Obama FDA attacks people trying to quit smoking

Cigarette smokers across Kentucky trying to quit smoking with electronic cigarettes face strong resistance from big-government types addicted to tobacco taxes. This is a fight for all of us to engage in, much like the Boston Tea Party was a fight for tea drinkers and non-drinkers alike.

The Obama Administration is attempting to wipe out electronic cigarettes by saddling the industry with extremely expensive Food and Drug Administration regulation which would raise costs dramatically and probably cause most of the industry to go away just as it is starting to have a measurable impact.

A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey suggests more than half of people who have recently quit smoking (55%) use electronic cigarettes. Adam Mayer of Versailles, KY says electronic cigarettes helped him quit smoking.

"It's cheaper, tastes better, I feel better, it smells better, my sense of smell is better, it's faster than smoking, more convenient than smoking, and probably much less dangerous for you and others around you. Also, I don't have bronchitis every couple of months anymore," he said.

Ken Moellman of Independence KY agrees.

"It works and I feel better, too," he said.

The FDA is overreaching with their e-cigarette regulations by mandating ridiculously expensive regulation of all such products brought to market since February 2007. Imagine what it would be like if they did the same thing with cell phones. The difference here is e-cigs are being used to improve people's health and they are working. Free markets populated by free people have always made better regulators than government. H.R. 2058 in Congress now would rein in the FDA and allow the industry to continue to serve its ever-growing customer base.

Rep. Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green is the only Kentucky co-sponsor of this bill so far. Please ask your representative to help.

Non-smokers and people who don't use electronic cigarettes should come to the aid of these people while we can. Your business or a product that positively impacts your health could be next.

How Rand Paul can beat Boehner's budget bill

Boehner Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will combine with Nancy Pelosi's Democrats to pass a smoke-and-mirrors budget bill as fast as possible, suspending the nation's debt limit and busting sequester spending caps. Senator Rand Paul has promised to fight the measure by any means necessary. His fight need not be in vain.

Moderate House Republicans claim falsely the bill makes cuts to Social Security Disability. This is a great place for Senator Paul to start shining light into this dark hole, because the bill simply moves money from Social Security Retirement to Disability without making needed reforms.

"Washington D.C. Republicans used to make fun of Obamacrats financing ObamaCare with billions of dollars stolen from Medicare, but now they are taking a very similar approach with Social Security Disability," said David Adams, Kentucky Progress publisher. "When Obama came into office, there were four million Americans on Disability and now there are twelve million. Addressing the fraud involved in this massive increase gives Senator Paul just the opening he is looking for."

The Stop Disability Fraud Act of 2014 never got off the ground in Congress, but now would be a great time for Rand to dust it off and start it moving. It's embarrassing to watch Republicans campaign on cutting waste and never follow through when they have the chance. This moment of conservative discontent is Rand Paul's big chance.

Beshear legacy: missing billions, hidden details

A newly released official report from Frankfort shows a $2.8 billion increase in budgeted state debt since Gov. Steve Beshear took office in December 2007, while another, more detailed financial report required by law to be released before Election Day remains hidden from the public.

The Semi-Annual Report of the Kentucky Asset/Liability Commission indicates state appropriation-supported debt as of June 30, 2015 was $8.9 billion. On December 31, 2007, when Beshear was sworn into office, it was $6.1 billion. Another document, the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), shows state government net assets declining from $17.3 billion in 2007 to $10.0 billion on June 30, 2014. The 2015 CAFR is required to be released by the end of September, according to KRS 48.800(3), but is nowhere to be found.

A state finance official stated on background that the report would appear after the November elections.

"Even after blowing $3.7 billion in federal 'stimulus' funds and ignoring billions more in accumulated unfunded pension liabilities, Governor Beshear has obliterated $10 billion in state assets since he has been in office, while annual revenues steadily increased," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "The Beshear legacy is not just one of fiscal mismanagement, but also of lying, spinning and hiding information Kentuckians need to judge whether to grant continued power to his political party or his family."

Make Kentucky a free market mecca

A new Gallup poll suggests support among American adults for marijuana legalization is close to sixty percent. In Kentucky, it is probably higher. Kentucky still has a great opportunity to lead on this front by declining to join states attempting to enrich public coffers with marijuana revenue.

