Beshear's ObamaCare "exchange" gets temporary stay of execution

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd today granted Gov. Steve Beshear additional time to "prepare" for legal arguments on his ObamaCare "exchange" mess that he now can't win.

Last Wednesday, Beshear conceded all the objections against his illegal 2012 executive order seeking to create an ObamaCare health benefit exchange in Kentucky. He then immediately reissued essentially the same executive order, which is also against the law.

This extra time to do his homework on the case doesn't change anything. The only detail left to determine is the date of death for Kentucky's dalliance with the dramatically underfunded mandate of the state-run health exchange.

Please spread the word. It's now time to turn our focus to shutting down the Medicaid expansion here.

Will media fail to cover Beshear's Waterloo?

By all credible accounts, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's illegal effort to set up a state-run ObamaCare "exchange" web site without proper legislative approval will come to an ignominious end in Franklin Circuit Court on Monday morning. But will the media be there to bear record of his embarrassing failure?

If alleged threats by Beshear loyalists against Kentucky journalists hit their marks, they might not. On condition of anonymity, several reporters say their editors and producers suggest they may not be allowed to report a negative outcome for Beshear on Monday.

Please call your newspaper, radio and television news departments and ask them to cover Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd's hearing Monday morning June 24 of the health benefit exchange case known as Adams v. Beshear. The hearing will take place at the temporary Franklin County Courthouse at 669 Chamberlain Avenue in Frankfort at 9am ET.

To recap, Beshear has responded to the legal effort to render his July 2012 executive order creating the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange null and void by rescinding his first executive order and, illegally, issuing a new one. This is in direct violation of KRS 12.028(5) and he must face the music Monday morning.

The hearing is open to the public and you are invited to attend. Bring friends and bring a journalist or two.

Tea Party crushes ObamaCare in Kentucky, step one

The state-run Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange died on Wednesday, but is only now starting to stink badly enough to be noticed.

On Wednesday, Governor Steve Beshear panicked and reissued his July 2012 executive order creating the ObamaCare "exchange," in a very weak attempt to forestall losing the tea party lawsuit challenging his authority to write his own law without legislative approval.

How weak, you ask? This weak: the very law he cited as his authority for creating the exchange in the first place, KRS 12.028, which clearly requires him to get legislative approval he didn't get, also clearly specifies that he can't just reissue failed executive orders.

"This is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard of a Kentucky Governor doing," said David Adams, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit to shut down the exchange. "It's about time to tell Beshear to drop this silliness and to 'get over it.'"

This case will be back in Franklin Circuit Court Monday morning, June 24, at 9:00 am ET in the Franklin County Courthouse 669 Chamberlain Avenue in Frankfort.

Stumbo out, Stivers in on Medicaid expansion lawsuit

The plaintiff in a state lawsuit to stop Kentucky from illegally accepting ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion is dropping House Speaker Greg Stumbo as a defendant in the case.

David Adams of Nicholasville, plaintiff in two current cases involving Kentucky's controversial role in attaching itself to unfunded mandates in the so-called "Affordable Care Act," said the move involves legal and political realities.

"Speaker Stumbo and Governor Beshear are of one mind in this matter, I'm already suing Beshear and under Kentucky law, Stumbo is essentially just a legislator," Adams said. "That means he probably can claim legislative immunity to a lawsuit."

"But when President Stivers went on television this week and showed himself clearly to be on the wrong side of Kentuckians' rights in the Medicaid expansion issue just as Republicans in other states are caving in, it became clear to me what needed to be done," Adams said.

"President Stivers wants to have it both ways in accepting the Medicaid expansion by illegal means while claiming to be against it," Adams said. "And if he really thinks he is immune to a court challenge as a member of the legislature, he should read Section 85 of the Kentucky Constitution."

"That's why I'm suing President Stivers to stop him from acting illegally to accept the Medicaid expansion."

Stivers' claim of legislative immunity comes up for debate in Franklin Circuit Court at 9 am ET on Monday, July 15.

