Good question

Here is a letter to the editor of the Lexington Herald Leader in Saturday's paper.

Congressman Mike Pence

U.S. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) said Rep. Brett Guthrie -- who introduced him -- is the first freshman congressman to chair a subcommittee in the House since Richard Nixon.

Pence thanked Bunning for standing up to the bailouts.

"I'm encouraged. I believe we are on the verge of a great American awakening."

"We walked away from our principles and the American people walked away from us."

"We need to be willing to fight for freedom and free markets."

He got a big applause when he said not one Republican voted for Obama's budget.

"We lost the vote, but I think we won the argument."

"We can't ask hard working families who played by the rules and paid their mortgages to bailout the irresponsible ones."

"The American people don't want to know 'what's in it for me,' they want to know what's in it for America."

Pence talked about a man who had lost his job but came to thank Pence the next day for voting against the banking bailout. He quoted the man as saying "I can get another job, but I can't get another country."

"This administration is poised to take away the rights of health care workers who oppose abortions."

"We've got to recognize that our current crisis is more than economic and financial. It's a moral crisis."

"If the foundations of personal responsibility fail, how can our nation stand?"

"The good and great people of this nation will rally to our cause."

Rousing speech. Very well recieved.

Trey Grayson speaks

Secretary of State Trey Grayson began his speech by thanking Senator Jim Bunning, calling him a mentor and friend, and wishing him well in his 2010 race.

Jim Bunning speaks

Sen. Jim Bunning said "Believe me, the bailout plans are not helping the economy get back on track. They are not."

"It's a mess and the new Secretary of the Treasury is making it a bigger mess. And the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is out of control."

Bunning is giving an economics lecture like he did in Richmond and the audience is hanging on every word. (I'm really not exaggerating.)

Bunning got applause while explaining that the Obama Spendathon is not going to help.

Bunning explained that the Obama cap and trade tax on energy will increase costs for everyone.

"You all know me pretty well and how I vote in the U.S. Senate. I'm not anyone's puppet. I'm my own man."

(Pretty big applause here.)

"I am running for a third term in the United States Senate. I know it will be a battle but I am ready for the fight of my life. I vow to you I will do my darndest to represent you in the manner you deserve to be represented and I will do my darndest to kick Danny Mongiardo's butt."

Great speech. Wrong butt.

David Williams speaks

Senate President David Williams started out speaking about the education initiatives that have come out of the Senate the last few years. Got wide applause when he mentioned getting rid of the bogus CATS program.

Williams said he understands that a lot of people are unhappy with the Senate's actions during the last budget. Then he ran off the same list of tax cuts over the last few years that he has talked about in other venues. Nice tactic, but doesn't really help much since we have continued spending well beyond our means.

He's also using the same line about being on the campaign bus next year for the U.S. Senate race but not knowing in what capacity he will be on the bus, an obvious plug for his rumored primary challenge to Sen. Bunning.

Williams got polite applause from the audience when he finished speaking.

Innes takes on the establishment and wins

The Bluegrass Institute's Richard Innes has been one of the primary drivers behind starting to clear the deadwood out of our education bureaucracy in Kentucky.

His latest posts (here and here) are definitely worth checking out if you care about improving Kentucky's public schools.

Jefferson Co. Lincoln Dinner

I'm in Louisville for the GOP Lincoln Dinner. Should be interesting. Stay tuned for updates.

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Sen. Mitch McConnell sent the same stupid letter he has sent to every other Lincoln Dinner I've been to this year congratulating Kentucky Republicans for keeping taxes low in Frankfort. It's way past time to update your letter, Senator.

As Obama spends, we brew tea

I will be on the Kruser Radio Show (WVLK 590 AM) Friday at 12:30 talking about the upcoming Bluegrass Tax Liberation Day in Lexington and the April 11 Tea Party in Richmond.

Also trying to get something going in Frankfort, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, and in Eastern Kentucky.

This is in addition to the various Tax Day Tea Parties on April 15.

Another federal investigation for Jim Newberry

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry gets pretty squeamish when someone tries to ask him about the waste, fraud, and abuse going on at the Fayette County Detention Center.

Looks like he has another one creeping and crawling his way.

Jail officials have been notified of an Internal Revenue Service probe into the facility related to illegal inmate labor practices. Newberry continues to have no comment.

Lexington jail Director Ron Bishop keeps tightening his inner circle for closed door meetings, but he still hasn't found my best source.