Marijuana is food and should be taxed as such. In Kentucky, that means no sales tax. Kentucky needs freedom and real economic growth far more than it needs another direct revenue stream for state government. Dismantling the black market for marijuana in Kentucky would improve public safety beyond that which has happened in other marijuana states by eliminating demand for black market dealers. This real price competition would create a magnet drawing in people from all over the country.

Marijuana legalization and the creation of a real free market for its distribution remains a great political issue for those who lead the way in making it happen.

Matt Bevin should weigh in on bullying

Gov. Steve Beshear wants to set up another expensive state agency to "prevent bullying" in state schools. Of course. That's what people like him do. Jack Conway will be all over it if he gets the chance.

My guess is Matt Bevin would handle it better. He should say so.

Kentucky doesn't need legislative hearings to debate how to define bullying and we certainly don't need to spend more money on some kind of ill-conceived "war on bullying," for Heaven's sake.

"Ridiculous 'zero-tolerance' policies which punish self-defense as well as coming to the aid of a bullied child serve only to embolden bullies and worsen the atmosphere in our schools," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Jack Conway would have us create a new touchy-feely bureaucracy when all we lack is a little common sense. Bullies don't need group therapy and sensitivity training nearly as much as they need adults who won't coddle them in their bad behaviors."

Hillary blames GOP for Obama Medicare mess

The ObamaCare law raised Medicare payroll taxes, booked "savings" by reducing payments to Medicare providers and has raised healthcare costs dramatically. Given that her claim to fame is trying unsuccessfully to do the same thing to us two decades ago, Hillary Clinton took the opportunity of ObamaCare wreaking further havoc on state budgets to blame Republicans.

"This is outrageous and senseless and Congress must act to fix the law," Clinton told Politico. "At a time when out-of-pocket medical costs are already rising, we cannot afford to let Republican obstructionism pile additional costs on our seniors. I urge the Republican candidates for president to call on their congressional majority to end the games and protect our seniors."

This Clintonian nonsense deserves a swift response.

"Obamacrats didn't need a single Republican vote to force us into ObamaCare and Hillary Clinton missed every chance she had to stop this before it happened," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Now she wants congressional Republicans to jump up and spend $10 billion this year we don't have to save her and her Washington D.C. friends from their latest embarrassment. No, throwing good money after bad to address damage that can only be fixed by repeal of ObamaCare is not why America elected Republican majorities in Congress. Go fish, Hillary."

Jack Conway channels Bernie Sanders, blames "market forces" for KY ObamaCare failure

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jack Conway took on the tone of his party's leading presidential candidate, avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, in blaming the failure of Kentucky Health Cooperative on "market forces," when the blame belongs completely to government.

"Federal law prevented health co-ops from hiring management with industry experience, so the Kentucky Cooperative was run by government hacks," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "When the Cooperative filed Kentucky's lowest health premiums for 2014, it was easy to predict they would get the sickest people who had no place else to go and that this would take them under. Insurance regulators could have prevented it, but like Jack Conway and the hacks running the co-op, they really thought the federal government would clean up all their messes. Blaming market forces for this is like Jack Conway blaming spoons for making him fat."

'Obamacrats R Us' opening in Lexington, Louisville

The dismal Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange's end of year spending binge launched today with news the state's medical insurance bureaucrats plan to open retail sales locations in Lexington and Louisville malls for three months beginning November 1, according to the Kynect web site.

Specific locations were not divulged, but expect to see "Obamacrats R Us" in the most expensive available retail space.

"Don't hold your breath waiting for fiscal restraint from these people," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Anyone who blows through a quarter billion dollars setting up an ObamaCare web site can't be expected to make it through Christmas without wasting tens of thousands more on posh suburban backdrops for photo-ops."

Tell Rand Paul to investigate Frankfort Obamacrats

The Kentucky Health Cooperative quietly went out of business over the weekend, but not before posting staggeringly bad results with American taxpayer dollars. The in-your-face waste, fraud and abuse deserves congressional hearings and prosecutions as a serious start to reversing ObamaCare's damage.