Will Obama come to church in Kentucky?

Cigarette smoking is a pretty popular activity in Kentucky. Meanwhile, health insurance rates are about to go  up dramatically for all Kentuckians, but supposedly even more for smokers under an ObamaCare rule (45 CFR 147.102). An interesting twist in the form of an exception to this new rule could stir up controversy within an Administration already rocked by abuses of the Internal Revenue Service and federal officials dropping in unwanted on personal interactions.

This federal rule defines "tobacco use" as "use of tobacco on average four or more times per week within no longer than the past six months."

This is not only ridiculously impossible to monitor (unless the NSA gets involved, perhaps) but it gets sillier. Language in the rule provides exemption to the definition of tobacco use for users engaged in "religious or ceremonial use of tobacco."

How long will it take for health insurance discount seeking smoking aficianados across the Commonwealth to band together and create "churches" devoted to religious
tobacco use?

Yet another reason to get government out of the business of health care and insurance.

Response to Beshear's Motion to Dismiss (Medicaid lawsuit)

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY

FRANKLIN CIRCUIT COURT

DIVISION 1

CASE NO 13-CI-000605

DAVID ADAMS                                                                                   PLAINTIFF

v.

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY, et al.                                       DEFENDANTS

PLAINTIFF’S RESPONSE TO DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS

Comes now the Plaintiff, David Adams, in opposition to Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss.

BACKGROUND

            In 1966 the Kentucky General Assembly passed HB 115 and the Governor signed it into law. The resulting statute from this action currently grants absolute authority to the Secretary for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to obligate the Commonwealth to fulfill “any obligation that may be imposed … by federal law” to obtain federal funds. The statute, KRS 205.520(3), clearly violates the plain language of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky Section 2, which reads in its entirety “Absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and prosperity of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, even in the largest majority.”

Defendants misconstrue much of the rationale for this current action by suggesting it “arises out of the Governor’s announcement that he intends to expand Kentucky’s Medicaid program.” The Governor’s May 9, 2013 press conference announcing his Administration’s unilateral action to apply for Medicaid expansion and thereby obligate taxpayers of the Commonwealth to “any requirement that may be imposed” with no regard for the practically limitless liability such action invites serves as a shocking exhibition of the unconstitutional statute in question, but does not by itself bring about this action. Nor, as Defendants suggest, does an official application to the federal government for an expansion of Medicaid trigger the concept of ripeness to grant this court jurisdiction in this action. The presence of an unconstitutional law triggers this action. Lending support to the urgency and legitimacy of this action is Defendant’s blatantly false claim in their motion that “even if the Commonwealth elects to expand Medicaid pursuant to the ACA, it may later elect to withdraw from such election, even before a potential reduction of its federal share to a level below 100%.”

This absurd falsehood by Defendants helps describe the utter lawlessness and lack of regard for individual rights which only enhance the need for this action.

In the alternative, there is no statute of limitations on the right of an individual to challenge an unconstitutional law. Indeed, nothing limits as to timing the rights of Kentucky citizens to challenge unconstitutional laws.

ARGUMENT

            Contrary to Defendants’ contention that Plaintiff’s constitutional challenge is not ripe because an action Plaintiff seeks to prevent has not yet occurred misses the entire point that KRS 205.520(3), which Defendants cite in their motion as their only authorization for that action, is already null and void.

Further, while it is unclear whether the United States Department of Health and Human Services would recognize a flawed application for Medicaid expansion due to insufficiency within state law as reason to reject the application, that is a chance Plaintiff should not have to take as a consequence of not previously challenging the constitutionality of KRS 205.520(3).

In the alternative, the case law cited by Defendants in their Motion to Dismiss fails to apply to this case by describing circumstances in which means of administrative redress had not yet been exhausted, thereby rendering those actions premature, no such administrative review exists in this case, specifically related to the unconstitutional construction of KRS 205.520(3). As such, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss on the grounds this action is not yet ripe must be rejected.

