Rand Paul and McConnell botching ObamaCare fight

You know it's getting bad when Rhode Island Public Radio is making fun of your two Republican U.S. Senators for going squishy on ObamaCare.

Former WFPL Louisville reporter Kristin Gourlay reported the following last night:

"What's curious, though, there is that some of the most vocal opponents of ObamaCare represent Kentucky in Congress and even they have kind of shied away from attacking the exchange because it has worked so well."

She's right that McConnell and Paul have "shied away" on this issue and most observers are forced to conclude, as Ms. Gourlay did, that their weakness implies approval. This needs to be fixed quickly.

Also in her report, Ms. Gourlay said: "Kentucky had already made a decision about how to pay for its exchange, they are charging insurers a fee, basically."

Actually, Gov. Beshear has claimed falsely that federal funds will pay for the exchange over the course of the next state budget and that is why he did not object to the legislature defunding it. So which is it, Governor, is the federal government paying for it or did you create a new tax somewhere without telling the legislature or anyone else except some reporter in Providence?

If Senators McConnell or Paul want to be of any assistance in fighting ObamaCare anymore, right here would be a great place to start.

Mr. Beshear goes to Washington, again?

Watching Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear attend the State of the Union Address as President Obama's special ObamaCare guest was a bitter pill for anyone aware of both state and federal law regarding implementation of "health" reform and Beshear's violations of it.

He may be looking at a return trip to the Capitol without quite so much fanfare. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is investigating seven states who have wasted some $1.3 billion in federal funds they were given to set up their state-run ObamaCare exchanges. Kentucky is not one of those states.

Perhaps they soon will be. Please call Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) at 202-225-3761 and ask him to investigate Kentucky, which claimed in their federal grant applications that legal authority to create "Kynect" existed when it does not.

Will Republican "Flip the House" even matter?

I'm struck when talking with Republican politicians in the state House and Senate that they are not only resigned to the fact that Gov. Steve Beshear has no respect for constitutional and statutory limits on his powers, but that too many of them don't see that as the place to start the fight.

Gov. Beshear is telegraphing his intentions to write a third executive order attempting to create the ObamaCare exchange this summer. He wrote the first one in 2012, did it again in 2013 after the first one expired without legislative ratification and now plans to do it again after a July 15 expiration date for the second executive order.

This all violates not only the Constitution but also KRS 12.028.

We've seen what this kind of lawlessness has done in Washington D.C. Steve Beshear is trying to bring that here. No one in the House minority seems willing to engage in this fight. Only Damon Thayer in the Senate shows up at all. If we allow governing by executive order with no check or balance, what good will a Republican majority in the House do us?

Am I missing something? Anyone?

Beshear's hack admits Kynect is busted

Buried deep in a Washington Post "Fact Checker" column today about Sen. Mitch McConnell's latest ObamaCare gaffe was an extraordinary admission by a top Beshear administration official about the foregone conclusion of failure of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange.

The Post wrote about the exchange that Kentucky Health and Family Services Cabinet press secretary Gwenda Bond "said the state is considering an assessment on insurers to provide long-term funding after 2014."

This is not true because "the state" has already soundly rejected any such thing. The fact that Beshear is saying publicly through his people that no such funding exists is substantial, though.

Beshear already tried to create this new insurance tax with an executive order last year that was illegal when he wrote it in violation of KRS 12.028(5) and which expires anyway on July 15, 2014 per the same statute. House Bill 505 this year attempted to ratify the executive order and create the tax, but it died in the House Health and Welfare Committee.

Unless Gov. Beshear is going to call an ObamaCare tax special session of the legislature, which wouldn't work anyway, there is no chance he gets his ObamaCare tax pushed through before federal dollars run out at the end of 2014. Realistically, there is also no chance he gets it pushed through any other time either, but that's another story. The legislature's nearly unanimous defunding of anything directly or indirectly related to the exchange proves it.

Beshear really needs to face facts and start to implement an orderly dismantling of Kentucky ObamaCare.

Sam Youngman sells his soul for ObamaCare

It started two weeks ago when a Marist poll for NBC News showed ObamaCare's unpopularity in Kentucky and the fact that ObamaCare is well-known, but Kynect, the Kentucky ObamaCare exchange, is not. Left-wing news sites joined the Louisville Courier Journal in attempting to spin the results to inflate the role labels have in public perception of the "Affordable Care Act" debacle.

