Finding out what's worse than a loan shark

Another day, another one-sided, single-sourced "news" story in the Lexington Herald Leader about shutting down private businesses and turning their functions over to the state.



When are we going to see a story about how much Kentucky taxpayers "lose" to the government each year?

And if payday lending customers go to those businesses because of no alternatives, what do they think those people will do when that option is eliminated legislatively?

Easy. They will hit up the taxpayers.

Horse industry needs a better argument

The Lexington Herald Leader's pro-casino columnist Larry Dale Keeling's latest effort strays from the mark on a key point that deserves unbiased scrutiny. He wrote:

"As a political issue, expanded gambling may not be ripe in the General Assembly. But it's a lot riper than it was just two weeks ago. Progress was made when it passed the House for the first time."

It would be far more accurate to say that a big-government scam is what passed the House. Packing on more than a billion dollars worth of borrowed pork is what passed that bill through the House by one vote. Pretending otherwise just further delays the horse industry from focusing on a workable solution to their problems.

I'm all for freedom in the marketplace and am sympathetic to the industry trying to compete with those in other states. But in our smoke-and-mirrors budgeting welfare state, though, I can't support opening the door to casinos when it mainly means creating another bill of goods to elect politicians while taxpayers get stuck with more debt. The horse industry shatters any validity in its argument by joining forces with those in Frankfort who won't let a little thing like running out of money stop them from spending.

I want the horse industry to succeed, but we have to realize that slots only at the tracks will not be enough for the billion-dollar vote buyers. They will cut your throats at the first opportunity by setting up casinos outside the tracks. Figure out a way to expand your revenue stream without further damaging taxpayers. The political saber rattling just isn't going to cut it.

Sunday evening vanity alert

Found in the Lexington Herald Leader:

How about Benito Mussolini instead?

After public disclosure of his taxpayer-funded trip to see his Argentinian mistress, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had the gall to compare himself to the Old Testament adulterer King David, who maintained his power after his crimes became publicly known.

Sanford, a former 2012 presidential hopeful, should reimburse South Carolina taxpayers the cost of his trip, resign, and go away quietly.

"A country of arbitrary rules"

Potential U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Rand Paul said current federal policies run the risk of doing significant damage to American society:



Speaking to the Scott County Young Republicans, Dr. Paul compared the crisis in our current government to that of ancient Rome past its prime and discussed the risks of the Federal Reserve inflating the currency.

All hands on deck!

Every club, organization, and group of every kind in Kentucky's Sixth Congressional district should call Rep. Ben Chandler's offices Monday and invite him to come to your next meeting and explain his support for Cap and Tax.

This battle is far from over. The bill now goes to the Senate and it will be amended there. If it passes the Senate, it will have to go back through the House for agreement on the changes.

Invitations to Chandler should also be sent to local media via press release. If your Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Garden club, neighborhood association, bridge club, or whatever needs help calling out Rep. Chandler for this latest outrage, I'll be glad to assist you. My contact information is at the top of this page.

The key is that when Chandler refuses to show up or fails to respond, we do another press release and keep hounding him.

Rep. Chandler's Washington D.C. office number is (202) 225-4706 and his Lexington number is (859) 219-1366.

Pelosi power pooper passes

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Energy Tax bill 219-212. U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler voted for it.

Georgia Congressman Tom Price attempted to stop debate to request a moment of silence for the millions of Americans who will lose their jobs as a result of the bill's implementation.

Someone's desperate for a PR victory

Gov. Steve Beshear is going to great lengths today to take credit for state taxpayers picking up the tab for storm cleanup.



4:00 UPDATE

And, of course, it worked. The Kentucky Post seems to think that the Governor's administration, rather than taxpayers, will be picking up the $14.6 million. That's quality journalism right there!

Ben Chandler turns off your air conditioner

In case you were wondering, U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler voted for the Cap and Tax procedural vote that barely passed the House.



Evening update: Rep. Chandler voted for Cap and Tax and the bill passed the House.

We shouldn't have to beg

We can't improve a government that we can't see. That is what the transparency movement is all about. In Kentucky, Rep. Jim DeCesare, Sen. Damon Thayer, and Secretary of State Trey Grayson have been leaders in the fight against a stonewalling Frankfort which is strangely reluctant to allow taxpayers to see what is going on with our money.