            Defendants’ claims that this action presents an attempt to “elicit the Court’s opinion on the constitutionality of prospective executive actions” and should therefore be dismissed fails to persuade, again, because, the statute KRS 205.520(3) itself triggers this action and not some future executive branch activity.

Defendants’ citation regarding prohibition of advisory opinions does not apply to this case because, again, the existence of unchecked “absolute” power as created by KRS 205.520(3) fits perfectly within the jurisdictional boundaries of Section 112(5) of the Kentucky Constitution because this case is justiciable and not within the purview of some other court. This case is not hypothetical in the least, particular damage to Plaintiff as an individual and to citizens of the Commonwealth generally is not only self-evident as a function of the existence of unchecked power, but it can only be effectively addressed here.

Defendants also allege failure to demonstrate standing under KRS 418.040. On this, Defendants also fail on the basis of plain language contradicting their claims. KRS 418.040 states “In any action in a court of record of this Commonwealth having general jurisdiction wherein it is made to appear that an actual controversy exists, the plaintiff may ask for a declaration of rights, either alone or with other relief; and the court may make a binding declaration of rights whether or not consequential relief is or could be asked.”

In this, another citation provided by Defendants proves the alternative of their assertion. Quoting Veith v. City of Louisville, Defendants write “a court does not have jurisdiction to decide a question unless there is a real and justiciable controversy involving specific rights of particular parties.” Veith v. City of Louisville, 355 S.W. 2d 295, 297 (Ky. 1962). Existence of a “real and justiciable controversy” is debatable only if one adopts Defendants’ claim that this case is only about a hypothetical future event, which it clearly is not. Prior acts of the Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange reflect already that resources have been expended under the assumption Medicaid will be expanded under KRS 205.520(3). This presupposes administrative action by the Governor he now, through counsel, denies. Further, the very existence of KRS 205.520(3) independent of the Medicaid expansion has and continues to put at great risk the lives, liberty and property of Kentucky citizens in general and the Plaintiff in particular. As such, Defendants’ claim this action represents a mere advisory opinion and that it lacks particularized injury fails.

 Further, Defendants seek dismissal with prejudice of this action. They have in no way made the case for such final action on this matter, even if the case as presently written fails on some jurisdictional or technical grounds, which it does not. The attempt at such denial of rights as well as loss of personal funds already expended by Plaintiff in this matter suggests strongly not only particularization of this case, but the very controversial nature thereof also. For these reasons, Plaintiff asks the Court to reject Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss.

Defendants also claim service of Complaint was not provided upon Governor Beshear, Secretary Haynes and Attorney General Jack Conway. The court’s record of this case will reflect otherwise.

CONCLUSION

Defendants propose four justifications for their Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff’s Complaint. Defendants seek first and most substantially to dismiss this action on grounds of lack of ripeness. Rather than properly address the chronology provided in the Complaint, however, Defendants seek to turn this constitutional issue of real controversy and judiciability with clear general and particularized harm evident for citizens and taxpayers of the Commonwealth into a cat-and-mouse game in which citizens must wait for Governor Beshear to sign away more of our rights to our own “lives, liberty and property” without question. In short, Defendants wish to use this Court to stifle dissent long enough for them to make an end run around the Constitution in order to exercise powers denied them by the Kentucky Constitution. Plaintiffs request the Court reject Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss and also issue a temporary injunction under CR 65.04 against Defendants’ moving in any way to enact the Medicaid expansion at issue in this case.

An email from Mary Lyons, Lexington

Printed with permission:

Just called Gov. "Chicken Biscuits" office and spoke with Katie Mueller re: the court hearing on Monday and told her I was the lady that called yesterday in re: to the Obummercare Medicaid Exchange and saw that he had a court hearing for Monday at 9:00 A.M. at the court house and she "wasn't aware of a court hearing." 

