer funds.

But this only applies to public school kids.

So let me get this straight: if you pay taxes to provide a public education for everyone's kids but your own and your child needs public school services in a pinch, you are out of luck.

Yes, that's right. Sends the wrong message unless the message is that they hate people who choose private schools, don't you think?

It's not like all private schoolers are millionaire Republicans.

Taxes In Kentucky: We're Number 44!

If the Bluegrass Policy Blog isn't part of your daily reading, it should be. Today they discuss state tax issues that seem to be too hard for either party in Frankfort to get right.

Here is the link to today's post. Important stuff.

UPDATE: Spoke with the folks at the Tax Foundation and learned that when they apply their current methodology to their 2004 survey, Kentucky was #33 then (prior to tax modernization). Not good.

Media Appearance

I'll be on WVLK-AM 590 this afternoon in Lexington on the Kruser and Krew program at 3:00 talking politics.

Doing Something About Health Care Costs

Democrats think socialized medicine is the answer. President Bush is doing this.

Republicans Starting To Come Around On Ports?

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) spoke in Lexington last night to 900 Republicans who spent at least $75 each to hear from the 2008 presidential hopeful.

Since Hillary Clinton wasn't involved, those many thousands of dollars should actually go to benefit Kentucky candidates.

Anyway, Ryan Alessi got the scoop when Frist told him he had been briefed on the UAE ports deal and that his concerns had been put to rest. I hesitate to add that this catches Senator Frist up with where Senator John McCain has been all week. The next GOP standard-bearer needs to be able to get these things right the first time and not succumb to liberal talking points. Security is not at issue with the ports deal. No amount of spin can change that fact. The spin only serves to energize the wacko left and to confuse too many of the rest of us. That is what we have seen this last week.

More Democrat "Economic Development"

Fresh off their expensive pro-union "victories" in Frankfort, Democrats now return with Son of Wal-Mart Bill. This one would prohibit companies with more than 25,000 employees from firing employees without "good cause."

Just like the previous Wal-Mart bill, this is just to get the ball rolling. If they can force union job protection rules on companies with 25,000 employees, next year it will be 5,000 and on down until you can't fire a bad employee for any reason whatsoever.

As Republicans are trying to make Kentucky more competitive in the world that is whizzing past us, these folks are pulling hard in the other direction.

Bill Frist Coming To Lexington

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) will be in Lexington Saturday night to talk to the state GOP members gathered for the state Lincoln Day.

Frist is making his case for the White House. He will have to drive home that Republicans have a de facto minority in the Senate, and that one of the top problem votes is rival Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

The Joe Barrows Bill

Last year's HB 299 will become known as the Joe Barrows bill when he retires from the House this year and takes a much higher paying job with Greg Stumbo's AG office. This bill, which became law without Governor Fletcher's signature, will allow Barrows to become the first legislator to work three years at a state job and get a pension based on those three years' salary. This will be a major boon to Barrows and a huge cost to taxpayers.

Now This Is How You Report A Ballot Petition Screw-Up

The Lexington Herald-Leader went bonkers when their favored candidate for Lexington's 4th district council seat failed to obtain the required number of signatures on his ballot petition. Rather than blame the candidate who did not get enough signatures, they blamed his Republican opponent who did.

GOPUSA covers a candidate in Ohio who similarly failed to get the required number of signatures on his petition. Anyone who can't go out and get a few signatures to run for office has no business running.

Fly On The Wall

Heard recently at the Garrard County Courthouse:

"The people of Garrard county are kind of silly. A lot of them probably don't even know who the President of the United States is."

--Barry Peel, candidate for Garrard County Judge Executive

Bush Sticks By Port Deal

Good.

Advice To Vote Buyers And Sellers: Move To Pennsylvania

As Kentucky's growing vote buying investigation continues, Democrats like indicted Senator Johnny Ray Turner may be wondering how future Dems will get elected.

Here's a plan: move to Pennsylvania, where Governor Ed Rendell will make sure undocumented voters can make their voices heard over and over. Of course, this might be a problem for Gov. Rendell.

And Now, Another Reason For KY Liberals To Scream, Rant, and Rave

President Bush has made his nomination for U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Here's a shock for the Left: He's a Republican with Republican friends and family.

Port Story Parallels KY Water Scare

Remember the phony stories after RWE bought KY American Water Co. that had evil Germans loading up their Benzes with our most precious resource and cackling triumphantly all the way back to Berlin?

Well, we are looking at the same nonsense on the issue of the six American ports being purchased by a company from the United Arab Emirates. Only now the politicians from both sides of the aisle are piling on the Bush administration.

Both parties screaming about this are wrong.

Arab ownership of U.S. ports is no more a threat than the end-of-the-world scenarios presented in the 1980's when Japanese investors were buying up New York real estate.

It is very simple. Terrorist infiltration of our ports won't be prevented by forcing American ownership. It is too easy to demagogue, so expect the issue to live on for a while, but this is much ado about nothing with regard to terrorism. It has a lot more to do with the value of foreign in-flows of capital. If we risk that, we face real self-inflicted harm. That is the greater danger here.