Now they care about money

The Lexington Herald Leader sat on their hands while Kentucky governments spent us to the brink (here and here, just for starters), but when the self-sufficient and profitable University of Kentucky Athletic Department spends a few bucks to get the best available coach in the nation, they run an online poll like this:

It bears repeating that John Calipari isn't being paid with taxpayer dollars. Some of our bureaucrats and politicians who are paid far less waste much more.

Incidentally, a Yahoo.com online poll suggests very strongly that a national audience gives the Calipari hire a thumbs up. The Herald Leader's great ideas like making government bigger and diminishing Kentucky's business competitiveness can't begin to compare to this kind of return on investment.

Sign the petition

Free trade makes people freer, wealthier, and promotes peace.

Great essay and free trade petition right here. Check it out and sign it!

Thanks a lot, Ben and John!

Remember back in January when Reps. Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth voted to expand SCHIP by raising the federal cigarette tax?

We don't have any idea yet how much the government expansion will cost us, but we have an idea about the damage our two guys will do to Kentucky's state budget.

It is April Fools, but this very unfunny joke is on all the rest of us.

Another wild homeschool story

A family from Germany is seeking political asylum in Tennessee so they can homeschool their children, a practice that's been illegal in their home country since Hitler made it so in 1937.

They might have come to Kentucky for our still-substantial homeschooling freedoms. But our political, tax, and fiscal situations make us less stable than our neighbors to the south.

Thanks to NightWriter for passing this along.

Like compromising with a grizzly bear

Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean's political organization is trying to sneak socialized medicine through in America by offering to allow American "the freedom to choose" between their private plan and a government plan like Medicare.

Don't take the bait. This will look great until the expanded Medicare program figures out that covering the only sickest people is too expensive. When the government program gets a politically unstoppable constituency built up, they will come after everyone else.

Obamanation pays its taxes

The Tax Foundation has out a new report showing that, if you count the projected budget deficit, Americans will spend more time working to pay taxes than ever before.

Tax Freedom Day is May 29.

By the way, Tax Freedom Day without the deficit is April 13. This is earlier than last year because incomes -- and tax receipts -- are down. That does us no good, of course, because spending keeps going up.

Kentucky's Tax Freedom Day is this Friday, April 3. It's also earlier than last year. It also doesn't help anything.

Lowering dependency on government isn't on the agenda, but that would help a lot.

Picking two points and hammering them home

The Kentucky Club for Growth's Andy Hightower has a great way of putting things:

"It's the most irresponsible thing our leadership regularly practices, and it's apparently killing people."

He's talking about, of course, the $30 billion public employee benefits disaster in Frankfort. There are really two points that matter in this discussion: that benefits are too high for government employees and that even that would be okay if we had properly funded them for the last few decades.

Andy jumps all over both of them right here.

Kentucky American Water still running strong

If former Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac had her way in taking over Lexington's private water company, the April 7 Public Service Commission rate hearing at Bryan Station High School wouldn't be scheduled.

Instead, the city would ram through any rate increase it wanted in addition to making interest payments it couldn't afford to buy the company.

Kentucky American had requested an $18.5 million annual rate increase. Instead, they are now applying for a $10.3 million increase.

McConnell sounding more like Bunning

Sen. Mitch McConnell had this to say today about the continuing bailout mess:

"In spite of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars and many promises to reform the way they do business, it’s clear that management, unions and investors have not yet produced viable plans that would allow the companies to survive without massive infusions of taxpayer dollars. This is a disappointment: How many times do the taxpayers have to provide bailout money on the promise of reform?"
"We are now told these two companies are getting their last check from the taxpayers, and that if they don't finally come up with truly viable plans then they'll be forced into bankruptcy. Unfortunately, we've heard this before, from both this and the previous administrations."

Paper gears up for April Fool's Day Massacre

Two days before Kentucky's cigarette taxes go up, the Lexington Herald Leader just had to send a reporter out to learn the obvious about people changing their buying behaviors ahead of the April 1 increase.

Of course, they didn't manage to find anyone who will be shipping cigarettes in from Missouri. They darn sure didn't talk to any taxpayers who are concerned that these increases won't be enough and that something other than just more tax increases, more reckless borrowing, and more pension raids might help.

Will David Williams betray us again?

Last fall when the Louisville Courier Journal ran a news story about how the Senate was warming to the idea of raising taxes, it was pretty easy to be skeptical. After all, Sen. David Williams and the Republican majority had spoken clearly about their opposition.

We all know how that worked out.

So, when the CJ reported on Sunday -- without quoting anyone -- that legislators are coming around to House Speaker Greg Stumbo's side on expanding government with casino gambling, it was tough not to imagine that Williams is going squishy again.

In fact, I'd almost bet on it.