I told I just called to make sure that he was going to be at this hearing because as a Kentuckian I want to hear what he had to say about this and how it is going to affect many Kentucky taxpayers. She said she didn't know about his schedule and that he has legal counsel that would take care of it, but I pressed her and said that he needs to be there because he is the one being sued and Kentucky needs to know what he is up to. 

She said that it was his decision that they were going to accept this exchange regardless. I said, without the vote of the Legislature? She got real good and agitated and said she wasn't going to argue with me about it. I asked to speak to his secretary after she said she didn't have his schedule for Monday, so I could confirm that he was going to be there and she would not transfer me to "Chicken Biscuits" secretary. 

I said, as a Kentuckian taxpayer I have a right to know if the Gov. is indeed going to show up for a court hearing that is as important as this that will affect Kentucky for years. She repeated that the Exchange will be accepted and there is nothing we can do about. God only knows if Governor Chicken Biscuit will show. 

What a freaking coward! I am so glad you sued him. I hope to be there on Monday, if I don't have jury duty. I was chosen for jury duty for the month of June in Fayette County. I love jury duty, I consider them Divine Appointments. I pray that you will have a good day. Stand strong, don't get discouraged or anxious, trust God and obey and He will give the victory. Just keep in mind: GOD HAS EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL, when we don't think He does. This is the one thing that brings me great joy every day I get up. GOD IS AN ON TIME GOD.

Small town lawyer blisters Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear

Plaintiffs in the Tea Party lawsuit to stop Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear from setting up a state-run ObamaCare "exchange" without legislative approval have filed a motion for summary judgment, which would shut down the exchange.

Attorney Michael Dean, of Irvine, argued for the plaintiffs:

"It is clear that Governor Beshear may not, without legislative action, authority or appropriation, take it upon himself to reorganize state government, create government boards, offices and make appointments to them, promulgate administrative regulations, create budgets, incur debts, enter contracts, impose taxes or fees, accept federal funds and decide how they are to be spent, and commit state dollars to his enormous new bureaucratic undertaking."

"There being no genuine issues of material fact in dispute, as a matter of law the Executive Order and all action taking in furtherance therof and the administrative regulations promulgated thereunder are unconstitutional, and the court should so declare, and should enter a permanent injunction, barring implementation of the Executive Order, voiding all contracts, employment positions, and commitments, and freeze further payments and expenditure of funds by or for the purpose or benefit of the Exchange."

Mr. Dean had Governor Beshear's legal team chasing their tails and barking at the moon. It was more fun than watching Judge Judy catch some poor non-gubernatorial sap in a lie.

The summary judgment motion is scheduled to be heard in Judge Shepherd's courtroom at 9am on Monday June 24, 2013 at 669 Chamberlain Avenue in Frankfort. Everyone is invited to attend.

Freedom going viral in Kentucky

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's attempt to ram ObamaCare down the throats of an electorate who rejected Barack Obama resoundingly twice is, unsurprisingly, not going well.

Internal chaos at the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, the Department of Insurance, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and the Kentucky Democratic Party is masked only superficially by bureaucratic purring about how great ObamaCare is going to be and a remarkably incurious media who wrote hundreds of articles about incompetence in the last (Republican) gubernatorial Administration.

Two lawsuits have been filed to stop the twin state ObamaCare options -- a state run health insurance bureaucracy inauspiciously wrapped up in a web site created to make health insurance buying easier but instead ushering in an era of confusion and complexity not seen since the Byzantine Empire and an expansion of the disastrous Medicaid.

The first case, against the Beshear administration's blatantly illegal establishment of the exchange, nears a quiet end just as Beshear channels Star Wars' Grand Moff Tarkin: "Evacute? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances" seconds before the Death Star explodes.

His case in the second lawsuit is even worse. Governor Beshear's motion to dismiss is scheduled for hearing in Judge Phillip Shepherd's courtroom on Monday June 17 at 9:00 am ET at the Franklin County Courthouse, 669 Chamberlain Avenue in Frankfort. His case dangles precariously on the bizarre -- and already once failed -- assertion that citizens can't question his illegal and unconstitutional acts and the idea that suit can't be brought to stop him from signing the state up for a Medicaid death spiral until he actually does it.