And now Lexington Herald Leader political reporter Sam Youngman goes all in with this theme and ups the ante significantly. While even the Huffington Post proclaimed only that "Kentuckians Hate Kynect A Lot Less Than ObamaCare," which is true if you ascribe ignorance of the term to mean the same as having less animosity, Youngman wins the prize for distorting the poll results the most.

In a story today about the U.S. Senate candidates' struggles to capitalize on the ACA in Kentucky, Youngman writes the following:

While McConnell has sought to make the health care law a central part of his strategy to tie Grimes to Obama, who remains deeply unpopular in Kentucky, his campaign must also contend with polling that shows far more Kentuckians favor Kynect than "Obamacare."
An NBC News/Marist poll conducted earlier this month showed that 57 percent of registered Kentucky voters have an unfavorable view of "Obamacare" but only 22 percent held an unfavorable view of Kynect. Another 29 percent had a favorable opinion of Kynect, 29 percent had never heard of Kynect, and 21 percent were "unsure" how to rate the state program.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/05/28/3263792/fight-over-health-care-law-reveals.html?sp=/99/322/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

The poll found 33 percent support for ObamaCare in Kentucky and 29 percent support for Kynect in Kentucky. Youngman has been thoroughly briefed about Kynect's legal troubles, but clearly prefers distorting poll numbers for an agenda to reporting truth.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/05/28/3263792/fight-over-health-care-law-reveals.html?sp=/99/322/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

Joe Sonka vs. McConnell on Kynect; both wrong

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell continues to draw attention for trying to split the baby on ObamaCare/Kynect and LEO writer Joe Sonka is driving the bus for the other side. Both sides need work.

McConnell said: "If ObamaCare is repealed, Kentucky should decide for itself whether to keep Kynect or set up a different marketplace."

Kentucky has already decided. Gov. Steve Beshear attempted to create the ObamaCare exchange in Kentucky with a 2012 executive order. The 2013 General Assembly did not ratify the executive order, causing it to expire per KRS 12.028. Rather than follow the law at that point, Beshear wrote another executive order creating the exchange in violation of KRS 12.028(5). A bill was actually filed in the 2014 General Assembly to ratify the second, out-of-order executive order (HB 505), but that bill failed to even get a hearing in a committee chaired by the bill's sponsor, Rep. Tom Burch.

Then the legislature voted almost unanimously in HB 235, the budget bill, to defund the exchange, declaring Beshear is "prohibited from expending any General Fund resources on any expenditure directly or indirectly associated with the Health Benefit Exchange."

Two lawsuits are well underway to clarify Gov. Beshear's illegal actions. Both cases (13-SC-000652 and 13-SC-000667) are currently in front of the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Sonka, for what it's worth, had a clever retort: "McConnell saying that Kynect can survive the repeal of ObamaCare is like saying that the Oklahoma City Thunder can trade Kevin Durant, but keep his jump shot."

But this cute analogy misses the point as well. But for the last desperate illegal moves of a rogue governor, Kynect already does not exist. The jump shot is already gone, as is the power forward. The only reason this issue hasn't been fully put to rest is that the Kentucky Supreme Court has been sitting on it for seven months.

Instead of embarrassing themselves with further misstatements on the issue of Kentucky ObamaCare, both the McConnell and Grimes camps should urge the Court to get off the dime so we can get started on the real work of cleaning up Beshear's mess. 

Our nonexistent "sustainability plan"

The Obama administration wants Rhode Island to demonstrate they have the ability to maintain their state-run ObamaCare exchange after federal funds run out at the end of 2014. That should be interesting because there is a bipartisan effort to shut down the exchange there just as their Obamacrats are begging for even more money.

Kentucky should be forced to do such a sustainability plan because not only was our exchange created without legislative approval which -- by state law -- it must have to exist, no funding mechanism has been created and the legislature just refused for any other state funds to be used to run it.

Seriously, ObamaCare fans everywhere should notify the White House about the mess Gov. Steve Beshear is making in Kentucky. The story I read about the request of Rhode Island came after media reports of that state's ObamaCare problems. Kentucky's media isn't covering this, so the President may not know.

Why Mitch McConnell should support me

Sen. Mitch McConnell made national news today suggesting he doesn't want to dismantle Kentucky's state run ObamaCare exchange. It really doesn't have to be this hard.

From the Associated Press:

Asked if a repeal of the health care law would mean Kynect should be disbanded, McConnell said: "I think that's unconnected to my comments about the overall question."

Ouch. This is especially terrible because McConnell's Democratic opponent just raked herself over the coals on the flip side of the same question. A much better answer would have been simply "Yes."

