GOP, Dems Missing Point Of SCHIP Failure

The Lexington Herald Leader's editorial page has a funny idea of what constitutes failure of a government entitlement:

In Kentucky, 50,000 children eligible for the Children's Health Insurance Program (KCHIP) are not covered.

Resisting dependence of government programs used to be considered a good thing.

Of course their idea of a solution to this "problem" is spending more money pushing people who don't want it to take the government entitlement.

The vetoed bill provides incentives for states to enroll the poorest of the poor, kids who are eligible but not in Medicaid.

Republicans will wind up caving in on this and dramatically expanding SCHIP. This is a shame, because we should be making the case for scrapping the whole thing.

What Beshear Knew

From the "secret report" page 34 of this section:

During the period May 5 - June 14, 1993, Beshear had general knowledge that work was being done on behalf of Bank of Louisville with respect to the Bond Powers. Neither Beshear, nor any other Stites & Harbison attorney, informed or disclosed to the Rehabilitator that Stites & Harbison was undertaking this effort on behalf, and for the benefit, of the Bank of Louisville. The failure to disclose this conduct contravened the commitment in the Engagement Letter not to represent Bank of Louisville in "that transaction," and, in addition, violated Stites & Harbison's commitment to disclose conflicts discovered or arising after the date of the Engagement Letter.

McConnell Spanks Chandler, Yarmuth For Bad SCHIP Expansion Bill

Sen. Mitch McConnell's criticism of the Democrats' failed SCHIP expansion is on point and highlights who Kentucky's two liberal Congressmen side with when Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants them to go against the interests of Kentucky taxpayers and poor children:

In my home state of Kentucky, the Democrats’ vetoed bill would provide less coverage for kids’ health care in 2008 than our Kids First plan. Kentuckians would pay $600 million more in new taxes than they would receive in new benefits under the Democrats’ plan — a $600 million wealth transfer from Kentucky to states like New York and New Jersey. Kentuckians don’t want the money they’ve targeted for poor children going to adults and middle class families who live in other states and can afford insurance on their own.

Subsidizing Success

The Fletcher campaign is touting the I-CARE health insurance subsidy program as one of the major successes of the administration.

I wish they would stop.

Tomorrow Is D-Day For Beshear's Legal Scandal

The Conservative Edge has the latest on Steve Beshear's shoddy legal work on the Kentucky Central debacle.

We Might Want To File This Away For Gov. Beshear

Michigan has wrecked itself with profligate unions and tax-raising politicians.

The Americans for Tax Reform has the scoop and the effort to fight back.

Romney's Charade Is Over

One thing is clear from the presidential campaign finance reports: Mitt Romney is wasting his money and our time.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I just got my first post up on The Bluegrass Policy Blog, which will be a regular, full-time gig.

Please check it out if you will and leave a comment if you want. Links will be greatly appreciated.

Market Solution Saves Kentucky Health Dollars

Walmart's wildly successful $4 prescription drug program has been great for Kentucky consumers, who have saved more per capita than consumers in all but four states.

We are waiting around for Hillary Clinton to come to our rescue when we should really be getting government out of the way.

State Politicians Mugging Marathon Oil

Attorney General Greg Stumbo will be making a big deal out of a federal court ruling that his unconstitutional "price gouging" lawsuit can proceed in state court in Frankfort, which is right where he wants it.

Marathon Oil knew their only chance for a fair hearing would have been in federal court.

The old price gouging law Stumbo sued under is unconstitutional and everyone knows it. That is why it was repealed in the 2007 General Assembly.

I would suggest that our gubernatorial candidates should weigh in on this disgrace, but unfortunately they will both side with Stumbo.

My New Responsibilities

At some point Thursday morning I will take over publishing the Bluegrass Institute's blog. The purpose of that blog is discussion of state public policy.

It is listed as one of my links to the right and you can go here to check it out.

I will keep this site updated with unique posts; same as always.

Here Is A Real Issue For Candidates

Haven't heard anything from the gubernatorial candidates about the president's veto of the SCHIP expansion/tax increase bill this morning.