Tea Party activist David Adams, as plaintiff in the Medicaid case, will be arguing the case before the judge next Monday.

"If Gov. Beshear is smart he won't show up," Adams said. "But I'm going to spend the next few days talking up the need for him to defend this mess in person and not hide behind legal shenanigans in the shadows with his lawyers and flacks."

Affordable Legal Care Act, anyone?

A good attorney can be worth far more than his or her weight in gold and I know lots of good attorneys.

But I also know the limitations of a government run cartel and the legal profession is one. If you really need an attorney with legal expertise, go find one with the best available training and experience and pay him or her well. But that occasional need shouldn't necessitate clinging to a regulatory model we know does not serve willing providers and willing consumers very efficiently.

As such, I suggest changing Kentucky law to decriminalize the practice of law without government permission. Would just involve striking one line of statute:

KY Obamacrats seek bids for health exchange "navigators"

Kentucky's ObamaCare coordinators announced today they have issued a request for proposals for people to "help" health insurance consumers wade through the application process to sign up for government controlled health coverage.

The fact that we are wasting millions of dollars to send people around the state to explain a web site costing billions to implement a federal plan spending trillions doesn't inspire confidence on any level.

Not to mention the fact the whole state program was created illegally.

Protecting Kentucky's oath of office

A court hearing July 15 in Frankfort will challenge long-held tradition shielding legislative leaders from lawsuits when they ignore their oath of office.

"To the extent Kentuckians are aware of the oath of office at all, most of us just know the anachronistic prohibition on fighting duels but it also requires protection of the Constitution," said David Adams, plaintiff in two lawsuits challenging the legality of ObamaCare implementation in the Commonwealth.

"Legislative rules have been changed to tolerate lawlessness among legislative leaders and reward violations of the Constitution," Adams said. "We have an opportunity to bring this out in the open and fix it for the benefit of all Kentuckians, so that's the plan."

The hearing will take place during Judge Phillip Shepherd's July 15 motion hour starting at 9am ET at the Franklin County Courthouse, 669 Chamberlain Avenue in Frankfort.

Kentucky Governor gives up, hopes judge won't notice

Many Bluegrass State voters have had reason to wonder if Steve Beshear thinks we are all stupid. With a new court filing just released, members of the Commonwealth's judicial branch can now understand the feeling.

Asked repeatedly which sections of the Kentucky Constitution grant him authority to unilaterally reorganize state government to create an optional health benefit "exchange" under ObamaCare, Beshear has finally answered.

It is shockingly bad.

Beshear claimed the "Executive Order which is the subject of the Complaint is a valid exercise of state executive authority under Sections 69 and 81 of the Kentucky Constitution."

But, of course, it isn't.

Section 69 of the Constitution reads in its entirety: "The supreme executive power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in a Chief Magistrate, who shall be styled the "Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.""

No, I'm not kidding.

Section 81 is no more helpful to the Governor's flagging case. It reads in its entirety: "Governor to enforce laws. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

Again, not kidding.

This is so bad it's almost not funny. Please, Governor, shut down this nonsense now.

Push coming to shove on Kentucky's welfare state mentality

Less than a week remains for Frankfort's three leading politicians to respond to the tea party lawsuit seeking to stop Kentucky's Medicaid expansion and the defendants have so far exercised their right to remain silent.

Governor Steve Beshear and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, as Obama Democrats, can't be expected to hold the rule of law in very high regard. As such, they may even be planning to run another goofy "citizens can't complain" legal gambit up the flagpole. Who knows?

Senate President Robert Stivers may have the more complicated situation. He says he opposes ObamaCare and, indeed, he voted earlier this year to force Gov. Beshear to gain legislative approval before expanding Medicaid, but only under ObamaCare.