Government did not invent health insurance and has not "provided" health insurance to 413,000 Kentuckians. Government involvement has served only to make health insurance less affordable and less efficient. Plus, Gov. Beshear has illegally created the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, has failed to gain legislative ratification (twice) of his executive order establishing the exchange and the legislature just last month voted almost unanimously not to provide state funds for ongoing exchange activities when they become necessary after December 31, 2014.

Sen. McConnell's Senate office is on this blog site every day. He has to know all this stuff. Getting on board with my two Kentucky Supreme Court cases (13-SC-000652 and 13-SC-000667) is a total no-brainer and could go a long way in preventing future silly gaffes as the media attempts to make the fall campaign about 413,000 "beneficiaries."

Will Beshear's pride cost Kentucky an ObamaCare "freebie?"

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has claimed, falsely, that all ObamaCare expenses for the next two years are covered by the federal government. Federal law states very clearly that no federal funds can be used for ObamaCare exchange operations after December 31, 2014.

A funny thing has happened: a Rhode Island official claims that state asked for and will receive federal funding in 2015 for their state-run exchange. If that's true ("Christine Ferguson, director of HealthSource RI, said federal officials have agreed to let the state use federal dollars through the end of calendar year 2015 — one year longer than planned.") and Rhode Island has gotten some kind of special dispensation in violation of federal law, Kentucky should pursue the same thing.

Four states that signed up to run their own exchanges have recently defaulted to the federal exchange already, of the original fourteen who took Obama's bait. Rhode Island is likely to do the same despite their special law-breaking situation because their state Obamacrats are still looking for more state money to spend and the likelihood that they will get it is going down by the day.

Beshear's situation is further complicated by the fact that once he starts admitting to having lied about funding, he may be forced to admit that he doesn't have legal authority for ObamaCare and no state funding source. Given his track record, expect Beshear to continue to just muddle along illegally and expensively, hoping against hope he can continue to ignore reality for a little while.

The Associated Press is wildly inaccurate

Democratic Senate candidate Alison Grimes refused yesterday to say whether she would have voted for ObamaCare.

Twice.

Associated Press reporter Adam Beam did well to ask this important question and Mrs. Grimes did as expected in showing she can't handle very obvious questions.

But Mr. Beam couldn't just leave the story there. He had to include some bizarrely inappropriate and inaccurate editorializing in his "news" story. He wrote:

"The law Republicans call "Obamacare" presents a delicate issue for Grimes, who won the Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday. Kynect, Kentucky's state-run health insurance exchange made possible by the law, is wildly popular. More than 400,000 people have either signed up for an expanded Medicaid program or purchased private insurance plans with the help of government subsidies. But Obamacare remains unpopular in the state, mostly because President Barack Obama himself is unpopular here."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/05/21/5838150/ky-democrat-mum-on-question-of.html#storylink=cpy

Beam "wildly popular" characterization was probably inspired by a strange MSNBC article from March that was actually quite damning in its detailed description of Kentucky ObamaCare despite also calling the scheme "wildly successful." Labeling ObamaCare's unpopularity "mostly" a function of Obama's unpopularity is another well-worn left-wing media talking point ignoring the reality of the law's increased costs and other anti-consumer results.

Adam Beam knows better than to do this. Here's hoping he puts more of an effort going forward into journalism and less into providing repackaged propaganda. 

This post needs 1 million likes

My name is David Adams and I live in Nicholasville, Kentucky. I watched Governor Steve Beshear over the last two years claim authority he does not have to sign Kentucky up for the optional parts of ObamaCare and then proceed illegally to commit our state to a path we cannot afford.

I filed two lawsuits that are currently awaiting Kentucky Supreme Court action. They are 13-SC-000-652 and 13-SC-000667. I need both attention to this issue and money to fund the effort. Let's start with attention, always the easier of the two.

I need 1 million Facebook "likes" on this post to get it in front of enough people to spur action. The legislature decisively defunded everything "directly or indirectly related to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange" last month. In Kentucky, that includes the Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare and cancels our obligation to finance Obama's "health" reform bureaucracy for him in the Bluegrass State.

Four concurrent federal lawsuits stand to cancel taxpayer obligations related to ObamaCare exchanges in states that refuse to set up their own exchanges. As the legislature is the people's voice, Kentucky has refused to set up an exchange. Our Constitution and statutes clearly prohibit the governor from ignoring our voices on this. Other states whose officials have tried to set up ObamaCare exchanges are starting to figure out they are simply caught in a trap and that now is the time to get out. If we stand up now and join our voices, Kentucky will join them. If we don't an unprecedented standard of lawlessness will be established here, from which there will be no winners.