Might be interesting to see where they come down on this one.

Herald-Leader's Proof-Free Higher Ed Editorial

This morning's editorial about higher education started off badly:

Kentucky's low-income families must now devote almost a quarter of their incomes to pay for a community or technical college education, even with financial aid.

This is patently absurd and I would love to see them try to attach any legitimate numbers to this.

Of course, they are extolling the wisdom of freezing tuition costs and -- worse -- the proliferation of need-based financial aid.

To Kentucky's credit, the state has also been increasing need-based financial aid at a higher rate than the region or nation.

But even with the increased financial aid figured in, the sticker shock will price many Kentuckians out of an education.

The average Pell Grant is $2500 and the maximum is $4310. Full-time annual tuition at KCTCS is $2760. A student who graduates high school with a 3.0 GPA and gets a 21 on the ACT will receive $1250 a year in KEES money.

State and institutional grants and private scholarships combine to easily -- easily!! -- cover the total cost of education for needy families.

It's all this focus on need-based aid (and the lack of price sensitivity that goes along with it) that makes it tough for middle-class families to cover the cost of college.

Even a minor shift toward more merit-based financial aid would lower costs and improve educational outcomes for Kentuckians by requiring kids to get serious about school sooner and crowding people out based on lack of preparation rather than lack of ability to demonstrate financial need.

Legal Defense Fund Bill Pre-Filed

Rep. Darryl Owens pre-filed a bill today that, if it had been in place at the beginning of this year, would have required Governor Ernie Fletcher to report all relevant details of his legal defense fund eight times before the November election.

Huckabee Coming To Kentucky

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is coming to Centre College on October 10. The biggest criticism of Huckabee comes from his tax-and-spending days as governor of Arkansas.

RGA Supports Half-Priced Socialism

Hello?

Are there any Republican organizations out there still supporting conservative fiscal policies? I'm just curious.

The Republican Governors Association touts a newspaper editorial cheering on Indiana for expanding state-run socialized medicine. And the part they are most excited about is the Republican governor of that state got it done with a federal matching grant:

The plan will close at least part of Indiana's growing insurance gap. There are about 560,000 adult residents of the state with no health care coverage. Many of these are the working poor. They are people with jobs but not jobs that include health insurance as a benefit. And their income isn't sufficient to allow them to afford insurance on their own.

In his January State of the State Address, Daniels asked the Indiana General Assembly to approve a cigarette tax increase of at least 25 cents a pack. The tax increase grew to 44 cents by the end of the legislative session. That is $206 million a year in revenue.

Pineville Knows Bruce Hendrickson

Before former Pineville Mayor Bruce Hendrickson got demolished in his race for re-election last year, his greatest contribution to his city was either rigging the bid for building the local senior citizen center for family members or failing to apply for coal severance money.

Now the Democratic party wants us to put him in charge of "fixing" our elections.

Time To Get Our $100 Million Back

Learning from others' experiences is always cheaper than waiting around to take the hit yourself. We have a golden opportunity to avoid some serious pain right now.

We learned over the weekend China has backed off their effort to supplement their country's transportation fuel needs with coal. Meanwhile, Kentucky hasn't yet bonded the $100 million HB 1 would borrow and spend on CTL plants here.

We have a chance to cancel the whole thing and keep our money. We should do just that.

Taxing Their Way To Prosperity

Don't laugh at Michigan's financial problems. Their tough votes will be in our future pretty soon as the much-ignored public pension mess in Kentucky gets much harder to ignore.

Our state workers are overpaid and we spend too much on social services. Until we get some people willing to be one-term politicians (by their own choice), we will continue to miss opportunities to deal creatively with our fiscal problems.

Another Great Reason For You To Move To Indiana

Indiana has casinos and soon will add government health insurance for families earning up to 300% of the poverty level.

So if you think out-of-state casinos make good in-state public policy and you don't think you can get by on $62,000 without taxpayer-provided health insurance, maybe you should move north.