Biden sees no economic critics

Speaking today on a media conference call, Vice President Joe Biden dodged several questions about the Administration's bogus claims of saving or creating millions of American jobs.

"No one is out there saying our administration has come up with a phony way of measuring jobs," Biden said.

Right. No one but Harvard economist Greg Mankiw. UC Berkeley economist Brad DeLong and Princeton economist Paul Krugman (both huge Obama fans, except when they criticize him for not being Left enough) have been strangely silent on the subject:

When is a blog not a blog?

Why would Gov. Steve Beshear say he is starting a blog and then not allow comments on it?




And I'm a big UK basketball fan, too. But Gov. Beshear would do well to mix in to his inner circle some people who might help free Frankfort from its losing ways.

Casino gambling not even a top five issue

Casino gambling is getting all the attention in Frankfort right now, but we have much bigger fish to fry.

Kentucky's unemployment benefits deficit of over $207 million is getting bigger every week. This isn't a smoke-and-mirrors "shortfall" game. This money will have to be paid back to the federal government in the next state budget.

Continuing to throw up across-the-board spending cuts as Gov. Steve Beshear does won't solve the persistent problems in jobless benefits, Medicaid, or public employee benefits.

Eliminating programs that don't work and improving spending accountability provide opportunities we can't continue to ignore. We should begin with stopping corporate welfare, repealing prevailing wage, ending certificate of need, and move quickly toward justifying every dollar of K-12 education spending. We are also still waiting for Gov. Steve Beshear's promised spending efficiency study, transparency web site, and a serious approach to the $30 billion public employee benefits underfunding.

Governor?

Karl Marx would love this

Ford Motor Company is about to pay the price for not bowing, scraping and begging to Obama.

ObamaCare weekend sales pitch

Put your boots on before venturing into Pres. Barack Obama's latest HopeyCam. Or just skip it; I picked out the highlights right here.

Obama said:

"We must attack the root causes of skyrocketing healthcare costs. Some of these costs are the result of unwarranted profiteering that has no place in our healthcare system."

Given government's huge role in healthcare pricing in America, I'd like to see him point out what "unwarranted profiteering" he is talking about. If he means health insurers, he might urge Congress to allow people to buy health insurance across state lines before he kills off all the health insurers and forces us onto Medicare. Otherwise much of the variation in costs is caused by state certificate of need laws.

And then he started in on how he is going to "pay for" his big plans:

"We must develop a plan that doesn't add to our budget deficit. My budget included a historic downpayment on reform and we'll work with Congress to fully cover the costs through rigorous spending reductions and appropriate additional revenues."

We've already seen how Obama does "rigorous spending reductions." And if you have seen any of his energy plans, you already have a good idea about how appropriate his "additional revenues" are going to be.

Here is the video if you want to see for yourself:

KY GOP needs Virginia's guts on schools

Kentucky could take a lesson from Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell, who is pushing hard for school choice freedoms in his state. From his campaign web site:

"Speaking about Virginia’s educational challenges, McDonnell said, "Our goal in Virginia must be to ensure equal opportunity for a quality education. But for thousands of students in the Commonwealth these opportunities are inadequate - limited by the zip code in which they live, or limited by decisions of local school systems. We will not tolerate failing or underperforming schools in a McDonnell administration."

"I agree with President Obama: we need more charter schools in America. That need is particularly pressing in Virginia, where we currently only have four charter schools, one of the lowest numbers in the country."

Kentucky Democrats have been hesitant to cross the KEA on public charters. Our Republicans have nothing to lose and much to gain.

Putting a real governor on Frankfort

The Wall Street Journal's Paris and Berlin writers quote themselves this weekend spreading the silly idea that their countries should be jettisoning "unchecked capitalism" during recession. Europeans are, instead, showing impatience for the problem that is actually occurring: unchecked socialism.



Meanwhile, Frankfort's fixers are coming together starting June 15 in special session purportedly to "nurture" business growth. Instead, the beneficiary is most likely to be big government.

Lunchtime citizen demonstrations Tuesday (6/16) in the Rotunda and Wednesday (6/17) on the Capitol front steps will seek to check our unchecked overspending and government growth.

Mitch McConnell involved in primary again

Just pulled this comment off a message board for purposes of discussion:

"I received the same email from the Trey Grayson campaign."