In 2014, the Cooperative, run by former state insurance bureaucrats, booked $173.2 million in premium payments and incurred $349.4 million in claims on capital including $123.8 million in loans from the federal government. That alone should indicate at least two things: the money to repay the American people does not exist and the millions in salaries and perks for Cooperative management was ill-spent and probably fraudulently so.

"The same people who have been regulating health insurance into the ground in Kentucky in recent years sucked up massive federal loans for the ill-fated Kentucky Health Cooperative debacle, creating a trail of victims along the way," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "They deserve open hearings in Congress and fair trials before being frog-marched off to prison."

Watch for a $100 million Frankfort Medicaid bomb

If a proposed $55 a month increase in Medicare premiums gains approval this month, Kentucky taxpayers will be hit with another $100 million a year Medicaid bill in 2016 no one in Frankfort is addressing publicly.

That's because some 200,000 Kentucky Medicare recipients are also on Medicaid, which means the state pays their premiums.

The executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors sounded an alarm to the New York Times about this issue, though he didn't mention Kentucky specifically.

"This is a huge issue for states," Executive Director Matt D. Salo said. "To finance Medicare, the federal government would shift billions of dollars in costs to state Medicaid programs."

Idaho, which has about one-fifth as many Medicare/Medicaid "dual eligibles" as Kentucky, projects an additional $20 million cost. California, with about six times as many dual eligibles, expects to pay an additional $550 million a year.

The Medicare premium increase should be made official later this month.

"The Beshear administration's rosy projections for Medicaid expansion in Kentucky very stupidly didn't consider the impact of the Medicare unfunded ticking time bomb," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "At the very moment logic dictates we should be running away from federal healthcare manipulation as fast as we can, Kentucky Democrats have us curling up with it on the floor and counting down to zero."

Run, don't walk, away from KY Health Cooperative

In the week since regulators ordered the nation's largest ObamaCare health cooperative to shut its doors, Kentucky politicos have been silent about our Kentucky Health Cooperative, which is in even worse shape and faces imminent collapse.

Matt Bevin should not let this one go another week.

"When the Kentucky Health Cooperative dissolves -- and no one seriously expects that to be an 'if' anymore -- real people are going to be hurt because of unpaid claims," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Jack Conway and Steve Beshear want to keep the truth hidden from their victims until after the election. The perpetrators of this sham rest easy at night expecting Matt Bevin to quietly let it go."

Latest federal ObamaCare statistics mean nothing

Kentucky's ObamaCare cheerleaders will soon be hyping new Census Bureau data claiming the rate of people without health insurance took another big drop in 2014, with the Bluegrass State leading the way. It is nonsense.

The data comes from a national survey of 68,000 households, performed by an agency of the federal government asking people if they are breaking the law or not by failing to keep health insurance during 2014. The decrease in the uninsured rate for 2014 is reported as 2.9% nationally and 5.8% for Kentucky.

"In America now you get hit with huge fines if you don't buy a larded up version of what used to be health insurance or take your chances with Medicaid," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "You can't expect meaningful data collection from a government entity asking people if they are doing something illegal or not. Besides, the number that matters isn't some statistically massaged estimate of how many people bought this coverage; it's the costs that matter and they are skyrocketing."

Jack Conway disappoints Kentucky consumers

A recurring banner ad on the Drudge Report web site paid for by Kentucky Obamacrats with your money screams "Great discounts, Better coverage!" but if you click on it, you are directed to the Kynect site for ObamaCare. If we had a functioning Attorney General who cared about consumer protection, our government would not do this.

There are no discounts in ObamaCare. The federal law mandating a slew of unnecessary health coverages funded with tax increases and made worse with multiplying regulations necessitates widespread subsidization to cover over even a part of the massive cost hikes wrought by ObamaCare. And the idea ObamaCare has anything to do with better coverage would be hilarious, but it just isn't anymore.

"Jack Conway's complicity in the ObamaCare debacle when his job requires him to protect consumers disqualifies him from public office of any kind," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Consumers have much better coverage options at truly discounted prices from available health sharing ministries. For more than that, we need to elect politicians who understand ObamaCare must go. Jack Conway cannot be relied upon to make that connection."

Do illegal immigrants have the right to bear arms?