This is possibly quite a substantial "but." KRS 205.520(3), which the Senate sought to amend with SB 39 in the 2013 General Assembly, is entirely unconstitutional. The statute grants limitless powers to the Cabinet Secretary of Health and Family Services to apply for federal dollars for "medical assistance." SB 39 would have left that power in place except for as it relates to the very unpopular ObamaCare law. But it violates Section 2 of Kentucky's Constitution in every case, not just this one.

So does Sen. Stivers want to keep this executive power intact so he or someone in his political party may continue to use it? We don't know yet. Frankfort Republicans have been known to get somewhat weak-kneed at the hint of federal dollars, but this case should give Sen. Stivers a chance to firm up his party's reputation on that front.

Sure hope he takes us up on it.

Beshear shows signs of Battered Democrat Syndrome

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has sent a letter to the Obama Administration begging them not to kill off the coal industry once and for all.

Click here to read the letter.

Too little, too late doesn't even begin to cover the psychosis evident in such an effort by the head of the Kentucky Democratic Party. Indeed, what the hell is he thinking?

Beshear campaigned vigorously for Obama's re-election and has flouted state law and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to cram Obama's fanatical agenda down our throats and now he wants to seriously make people believe that he is standing up to prevent his promised death blow to Kentucky coal.

Now is the time to melt the phone lines in Frankfort and Washington D.C. Call your representatives, call the Governor, call your federal representatives. The political class sleeps while Obama and the global warming hysterics turn the lights out in Kentucky and push us back into the 18th Century.

This is how the two party political system conspires to destroy America. Pick just about any issue. You will find one party slashing and burning producers and consumers and the other party giving lip service while collecting "protection" money. The net effect is both vultures pick the carcass clean and then move on to another piece of meat.

Frankfort stepping up ObamaCare propaganda efforts Monday

The Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange (KHBE) plans to introduce misleading insurance rate information Monday damaging the quality of public discourse about health reform and attempting to prejudice citizens' legal efforts to stop Frankfort's illegal takeover of healthcare in the Commonwealth.

The KHBE attempts to irresponsibly and misleadingly conflate 2013 small group health premiums with 2014 individual market premiums inside the exchange to falsely suggest that Affordable Care Act coverage mandates do not increase premiums substantially.

"These people would sell their own mothers down the river to distract attention from the scandals in Washington D.C. and the many embarrassing failures in ObamaCare," said David Adams, Tea Party activist. "This bad behavior can only persist if the people aren't relentless in calling bureaucrats out when their lies are so transparent. That's what the Tea Party is for."

"Corporatist shills in both political parties have remained silent about how ObamaCare exchanges raise costs on consumers by further cutting provider payments, limiting provider networks and drug formularies and forcing people to buy coverages they don't want and can't use," Adams said. "Kentuckians deserve much better."

Shocking greed at KY Health Benefits Exchange

Paying an average salary of over $120,000 a year for state workers to run a health insurance web site supposedly created to save consumers money isn't sitting too well with some Kentuckians.

That's total annual compensation of over 15 million dollars for 119 employees and contractors of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, created in Frankfort to implement much of the federal health reform law known as ObamaCare.

  

"It's a spending orgy, but all the average Kentuckian is getting is the privilege of purchasing the little blue pills," Tea Party activist David Adams said.

Adams filed a lawsuit against Gov. Steve Beshear in April to stop work on the exchange in Frankfort, which he says was created in violation of state law KRS 12.028 because the legislature did not approve its formation. This month, he sued Gov. Beshear, Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker Greg Stumbo for allowing Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Audrey Tayse Haynes to expand Medicaid in accordance with a voluntary ObamaCare provision but in violation of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

"Mad as hell radio" takes to the airwaves!

Today I will guest host for Matt Walsh on 630 AM WLAP radio in Lexington KY from 3pm ET to 6pm ET starting immediately after Rush Limbaugh.

You can listen online by clicking here. Please also call in with comments and questions to 859-280-2287.