"I had also read that Trey Grayson was a Bill Clinton delegate, and that does give me pause, but maybe that was a "youthful indiscretion". Clinton smoked but didn't inhale. Maybe Grayson was a Clinton delegate but didn't vote for Clinton. :-)"

"I have a more current issue with Trey Grayson."

"I think what's happening is Senator Mitch McConnell was twisting arms back in the Fall to get Republicans to vote for the TARP-1 bailout and while he was successful in that effort (and we still elected him!), Senator Jim Bunning went on TV and called the TARP-1 bailout what it was... SOCIALISM. That made McConnell mad, so McConnell has withdrawn the Republican Party of Kentucky support and the funds that Bunning needs to run have dried up. McConnell is forcing Bunning out of the Senate because he wouldn't fall in line and vote for the Republican flavor of Big Government socialism, and now McConnell has anointed Trey Grayson as his hand picked replacement for Bunning. Reading between the lines, I think that means that Trey Grayson is almost certainly going to vote the way McConnell tells him to, even if that means voting for socialist bailouts like TARP-1. Most Kentuckians did not want the socialist bailout. 93% of calls to Chandler's office opposed the TARP-1 bailout, but Mitch McConnell and Diane Feinstein convinced their parties to vote contrary to the will of their constituents. Mitch McConnell received $163,300 from commercial banks, including $17,500 from Goldman Sachs."

"I'm working on a radical new concept and in the words of Trey Grayson, I'd like your advice. Instead of party politicians telling us who we'll vote for, would anyone else like to overthrow the oligarchy and vote for the candidates who represent US for a change?"

"I hope my opinion on Trey Grayson is based on principle and I'm not just being petty, but I'm going to be against anyone who is picked by Mitch McConnell. I don't think party bosses should pick our candidates. I think we should pick our candidates."

How will Sen. McConnell's actions impact your vote in the 2010 U.S. Senate GOP primary?

Where's our saving and creating?

Looks like big government economic voodoo is working out just about the same as it always does -- increasing dependency on politicians.

Fight for economic sanity is upon us

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy on Friday afternoon was passing around a copy of a socialized medicine bill he has worked up that will force all employers to provide health insurance for their employees, force insurance companies to accept all applicants, and wreck our economy like nothing else the Beltway types have ever cooked up.

Prove me wrong.

Distancing myself from Obama Motors

When I needed to buy a car recently, I went to my local Toyota dealership. Amid the auto bailout mania, the last thing I wanted was a Government Motors car.

I was surprised to find myself settling in on a used Saturn. I remember thinking, though, that when GM imploded another car company would come along and rescue the strong brand from its dying parent.

Enter, today, Penske, which is purchasing Saturn from GM.

It was funny just now watching Penske execs on ABC News talk about how they could run the company at a profit. That's something GM could never do, despite the face that Polk Research reports that 80% of the company's cars since its 1990 founding are still on the road.

The Penske guys said that among the main reasons they could make it work was the absence of GM's legacy labor costs. They didn't mention a word about alleged "atrocious marketing and production decisions."

Beshear's economic development lip service

In announcing today that he was expanding his special session call to include expansion of corporate welfare programs, Gov. Steve Beshear said he values existing Kentucky businesses:

"Our existing businesses are some of our most precious resources," Gov. Beshear said. "We must nurture them and help them, particularly when they’re looking to reinvest. We cannot continue to watch other states pirate them away."

We are never going to dramatically improve Kentucky's economic situation continuing to play this same game of taxing everyone too much and rebating money to a few companies. All Beshear wants to do is double down on the same losing hand.

Shutting down Kentucky's "Economic Development" Cabinet should be a top priority for anyone who calls Kentucky home.

Rand Paul gets a boost

Not that this is a surprise, but Dr. Rand Paul's exploratory committee got a noteworthy shot in the arm today:

Dragging it out of Jack Conway

Attorney General Jack Conway has been able to slink along quietly while the rest of Frankfort wrestles over what to do about horse racing in Kentucky.

Conway is sitting on two requests for an AG opinion about expanded gambling at horse tracks. Rep. Jody Richards asked in May if slots at the tracks need a constitutional amendment. Sen. Damon Thayer asked in April if instant racing machines were permissible under current law.

Conway, a candidate for U.S. Senate, may be hesitant to take a position that damages his political aspirations in a tough primary contest.