A Kentucky State Representative has pre-filed a bill to make it illegal for people not in the United States legally to possess firearms. This is a horrible idea.

State Rep. Diane St. Onge pre-filed HB 35 yesterday, which would nullify federal attempts to violate gun rights of Kentuckians, which sounds good. The bill also seeks, though, to prohibit illegal aliens and dishonorably discharged members of the military from arming themselves, which violates Second Amendment rights.

The ability of government to attempt to disarm anyone based on immigration status may be an issue in front of the U.S. Supreme Court soon, but think about it: The Second Amendment protects the rights of "the people" and the Kentucky Constitution protects the rights of "all men" to bear arms. St. Onge's bill may not be intended this way, but it looks like and could serve as a back door attempt to ban guns and harass people.

Are we going to force everyone with a gun to produce immigration papers on the spot? If we can ban guns for illegal aliens, why not ban guns for high school drop outs and then roll on to other out-of-favor groups?

The legislature simply doesn't have the right to do this. Amend the bill, Rep. St. Onge.

KY ObamaCare's negative impact, by their numbers

The Louisville Courier Journal's endless appetite for pro-ObamaCare "news" is well known, but today's episode was something special.

Debby Yetter's "More Kentuckians getting insurance under ACA" uses numbers that contradict her paper's headline and underscore the value of seeking alternative viewpoints to balance journalistic writing.

Yetter claims 9.8% of Kentuckians remain uninsured and "nearly 400,000" were added to Medicaid under its expansion. According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, that means 432,518 Kentuckians remain uninsured, even though doing so is against the law. Before ObamaCare, Gov. Beshear claimed repeatedly there were 640,000 uninsured Kentuckians and his own Department of Insurance confirmed 280,000 Kentuckians were forced out of their insurance policies and "transitioned" to new plans at double the cost.

So even if you assume all 280,000 "if you like it, you can keep it" victims got insurance for what it would have previously cost to insure 560,000 of us -- they didn't -- then by their own numbers we have gone through this whole mess of higher taxes, much higher insurance premiums and substantial illegal activity by elected officials just to force 207,482 more Kentuckians into absurdly expensive "health insurance" for which we could have insured 400,000 without ObamaCare.

The numbers simply don't add up to a success for anyone other than politicians hoping no one looks beyond the spin.

"These numbers make clear the biggest unanswered question in ObamaCare is shouldn't we remove ObamaCare from insurance and just buy policies for the poorest people since we know we could do that much cheaper," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Every day with these people makes the case for getting government out of healthcare that much stronger."

Did KY Health Cooperative lie to New York Times?

A weekend New York Times article about ObamaCare co-ops falling short of rosy federal projections shines an unwanted spotlight on the insolvent Kentucky Health Cooperative, but grossly understates the desperate condition of the non-profit "public option."

"The Kentucky plan lost $50 million last year, more than any other insurance co-op," the article states, "as it paid out $1.25 in claims for every dollar it collected in premiums."

As sloppy journalism seems to be the order of the day with regard to mainstream coverage of ObamaCare, no source for these data points is provided. While the $50.4 million loss of 2014 has been well-documented, the $1.25 claims/premiums ratio contradicts the co-op's own actuarial filing placed with federal authorities.

"The rate increase will positively impact the plan’s experience with the historical experience reflecting a ratio of earned premium of $173.2 million to total paid and incurred claims of $349.4 million for 2014," the co-op reported quietly to authorities in June.

Frankfort Obamacrats' may think nothing of underreporting a favorite spending entity's annual losses by more than $130 million and using the "newspaper of record" in their attempt to keep up appearances, but this is precisely the kind of behavior Kentuckians need to eradicate before it is too late.

Frankfort media dumbs down "budget surplus" to distract from explosive government growth

For the second time in two months, Frankfort reporters misled Kentuckians by abusing the term "surplus" is discussing state General Fund revenues. In July, a recorded increase in revenue was reported as a budget surplus and today, a predicted revenue increase for the current fiscal year was again referred to widely as a budget surplus.

If all Frankfort has to do to claim to have balanced budgets is to take more "revenue" from us, politicians become even less accountable to the people.