Please help by simply passing this post along more than once.

Kentucky can't pay Deloitte for ObamaCare

Deloitte Consulting got kudos yesterday in the Washington Times for running state ObamaCare websites in four states -- Rhode Island, Kentucky, Washington and Connecticut.

Interestingly, the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal urged its state government to drop Deloitte and the whole idea of a state run exchange today and default into the federal exchange because the state simply can't afford to continue the charade of funding Obama's health bureaucracy for him. And the Providence Journal is hardly a right wing rag, having endorsed Obama twice.

The evidence is overwhelming that Rhode Island doesn't have the money to play with. It's even more so for Kentucky. Rhode Island's legislature is trying to defund its exchange, though it may be struggle to get that past its governor. In Kentucky, we have already done that.

Gov. Beshear has written a check he can't cash. It's past time for him to admit his mistake so we can start cleaning up the mess.

Sen. Walter Blevins went to Alabama

State Senator Walter Blevins (D-Morehead) went on Alabama Public Radio to talk up ObamaCare in Kentucky, but he appears to have left his state Constitution at home:

“I’m glad our governor has that right to do those things. We have a divided government right now, the Republicans control the Senate, the Democrats the House. The governor went ahead on his own and did an executive order, didn’t need the legislature, we weren’t in session at the time. There has been some talk about trying to defund it by the Republicans but they don’t have the votes in the House so it’s kind of at a standstill.”

The only thing Blevins got right is that the legislature was out of session when Beshear filed his executive order creating the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. Governors in Kentucky have the ability to issue temporary reorganization executive orders when the legislature is not in session, but that doesn't mean Beshear "didn't need the legislature."

In fact, KRS 12.028 makes clear that the opposite is true. Failure of the legislature to ratify the terms of such an executive order means that its provisions "shall be terminated" ninety days after the session ends. The "talk" about defunding not only broke out its "standstill" with 89 yes votes in the House, it passed the Senate 37-1, with Blevins voting for it.

Sen. Blevins is not up for re-election this year, but he should be made to explain his distortion of this issue in 2016.

Frank Simon endorses Matt Bevin; cites incumbent's bad votes, dishonest campaigning

Every election, Dr. Frank Simon's Freedoms Heritage Forum sends out tens of thousands of voter guides statewide with substantial impact. Just got mine in the mail today with its endorsement of Matt Bevin for U.S. Senate at the top.

The best part is the footnote pointing out several bad McConnell votes funding ObamaCare, giving Obama a blank check on debt increases, voting federal funds for abortions and voting to allow the federal government to obtain gun records. The same footnote also points out in bright red lettering that "McConnell's accusations about Bevin's record are questionable."

Very nicely understated, Dr. Simon. Well done.

Evolution of a fake Kentucky ObamaCare data point

Two months ago, Gov. Steve Beshear starting telling an unquestioning media that seventy five percent of ObamaCare sign-ups in the state did not previously have health coverage. This statistic was not credible then as a hard number, nor was it credible last month when it morphed into an estimate. Taking another step back, Beshear now characterizes this iffy data point as a "survey" result:

The Christian Science Monitor reports today "Surveys of enrollees show that 75 percent had no health insurance prior to kynect. And more than half of those signed up are under age 35 -- far above the national average for this crucial age bracket."

This is ridiculous. At the beginning of ObamaCare, Kentucky was one of only two states that was going to ask every enrollee to certify previous insured status. They never did it. When pressed, Beshear made up the seventy five percent statistic -- apparently thinking it sounded good. The fact that he has backed off this claim so quickly with apparently no one but this blog calling it into question and no one in the media seeming to notice should be a constant source of embarrassment to anyone who still considers what they peddle to be "news."

And the part about young people signing up for ObamaCare in Kentucky is total garbage too. They are counting Medicaid enrollees and children, not young adult "invincibles" buying health insurance, which is the meaningful statistic to give an indication of the death spiral already underway in American health insurance.

Study: Kentucky ranks last in economic health

Kentucky has the worst state economy in the country, according to a new report by global capital management firm Conning.

The report cites Kentucky's dramatically underfunded public pensions, overspending and debt among others as key factors dragging the Commonwealth to the bottom of their list.