So we are left with Gov. Steve Beshear's slots bill, Sen. David Williams' proposal that deserves credit as an interesting alternative, and the strong likelihood neither will pass in this month's special session.

Williams pointed out today that for slots at the tracks to generate $60 million for higher purses, more than $4.6 billion would have to be poured into the slot machines. By comparison, about $470 million is bet on horse racing at the tracks in Kentucky each year, about $489 million is bet in charitable gaming, about $778 million is bet on the Kentucky Lottery, and about $500 million is bet by Kentuckians at casinos in Indiana and Illinois.

Seems like a pretty safe bet that we don't have the money to gamble $4.6 billion in racetrack slot machines.

Sen. Thayer's idea may be worth a look, though. Instant racing machines allow users to place bets on video of one of 50,000 archived horse races given limited information about the horses in each particular race. This wouldn't open the door for out-of-state casino operators and just might provide the revenue the tracks need.

It seems to have worked well in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

In any event, someone needs to light a fire under Jack Conway. If he gives a thumbs up to instant racing, Kentucky tracks could start installing them right away and lawmakers could get back to work on the budget.

Williams calls Beshear out on slots

Just two hours after Gov. Steve Beshear had a press conference to claim that video lottery terminals will save the horse industry and provide revenue to the state, Senate President David Williams called another press conference to say that they won't.

Williams offered an alternative plan that would place a 10% surcharge on lottery tickets, establish a 1.5% tax on out-of-state wagering at Kentucky tracks -- which currently goes untaxed -- and other measures to supplement horse racing purses to better allow the Kentucky horse industry to compete with other states without expanding gambling.

Williams said about 30% of the money he is proposing for purse supplements would come directly from the General Fund, comparing the move to tax increment financing of about $18 million a year.

Williams said he hoped that Gov. Beshear would put his proposal on the special session call and suggested that if he didn't, nothing would come out of the session.

Are those jobs saved or created?

State Budget Director Mary Lassiter just told the Joint Budget Committee that Kentucky is going to bring in an extra $18.5 million in FY 2010 by hiring more staff in the Revenue Department.

Plumbing Newberry's information black hole

Current and former Lexington jail employees will be surprised to learn that Mayor Jim Newberry's administration apparently hasn't been keeping any of their complaints filed against certain members of jail administration:



It is also possible this is just another Newberry stall tactic, in hopes that the CWA will just go away. What say you, Mayor Jim Newberry?

His primary opponent former Mayor Teresa Isaac could start asking questions about this kind of thing, but, really, she won't.

Trey Grayson in Lexington

Secretary of State Trey Grayson will have a fundraiser for his federal campaign exploratory committee on Tuesday evening, June 30, at Mike Scanlon's Fleetwood Vintage Car Garage, 540 E. 2nd Street in Lexington.

Want to go? Call 859-757-4349.

Confronting the nonsense in Frankfort

There will be a June 17 state Capitol Tea party, noon to 1 pm.

The overspending and the overtaxing continue to weaken our fiscal situation and damage our competitiveness. And now Gov. Beshear's best idea is throw millions of our dollars at a car racetrack.

Another event has already been scheduled for the Capitol on July 4 from noon to 2 pm and in Lexington the same day at 3:30 pm.

Kentucky budget needs your input

The Wall Street Journal has it right. State budgets, including Kentucky's, will probably get worse before they get better.



Kentuckians are as bad as anyone else about hating pork unless it is their own. We can buy a little time for weaning ourselves off pork if we can get serious immediately about government spending transparency. When we can all see exactly where each public dollar is going, we can agree in larger numbers about where to cut.

Rep. Jim DeCesare had been a leader on spending transparency, but as a member of the minority party in the House he hasn't been able to force the issue. Sen. Damon Thayer is working on a transparency bill for the 2010 General Assembly. That should be key to getting a handle on where the money is going. Secretary of State Trey Grayson has already put his reputation on the line to champion spending transparency. His rapidly increasing profile can help a lot.

Our education budget deserves more than the lip service it has gotten for years. Unaccountable bureaucrats have shown no willingness to self-regulate with our money. Tell your friends and neighbors that now is the time to force school districts and the Kentucky Department of Education to post all their expenditures to the internet in real time.

We may get some temporary budget cuts in the upcoming special session. But in order to keep falling back into this same trap we need a fully-informed discussion about fiscal priorities and we can't do that until we have spending data readily available to everyone.