"The truth is Governor Beshear has piled two and half billion dollars more in revenue-supported debt on our heads since he took office in 2007, ran through $3.6 billion in federal 'stimulus' funds and increased public employee benefits' unfunded status by billions more while employing cynical tricks like this one to pretend to be fiscally responsible," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams.

"The ObamaCare mess is raising our fiscal debacle to a whole new level with its accounting smoke and mirrors and propaganda word games, so someone needs to document these activities to show where we went off the rails."

Time for Matt Bevin to get religion on marijuana

Matt Bevin is already at least half a step better than Jack Conway on marijuana legalization, but an Ohio ballot initiative certified for the November ballot yesterday may make this a more meaningful issue in our fall campaign.

On November 3, Ohio voters will decide if marijuana will be legalized for medical and recreational use. Polling suggests passage is likely. As a bordering state, Kentucky would then be faced with needing to either further expand our own failed drug war activity or not.

"Jack Conway is a lost cause -- a big government drug warrior -- who doesn't count costs of bad government schemes, but Matt Bevin has shown signs of being teachable on this," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Kentucky farmers should lead the nation in marijuana production and Matt Bevin just needs to recognize the opportunity and pick it up and run with it."

Leading Frankfort Obamacrat gets defensive

The two greatest assets Frankfort administrators of ObamaCare have had in supporting their scheme are taxpayer money and unwillingness of news reporters to ask real questions. That may have started to change.

Former Courier Journal reporter Al Cross runs a site called Kentucky Health News which has picked up on the Kentucky Health Cooperative's dismal results. In a post published yesterday, Kentucky Health Cooperative Chairman Joseph E. Smith was asked why his organization is losing money faster than any other health co-op in the nation. His answers were revealing and should lead to more questions.

Smith cited three excuses, none of which hold water. Asked to explain KYHC's massive 2014 losses, Smith blamed reserve requirements, medical claims and grandfathered health plans. We already know health co-op reserve requirements have been grossly manipulated to benefit co-ops. And everyone should know that reserve requirements don't impact a profit-and-loss statement. Kudos to Al Cross and Kentucky Health News for exposing the fact the Kentucky Health Cooperative cannot withstand the slightest scrutiny.

And it gets worse.

Smith said Kentucky Health Cooperative got nearly all the sickest Kentuckians who had been kicked off their pre-ObamaCare coverage. This should come as no surprise to anyone, because KYHC underbid Anthem and Humana significantly on premiums. They did this intentionally to justify their paychecks and in hopes of attracting more federal funds. Whining about that now just because the congressional gravy train has stopped running for co-ops also does not explain why Kentucky's is the worst one.

And then Smith blames the existence of grandfathered health plans, which also has no bearing on annual earnings. Smith should be dragged around the circuit and forced to clarify his answers so all can see Frankfort Obamacrats have no real answers. Cross should let his nose for news overrule his heart for ObamaCare and stay on this story.

Please, Matt Bevin, take the lead on this.

How Matt Bevin can shut down the Kentucky Health Cooperative by himself by the end of 2015

Matt Bevin can and should immediately pledge to take a simple step to eliminate the insolvent Kentucky Health Cooperative before its failed business model hurts any more Kentuckians.

Among many disastrous provisions of ObamaCare was creation of "public option" non-profit cooperatives funded by enormous federal loans to compete with existing health insurance companies on an uneven playing field.

Federal regulation 45 CFR 156.520(a)(2) made clear that the intent of the "Affordable Care Act" was to work around state laws to rig up ways to help cooperatives avoid solvency requirements and show these federal loans as assets rather than what they obviously are -- liabilities. Kentucky's Insurance Code, long a porous mess for big-government activist regulators, gives an Insurance Commissioner extremely wide latitude in deeming an insurance company's liabilities as assets, consumers be damned.

If elected Governor, Bevin gets to appoint an Insurance Commissioner. His appointee could then deem Kentucky Health Cooperative's loans as liabilities and order the insolvent insurer to shut down immediately to protect consumers. Continuing to prop up the law with illegitimate executive orders and regulations serves only to delay real reform.

This is a great election issue because it exposes another ObamaCare fraud and puts Jack Conway in the position of assisting his political pals in defrauding consumers or angering his left-wing base.