Will Matt Bevin abuse 7th Amendment?

Gov. Matt Bevin has said many times he supports using tort reform to lower healthcare costs, but if you want evidence that limiting medical malpractice jury awards does that, prepare to be disappointed. Such evidence just doesn't exist.

"Tort reform is politician-speak for 'I don't know what to do, let's just kill some lawyers,'" Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "It's a well-worn Republican buzzword, but tort reform not only runs afoul of the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Section 7 of the Kentucky Constitution, it simply fails to deliver what its advocates promise. In fact, as ObamaCare blew up healthcare for everyone while trying to fix it for a few, tort reform threatens to do the same thing to a citizen's right to seek redress in court."

"Gov. Bevin should speak clearly about his vision of tort reform without delay and that includes the bad idea in the legislature to force injured parties to go before a medical review panel in Senate Bill 6, which will only hurt consumers."

New York Times' Kentucky accounting failure

The editorial page of the New York Times ran an odd article trying to persuade Gov. Matt Bevin to give up his top campaign promise of reversing Kentucky's illegal adventure in ObamaCare implementation by demanding we return $290 million in federal ObamaCare grants. The Times is as ignorant of basic accounting as they are of their precious ObamaCare law and Kentucky's experience with it.

"Gov. Bevin has already documented we spent $58,341,000 in federal funds on our ObamaCare exchange last year when we weren't supposed to have any according to the law and in excess of the $19,916,000 we supposedly had left over from Obama's $253 million in establishment grants, so if they now want back all the establishment grants for the failed exchange which no one else has had to return and the law doesn't require returning plus $38,398,000 the law specifically prohibits the feds from sending to us, the response they deserve is to drop dead," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.

KY Health Cooperative customers with unpaid claims were screwed long ago

The Associated Press ran a silly article over the weekend claiming the defunct Kentucky Health Cooperative is "selling assets" to "satisfy its debts." The AP should make clear, but doesn't, that the only debts that will be satisfied are federal loans and Kentuckians' unpaid claims don't make the cut.

The Cooperative reported $176.2 million in losses in 2014 alone, before losing even more money in 2015. It was created and maintained with $123.8 million in federal loans. That means unless they bought a bunch of office furniture which is now somehow worth more than $50 million more than they paid for it, any remaining unpaid claims cannot possibly be paid by "selling assets."

"If Kentucky officials had listened to me last summer, they could have ended the Cooperative charade before any more innocent Kentuckians were harmed by this ObamaCare nonsense," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Buying ObamaCare insurance remains a crapshoot and is not worth the risk."

Failing to cut Kynect ten year cost: $250 million

Frankfort Corruptocrats claim now the cost to shut down the state ObamaCare creation "Kynect" bureaucracy -- and web site! -- will cost $23 million and say this is why we should not cut the cord. Fortunately, we have learned Kynect's Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange busted it's budget last year alone by $27 million.

"Obamacrats -- or whatever they are calling themselves these days -- continue to depend on the media not telling you both sides of the story and this is a perfect example of the disconnect between their government takeover fantasies and the people they need to fool," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "If we take their numbers at face value, it looks like we save four million the first year and about a quarter billion in the first decade without Kynect."

Top Democrat blames bad economy on Rand Paul

America's labor participation rate is now as low as it was in the worst of Jimmy Carter's malaise and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wants to pin that on Rand Paul's effort to audit the Federal Reserve Bank.

"Republicans have been trying to undermine the Federal Reserve mandate to strive for full employment," Reid said today after leading the effort to defeat Sen. Paul's bill which would have brought needed oversight to Fed activities.

The Federal Reserve operates under two main congressional mandates, maximizing employment and maintaining stable prices. It is not particularly good at either, but the idea that monetary policy can or even should be charged with creating jobs is absurd.

"Big Government types in Washington D.C. melt when you throw water on them and Rand Paul soaks them every time they cackle," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.

Moore: Guns, more safety

Elizabethtown Rep. Tim Moore filed HB 221 yesterday to allow concealed carry permit holders to be armed on public school property in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The bill would also allow concealed carry permit holders to carry weapons into state and local government facilities except courtrooms and detention centers and to carry into meetings of the General Assembly.

The same people who are losing their minds over ObamaCare melting down will lose their minds over this. Good.

"Gun free zones are not consistent with the need to protect our children in the real world because every loose nut knows when they see that sign they will meet next to no resistance," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Our schools and government buildings are infested enough with leftist ideology but now Kentuckians are ready to start pushing back hard."

