Beshear budget fraud update

I stopped in the office of Kentucky Deputy Budget Director John Hicks five days ago to ask him about the curious appearance of state spending in the current budget for the ObamaCare exchange after Gov. Beshear spent months lying about the need for state funds and the legislature succeeded in -- nearly unanimously --defunding the exchange.

Mr. Hicks asked me at that time to send him an email with my question. I sent an email on July 9 at 2:27 pm which read as follows:

John,

Thanks for talking with me earlier today. If you could, please provide me with the source of budgeted restricted funds for the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange in the current biennium and any statutory authority related to such funds.

Thanks,

David Adams

859-537-5372

I have yet to receive an answer. Surely there is someone out there who won't be stumped by such a straightforward request.

Herald Leader selling Beshear math

In a story about Kentucky state overspending -- they call it a budget "shortfall," of course -- the Lexington Herald Leader unquestioningly prints another piece of Gov. Steve Beshear's budget propaganda as fact.

"The governor has cut $1.6 billion in state budgets since taking office in 2007," reports Herald Leader reporter Jack Brammer without attributing the questionable statement to anyone.

According to state budget documents available to anyone who bothers to look, Revised Fiscal Year 2008 state spending was $24.3 billion. Revised Fiscal Year 2014 spending $29.7 billion. And you probably aren't supposed to remember Beshear got and spent $3.4 billion in federal "stimulus" funds right in the middle of that.

We're looking at spending going up an average of almost a billion dollars a year under Beshear and almost another billion a year in one-time money blown through, but Beshear and his cronies in the media keep repeating his "budget cutting" fiction.

Beshear budget fraud on Page 209

When the 2014 Kentucky General Assembly enacted budget language forbidding spending on anything directly or indirectly related to ObamaCare, Gov. Beshear declined to veto the provision because, he said, sufficient federal funding would be available to run the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange in 2015-16.

That was never true.

Now the actual state budget (on page 209) shows $37.4 million state dollars being transferred to the Exchange as state restricted funds and spent in clear violation of the explicit legislative instructions in the current state budget. An active state budget is the supreme law of the land in Kentucky next to the Constitution.

I have made a request of Deputy Budget Director John Hicks for an explanation of this illegal action by the Beshear Administration.

Abortion zealots attacking Nicholasville Hobby Lobby store TODAY at 4pm

In an attempt to gin up pro-abortion activists for mid-term elections, Democrats are trying to make an example out of Hobby Lobby with protests around the country at the Christian-owned stores.

Local media sources report the same thing will happen today at 4pm at the Brannon Crossing Hobby Lobby store in Nicholasville.

Left-wing activists are upset because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Obama couldn't force Hobby Lobby to pay for abortifacients for the company's employees.

See you there?

Steve Beshear admits it

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear did not veto budget language earlier this spring defunding ObamaCare in the Bluegrass State because, he said, federal funds would be available to fund it throughout the two year budget cycle.

That was a lie and he just admitted it in writing.

In an executive order filed with Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes late yesterday, Beshear attempted for the third time to administratively create the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange with the following admission:

"WHEREAS, operation of kynect in Kentucky will be funded entirely with federal funds until January 1, 2015, at which time its operations will be wholly funded from revenues generated by and through the Exchange." (emphasis added)

Generating revenue "by and through the Exchange" would require the creation of a tax and an appropriation, neither of which can the governor do on his own. Beshear's two previous attempts to create the exchange by temporary reorganization executive order, which is what this is, failed in the 2013 and 2014 General Assemblies when the legislature declined to ratify them as required by the relevant statute KRS 12.028. Subsection 5 of the same law forbids the governor from putting its provisions into effect until the next session of the General Assembly. He has now violated this law three times, despite stating on federal grant applications requesting over $200 million in federal funds that the exchange had been legally created.

Two current lawsuits in state court seek to clarify the constitutional issues limiting Beshear's authority in this matter. They are 13-SC-652 and 13-SC-667.

Beshear quietly grants 200,000 Kentuckians two year ObamaCare reprieve starting Tuesday

Nearly 200,000 Kentuckians facing health insurance cancellation under ObamaCare starting Tuesday July 1 will instead have two more years before they have to worry about narrow provider networks and excessive costs associated with the Affordable Care Act's insurer loopholes and coverage mandates, the second such extension announced by President Obama and Governor Steve Beshear since last November.