The federal effort remains small as well (click here for more):



Every city and county government in Kentucky should post their checkbook registers to the internet for everyone to see. Every school district, too. We have the technology and the resources and we shouldn't have to beg for government that has nothing to hide.

Trouble in casino paradise?

Kentuckians seeking to make our state budget problems go away -- or even get just a little better -- might want to look at a Friday New York Times article about a new billion dollar tax increase in casino-rich New Jersey.

My favorite part to start the weekend with a laugh was the new tax on lottery winners.



Maybe they should just stand at the door of their casinos and bum rush any patrons who try to leave with any cash or with room left on their credit cards.

Big government is the problem here. It's a shame that Kentucky's horse industry has cast its lot with people who buy votes with billions of dollars of borrowed public money. If they really want to "level the playing field" with tracks in casino states, they should seek to do so without digging Kentucky into a deeper government hole. They have energy, passion, and numbers on their side, but if it is mainly going to go for driving our state deeper into the fiscal ditch, I wish them slow and painful failure.

President says Kentucky needs ObamaCare

The Obama Administration will release reports for every state in the nation Friday describing how things will be better for everyone in each state if we let him implement socialized medicine.

Another "press release journalism" hit job

How would you respond if one of your enemies put out a press release about you and the newspaper called you for a response, but you couldn't see details of what was said?

When it happened to Kentucky Coal Association's Bill Caylor Wednesday, he said he hadn't seen the "study" put out by MACED, a left-wing advocacy group based in Berea.

But the Lexington Herald Leader went ahead and ran a front page story:



Fortunately, Kentucky now has independent blogs. To see CyberHillbilly's response to the silliness, click here.

Do you support Obama's Energy Tax?

Word is bond

Potential U.S. Senate primary opponents Dr. Rand Paul and Secretary of State Trey Grayson, while also racing to a June 30 fundraising deadline for midyear reporting purposes, have been quick to make a very timely promise.

It's called the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and it's a promise to voters to never vote for a tax increase. Dr. Paul, who as the chairman of Kentucky Taxpayers United has collected dozens of such written promises from candidates over the years, has already signed his. Weeks ago, Secretary Grayson scheduled a meeting with Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist for this coming Monday in Louisville to sign his no-new-taxes pledge.

The Taxpayer Protection Pledge has drawn attention recently because of the way U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler used it to sneak into office under false pretenses and is now poised to vote for the largest tax increase in history.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, will be in Lexington on Monday night, 6 pm to 8 pm at the Fifth Third Bank building for a private reception. If you'd like to attend, contact Dawn Cloyd at dcloyd@thielaudio.com.

Don't need a new car? Pay up anyway

Before running out of Frankfort slapping each other on the back for such a "successful" special session, legislators slipped into a corporate welfare bill $25 million to give to Kentuckians who buy new cars after September 1.

And we're doing this while we are hopelessly broke.

Watch your back, Steve!

House Speaker Greg Stumbo kicked off his run for Governor in 2011 with the following announcement Wednesday afternoon:



I guess that's more fun than Stumbo saying "We punted the serious issues again in 2009, called an extra session and wasted more taxpayer money, but we managed to make government bigger, more powerful, and more expensive. Thanks!"

Healthcare reform for the rest of us

In case you aren't excited about ABC television's Socialized Medicine Obamathon tonight, here's a better way:



Briefly, what we need is the ability to buy health insurance across state lines, separation of health insurance from employment, to get the federal bureaucracy out of healthcare, and to get real about the idea that more government is going to make healthcare cheaper unless what they really mean is rationing of services.

Blowing the whistle on the wrong scam

After decades of rampant abuse of our public employee pension system by politicians and bureaucrats resulting in a more than $30 billion underfunding, its funny to see KRS getting worked up about a few phone calls.



If you like this year's wasteful special session, you would have loved last year's, in which the politicians claimed to fix the state's pension problems. And then they came back earlier this year and raided the system again.

The only way to get out of the pension mess Frankfort has put us in is to pour money into the system at a much faster rate. And that means less spending on other pet big-government projects.

Now.

A flat tax never killed anyone

Did a tax avoidance strategy in Washington D.C. cause the deaths of nine people in a DC Metro accident Monday? (Click the image below to expand and read.)