Republicans who won't fight to win and the Democrats who love fighting them

A question I'm asked frequently these days is why Republican officials in Kentucky aren't publicly coming out in support of our legal efforts to shut down ObamaCare here. My best answer so far, really, has been that I'm not the one to ask about that.

I'm not giving that answer anymore.

The truth is our Republican establishment would rather lose on political gamesmanship than win on issues.

Unfortunately, certain Republican leaders like to talk a good game about fighting "tooth and nail" against Democrats but never seem willing to actually do enough to beat them in a substantial or lasting way, if at all.

TARP bailouts. Education "reform." Every debt ceiling "battle" in recent memory. "Sequester" spending increases. "Fiscal cliff" tax increases. Making Obama a "one term president."

We might as well go ahead and add ObamaCare to that list if we are going to do little more than make floor speeches against it and cast symbolic votes for repeal.

If stopping ObamaCare is really a top priority -- and it should be -- nothing should be off the table in terms of defeating it. If cutting off funding means shutting down the government until Democrats relent, any time in the last two years would have worked better than sitting back and hoping to use it as a campaign issue in the 2012 elections. Instead, we continue even now to fund the train wreck.

Worse, Sen. Mitch McConnell seems content to try this approach again in 2014 despite last year's failure. He could possibly have enough money for that to work for him in his election, but playing politics with our health care system now does little to nothing for more than a few individual insiders, Republicans as a group or the nation as a whole.

Candidates who advocate for real free market reforms in health care in 2014 must not only run through establishment Democrats who pretend to want to dismantle crony capitalism, but they will first have to contend with establishment Republican types playing exactly the same game.

Carrying on with this battle along the only path to success is a winner politically for the tea party made possible -- once again -- by absurd intransigence among the ranks of those following the political counsel of the senior Senator from Kentucky.

Open letter to President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington D.C. 20500


Dear Mr. President,

We need your help with a unique problem in Kentucky.

As you probably know, the Bluegrass State is the only state in the nation to vote against you twice and then take steps to implement both a state-run exchange and the optional Medicaid expansion.

While that may not present much of a political problem per se, it could add to a logistical nightmare of the Affordable Care Act rollout because Kentucky literally is in no position to participate and there is no likelihood of that changing soon enough.

To be specific, under Kentucky law we can not participate in either the state-run exchange or the optional Medicaid expansion. I know you have been advised otherwise by Governor Steve Beshear, but he hasn't told you everything you need to know.

On July 17, 2012, Governor Beshear filed Executive Order 2012-587 purporting to create a "Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange," citing "the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and KRS 12.028" as his authority for unilaterally taking this action.

Put some staffers on the task of verifying this supposed claim of authority by Governor Beshear. It will not take long to recognize the truth that it can't be done. It simply is not a valid exercise of executive power under Kentucky law. Further, a lawsuit already underway in state court will likely quite soon force Governor Beshear to request of your Administration the rushed creation of a federally run exchange.

A possible alternative, of course, is an extraordinary session of the Kentucky General Assembly to provide the Governor necessary authority to implement a state-run exchange, but current political realities should inform us that such would not be productive.

For these reasons, the people of Kentucky need your Administration to advise Governor Beshear to cease his illegal activity related to creation of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange.

Also, please be advised that another lawsuit to forestall acceptance of the Medicaid expansion has also reached state court. The case against this action is somewhat less obvious, but no less clear. KRS 205.520(3) confers unlimited powers upon the state secretary for health and family services to seek federal funds relating to "medical assistance." However, Section 2 of Kentucky's Constitution forbids exercise of absolute power in the state. The only legitimate way Governor Beshear can obligate Kentuckians to the costs associated with this activity is with legislative cooperation. Again, such is not at all likely to be forthcoming.

Any assistance you can give us in regard to advising Health and Human Services officials of Kentucky's inability to comply with these optional portions of the Affordable Care Act would be beneficial for all parties  involved and is greatly appreciated.


Sincerely,


David Adams
121 Nave Place
Nicholasville, KY 40356