Insurers are supposed to notify affected customers if they are among the lucky few allowed to avoid the ObamaCare pool a while longer. Anthem said about 130,000 of their customers make the cut, as do Humana's 32,000 small group enrollees. Also benefiting are more than 6000 Time Insurance Co. customers, 9000 with Bluegrass Family Health, 11,000 with UnitedHealthcare.

Kentuckians shouldn't have to beg their politicians for permission to keep their health insurance and such permission should not be granted piecemeal. The arbitrary and capricious -- and illegal -- implementation of ObamaCare in Kentucky is currently being challenged by two lawsuits in state court, 13-SC-652 and 13-SC-667.

Beshear hires $400/hr. D.C. lawyers for Medicaid debacle

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has hired a Washington D.C. law firm at $400 per hour to provide "legal advice and consulting services regarding the development of various funding mechanisms and management initiatives for the Medicaid Program," according to a document filed with the Secretary of State's office.

The massive fees will be split 50/50 between the federal government and the Commonwealth for Covington & Burling of 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C.

Earlier this spring, the Kentucky General Assembly defunded the Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare amid wildly excessive costs greatly exceeding Beshear's rosy projections. Two state lawsuits also seek to stop Beshear's foolishness before too many more millions of dollars are wasted. The cases are 13-SC-652 and 13-SC-667.

The contract specifies "Covington  & Burling shall also provide legal representation to the Cabinet in Medicaid related litigation."

Will Steve Beshear try 2nd ObamaCare "mulligan?"

When Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear failed to get legislative approval for his 2012 temporary reorganization executive order attempting to create a state-run ObamaCare exchange in his state, he got sued. His response to that failure and that lawsuit was to illegally file another executive order.

That second executive order not only did not get approved by the legislature, it sparked very clear legislative language enacted into law in the state budget forbidding Beshear to proceed with his ObamaCare fiasco.

But Beshear seems to think he deserves another mulligan.

The illegal second executive order expires July 15. Federal authorities have been formally notified of Beshear's multi-million dollar fraud against them. The only way this doesn't get a lot worse is for Beshear to come clean now and admit that his ObamaCare gambit has failed.

Unfortunately for all of us, again, Beshear seems convinced that he deserves another shot at his pipe dream. Two Kentucky Supreme Court cases (13-SC-652 adn 13-SC-667) seek to clarify for Gov. Beshear the error of his ways.

Senate Democrat wants to jail Audrey Tayse Haynes

Sen. Reggie Thomas (D-Lexington) pre-filed a bill today for the 2015 Kentucky General Assembly that would make lying to a legislative committee a crime and in some cases, a felony.

The only person I saw make repeated false statements in a committee meeting last session was Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Audrey Tayse Haynes while promoting ObamaCare.

The bill would require committee leaders to swear in witnesses as if they were testifying in court and the regular penalties for perjury would apply.

I like this a lot, though I suspect jailing Obamacrats isn't exactly what Sen. Thomas has in mind. The bill is scheduled to appear as Senate Bill 11.

Taxpayer funded Kentucky ObamaCare insurer gouging will go largely unscrutinized

The Kentucky Health Cooperative, an insurer created solely by ObamaCare with federal tax dollars, has requested a 9.9% premium rate increase for 2015.

The Kentucky Department of Insurance, purportedly a consumer watchdog, has evolved into little more than the local muscle of an insurer protection racket and will surely rubber stamp the request.

A statement on a federal health insurance web site appears to explain a lot about the odd price increase.

The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight explains: "HHS works in partnership with states to ensure that all proposed rate increases of 10 percent or more (emphasis added) in the individual and small group market are thoroughly reviewed."

Beshear damned either way on ObamaCare

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear's anticipated third attempt to force his state into maintaining an ObamaCare exchange has not yet materialized and he doesn't want you to know why.

Beshear filed his second temporary reorganization executive order last June when his first (2012) executive order designed to create the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange (KHBE) was about to expire because the 2013 Kentucky General Assembly declined to ratify it. Franklin Circuit Court Judge Philip Shepherd failed to recognize the illegality the second executive order found in KRS 12.028(5), which failure is currently under review by the Kentucky Supreme Court (13-SC-000652 and 13-SC-000667).