This is, of course, news to anyone who depends on the mainstream media for information. Kentucky's latest fiscal year deficit, for example, was more than $573 million despite claims from Gov. Steve Beshear repeated unquestioningly in the media as a $71 million surplus.

Obamacrat wannabe goes down swinging

Frankfort reporter Ronnie Ellis' audition for a press secretary job in the Beshear administration took an odd turn yesterday with another skewed report of another bogus administrative regulation vote on the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion.

Ellis wrote: "Courts have ruled Gov. Steve Beshear had the authority to expand Medicaid under legislation previously enacted by the General Assembly because it allowed the state to access more federal funds for the federal-state partnership that covers medical costs of the poor and disabled."

While one court has ruled this way, Ellis incorrectly makes the term plural, suggesting a falsehood. Further, when Franklin Circuit Judge Philip Shepherd ruled on this question last fall, his opinion included the following: "The General Assembly has the power to enact legislation to override these regulations, or to withdraw the authority to promulgate the administrative regulations. But this authority requires the enactment of a bill."

We have just such a bill. The General Assembly last month enacted HB 235, the budget bill, which stated in part: "Therefore, no provision within this Act shall be deemed, adjudged or constructed as being a recognition, finding or admission or admission of the General Assembly's approval of the operation of the ACA in Kentucky." It goes on to say: "The Governor is expressly prohibited from expending any General Fund resources on any expenditure directly or indirectly associated with the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange."

Any questions?

Media witlessly portrays ObamaCare poll

A new Marist poll shows ObamaCare is very unpopular in Kentucky. It also shows the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, branded as "Kynect" with taxpayer dollars, is widely unknown but even less popular.

So how does the Courier Journal describe the poll's findings? Like this:

"Kentuckians like health care law, labels depending"

That's the headline. If you click on it, you get a brief article calling Kentucky ObamaCare a "major success" without attribution and invoking Shakespeare to suggest that under a different name, the federal takeover of healthcare is well-liked.

Given the Kentucky media's wall-to-wall cheerleading for all things "ObamaCare," "Kynect," "BeshearCare" or whatever, popularity for federal health reform is nowhere evident. The poll had 57 percent unfavorable for ObamaCare and 33 percent favorable for ObamaCare. The other ten percent lacked the information to have an opinion. The poll had 29 percent with a positive view of "Kynect" and 22 percent with a negative view of "Kynect." A staggering 49 percent lacked the information to have an opinion.

Only the Courier Journal -- and, seriously, only in the ObamaCare era -- would say this means Kentuckians actually like the Affordable Care Act. The only way we lose to these people is if we are just too tired to deserve to live in freedom.

TV commercial script for Matt Bevin

{Open with full screen Bevin logo}

Voiceover: "I'm Matt Bevin and I approve this message."

{Matt on screen head and shoulders}

"When conservatives in Washington D.C. tried to defund ObamaCare last fall, {picture of McConnell on screen touching Obama and laughing} my opponent stood against them.

"McConnell said the conservative strategy wouldn't work and {graphic showing nay votes to Vote #206 Sept 27, 2013, highlighting Rand Paul's name and "nay" vote} then played along with Democrats to make sure it didn't. A few conservatives held strong. 

Something similar just happened in Frankfort, Kentucky. But here, Republican leaders stuck to their guns to defund ObamaCare and Democrats gave in. {Matt on screen head and shoulders} McConnell and the Democrats don't want to talk about conservative victories. When conservatives stick together, we win. I'm Matt Bevin and I appreciate your vote May 20. 

ObamaCare fans want to ignore calendar

The latest pro-ObamaCare talking point attempts to refute a recent U.S. House Republican report finding that some two-thirds of private health plan purchasers under the Affordable Care Act had managed to make even their first month of premium payment. Insurance company executives came to the rescue yesterday, claiming that it is more like eighty percent.

The executives were quick to point out that their numbers are still preliminary and that no one really knows even now a hard number on this.

Nevertheless, left-wing talking heads are trying today to make this into the latest anti-ObamaCare "lie." But one thing I have not seen pointed out in any of the conversation about this controversy is that while we are talking about people making their first premium payment, the current month is May.

While some people signed up in April and even March and may have mailed in premium payments not yet received, the vast majority of sign-ups came much earlier -- the started last October -- and we aren't talking about people who have made all their payments. Just the first one.

Obamacrats have moved administratively to significantly delay how quickly insurers can cancel policies for non-payment, even making it easy for people to order a policy, use it for coverage and never pay -- while the insurer must give them one month for free. It will be interesting to learn how many people take that money and run.