Either way that goes, Beshear and friends bear watching between now and July 15, when the KHBE loses any semblance of a claim to exist under Kentucky law due to the expiration of the 2013 executive order, producing a default into the federal exchange as should have happened a year ago. This essentially would free Kentuckians from the obligation to pay millions of dollars in ObamaCare taxes.

Worse, for Beshear, filing another executive order serves as an admission to the FBI that he lied on federal grant applications for which he fraudulently received more than $200 million in federal funds to create the exchange. What has to give him pause now is the realization that not filing another executive order does exactly the same thing.

Any questions?

HHS calls $3168 ObamaCare subsidy a "success"

A new Health and Human Services report claims data compiled from state ObamaCare exchanges shows the federal takeover of healthcare in America is "working," but uses ridiculous methodology to arrive at that conclusion.

The report finds an average monthly per person health insurance premium in states on the federal exchange of $346 and claims success because nearly seventy percent of plans are subsidized with federal dollars leaving an average monthly net premium of $82 for that segment of the ObamaCare population.

The report quotes HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell saying "the Marketplace is working. Consumers have more choices and they're paying less for their premiums."

Jacking premiums up to an average of $346 a month and touting the necessity of a $3168 annual federal subsidy (346 - 82 = 264; 264 x 12 = 3168) as evidence the "Marketplace is working" could only fly in the la-la land in which Obamacrats celebrate each others' brilliance.

Can't be long until Kentucky's brain-dead media starts cheering this on as well.

Federal investigation of Frankfort ObamaCare begins

I met with an investigator at the Lexington office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation this afternoon to initiate a case against Gov. Steve Beshear's administration for fraudulently obtaining over $200 million in federal ObamaCare grants based on the false statement that Beshear had legal authority to apply for the grants without legislative approval.

In multiple grant applications, Beshear claimed that he filed a temporary reorganization executive order that was sufficient to give him authority to create the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. That was a false statement. Making such a false statement to the federal government is a felony.

Federal officials in Oregon and Maryland are already investigating questionable statements made on Health and Human Services gate reviews just like the ones falsified by Beshear for possible criminal charges.

Courier Journal shoots for 2014 "lie of the year"

Louisville Courier Journal writer James R. Carroll thinks you are stupid.

In a story this morning about Gov. Steve Beshear speaking in Washington D.C. about ObamaCare in Kentucky, Carroll wrote the following:

"The governor called the state health care exchange known as kynect "highly successful," enrolling 421,000 Kentuckians — with 75 percent of them receiving coverage for the first time in their lives."

The governor is entitled to any opinion he wishes to express, but not ridiculously false numbers. And for Carroll to repeat them without attribution, credibility or apparently any thought at all takes the Courier's shockingly poor reporting on the subject to a new level.  The 421,000 enrollment figure is now two months old. There are now well over 500,000 Kentuckians signed up, nearly all of them in unaffordable and unsustainable Medicaid.

And the part about 75 percent of the recipients having never had coverage "in their lives" is not something I've even heard Beshear say. This is so stupendously false a claim that I can't imagine it being surpassed in 2014 in Kentucky and perhaps only nationally by the IRS' "dog ate our emails" whopper.

The only question that remains about this Kentucky ObamaCare lie is if it was told by Beshear or by the Courier Journal's James R. Carroll.

UPDATE: Just spoke with the Courier's Mr. Carroll who said Beshear is the one selling the absurd 75% figure. Here's hoping he clarifies his article to separate himself from this very big lie. Meanwhile, the Beshear administration should be asked often to provide any kind of documentation they have. Hint: there is none.

Beshear taking third bite at ObamaCare

Gov. Steve Beshear is widely expected to issue an executive order this week attempting to create an ObamaCare "exchange" in Kentucky. If that fact confuses you because of the many glowing reports of ObamaCare exchange success here, you really need to pay attention to this post.

Beshear filed his first temporary reorganization exchange order to create the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange in the summer of 2012. When the legislature refused to ratify the actions requested by Beshear, the executive order's contents became null and void ninety days after the 2013 General Assembly.

I filed a lawsuit against Beshear in anticipation of this failure in 2013. The day his first ObamaCare executive order was set to expire we were in court on this matter. Beshear re-issued his expiring executive order with a second executive order containing minor changes. This second attempt at forcing Kentucky into ObamaCare violated both the letter and the spirit of the law in KRS 12.028(5).

This matter is currently under review by the Kentucky Supreme Court in cases 13-SC-000652 and 13-SC-000667. One House Democrat filed a bill to ratify the second, out-of-order executive order in the 2014 General Assembly, but it failed to even get a committee hearing. Then the legislature voted almost unanimously to defund either of the optional parts of ObamaCare, the exchange and the Medicaid Expansion, in the state budget.

Beshear deserves to be questioned thoroughly about his illegal actions in the court of public opinion and in front of the Kentucky Supreme Court. Separation of powers is written in to our Constitution and is a key part of form of government. If the legislature need not be consulted on matters of policy such as taxing, spending and form and function of state government under some bizarre new Beshear Doctrine, why do we even bother sending legislators to Frankfort at all?

Our Constitution hangs by a thread.

Terrible Kentucky media stripped bare by Virginia

Late last night, Virginia's General Assembly passed a budget on barely bipartisan lines to prohibit their Democratic governor from forcing their state into the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion. The Washington Post provided fairly comprehensive coverage of the issues and the debate. This comes two full months after Kentucky almost unanimously did the same thing but most Kentuckians know nothing about it because the media in Frankfort have been completely silent.

The similarity is that both states' Democratic governors are defiant in the face of the will of the people. Gov. McAuliffe has been and will be forced to fight his battle in public, though, while Beshear has been spared that fate by obsequious reporters and petrified legislators with the apparently singular exception of Sen. Damon Thayer.

The Kentucky Supreme Court can right this horrible wrong perpetrated on Kentuckians by our disgraceful media and political class by hearing two cases challenging Beshear's illegal ObamaCare actions, 13-SC-000652 and 13-SC-000667.

Big Brother looking at Steve Beshear

Federal investigators will be back in Frankfort Monday looking into misspent grant money and health insurance subsidies run by Gov. Steve Beshear through the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange.

Don't expect any news to come out of this audit soon, but the real crime is that Beshear's abuse of the law and federal tax dollars will have a complete paper trail Obama can use to extort some future obedience or silence from his Bluegrass Bootlicker.

Humana premiums double in Kentucky

Humana of Kentucky turned heads with their eighty percent premium increase in the first year of ObamaCare and have requested a 16.7 percent increase for plans to be sold beginning this November.

"This is insult on top of injury in Kentucky's ObamaCare fiasco, which Gov. Beshear still insists on ramming down our throats without following the law to get legislative approval or necessary spending authority," said David Adams, plaintiff in two state lawsuits challenging Beshear's implementation of expensive, optional features of the so-called Affordable Care Act. "Waiting on the Kentucky Supreme Court is getting old, so I'm challenging Beshear to a duel."

The two Kentucky Supreme cases are numbered 13-SC-000652 and 13-SC-000667.

As Kentucky's Medicaid population grows, Beshear shrinks

Kentucky's Medicaid expansion is already illegally spending state funds to pay costs of an exploding "free" healthcare population Gov. Steve Beshear suddenly doesnt seem so eager to brag about even as the number of sign-ups under ObamaCare approaches 500,000, nearly double the number predicted when this whole mess started.

This begs a couple of questions about what other ObamaCare projections in Kentucky might be off by a factor of two or more but Kentucky's brain-dead media won't ask them.

Another example of Kentucky media failing to serve

Later this month, Virginia's legislature will pass a budget prohibiting their Democratic governor from forcing the state into the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion. We know all about this because the Washington Post has been providing a fairly balanced and accurate play-by-play coverage of a pretty dramatic partisan struggle.

In Kentucky, we have had no such luck in terms of on-the-ball media coverage. Our legislature almost unanimously defunded both the state run ObamaCare exchange and expanded Medicaid in its budget, but no one knows about it because the only person in Frankfort talking about it is Senator Damon Thayer.

Kentucky's budget language forbids expenditure of state funds for anything directly or indirectly related to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. Kentucky is the only state in the nation that tied its Medicaid expansion to its exchange. Also, the Medicaid expansion language in the "Affordable Care Act" requires states to spend their own money on administrative expenses related to the expansion. That has also been expressly prohibited.

Two Kentucky Supreme Court cases seek to clarify the law on these issues. They are 13-SC-000652 and 13-SC-000667.