Bevin: Kentucky ObamaCare exchange busted 2015 budget by 78 percent

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin's administration's latest financial report divulged without comment that former Governor Steve Beshear's last fiscal year in office featured nearly twice as much spending as budgeted to keep his very controversial ObamaCare bureaucracy afloat.

Despite his illegal creation of the exchange and the legislature explicitly forbidding him from spending state funds on the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange and refusing his attempt to create a tax to fund it, Beshear said he would run the exchange on less than $33,937,400. According to information compiled by Bevin, Beshear spent $60,524,000, which is 78 percent above the budgeted amount.

This same report also showed Beshear's falsely claimed budget surplus was actually a deficit of $603 million.

"This is another Obama fraud which shouldn't have been possible," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Federal funds for state-run exchanges dried up in 2014 and were not legally permitted past then under the ACA. Gov. Bevin can end this charade by shutting down the Kentucky exchange without further delay."

Bevin is currently a defendant in a Court of Appeals case, 13-CA-1590, which would force the exchange to be disbanded.

Let's get Kentucky out of Common Core

Project Veritas, the people who uncovered Planned Parenthood's gruesome flesh peddling enterprise, plan to release video next week exposing Obama's federal education takeover, Common Core.

Kentucky's General Assembly should move quickly to start dismantling the Common Core scheme here without further delay.

"One of the big lies out of Frankfort is that Senate Bill 1 of 2009 mandated acceptance of Common Core, but if you read the bill you know that isn't true," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "We need to put this embarrassing chapter behind us now, before it gets any worse."

Frankfort Obamacrats start 2016 off predictably

If you need to pull up Kentucky's ObamaCare web site today to buy health insurance, you are out of luck.

And, of course, since it's a holiday the advice to call customer service is no good either.

"Kentucky's disastrous dalliance with ObamaCare can't end soon enough," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The only voices they have left are Steve Beshear on his Twitter page and Greg Stumbo barking about elephants in Bethlehem. Let's put them out of our misery soon, please."

Matt Bevin, tear down that CON

The web site for Kentucky's Certificate of Need program still proclaims staggering economic illiteracy to the world and Governor Bevin should take quick action to fix it.

The site currently reads as follows: "The Kentucky certificate of need process prevents the proliferation of health care facilities, health services and major medical equipment that increase the cost of quality health care in the commonwealth."

If proliferation of goods or services increased costs, every Economics textbook would be wrong. Providers of goods and services expanding offerings always benefits consumers because competition drives up quality and drives down cost. Politicians often pretend not to understand this when limiting such offerings can increase their own power. Such is the case with "certificate of need."

Governor Bevin should move quickly to end Kentucky's Certificate of Need program. He can start by reorganizing it with an executive order amending KRS 216B.115. That statute requires all appeals of Certificate of Need rulings to be taken to Frankfort and heard in the Franklin Circuit Court. Those judges have no better information about the healthcare needs in other parts of the state than Circuit Court judges in the counties harmed by a Certificate of Need power grab.

Bevin could make this change himself and then any resistance to quick ratification in the General Assembly could be presented to voters as politicians fighting to limit local healthcare offerings.

"Getting government out of healthcare in Kentucky starts with dismantling the certificate of need program and letting medical professionals and consumers decide what services are available," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "There is no reason for Gov. Bevin not to take quick action to right this wrong."

Bevin reverses Beshear child safety scam

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's administration is literally covered up with repairing damage Steve Beshear left, including a plot to combine two of Beshear's most controversial messes.

Had Jack Conway been elected Governor, an effort to embed online operations of Kentucky's corrupt child safety bureaucracy into Kentucky's ObamaCare web site would quickly have been consummated as internal efforts were well underway. Gov. Bevin reversed it.

"Running DCBS (Department for Community Based Services) through Kynect would have made the worst of both programs harder to fix or eliminate," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "This is further proof we got the Beshear/Conway tag team out of there just in the nick of time."

Bevin has made fixing DCBS and eliminating Kynect two of his highest priorities.

Not a typo: Kentucky government "net worth" dropped $24 billion last year

A new financial report issued today by the Bevin administration shows Kentucky state government's net financial position dropped from just over $10 billion in 2014 to just over negative $14 billion in 2015. The difference is largely a result of honestly accounting for unfunded pension liabilities for the first time.

The prior seven years under former Gov. Steve Beshear saw government's reported net position drop steadily from a high of $16.2 billion in 2008 to $10.057 in 2014, but those numbers concealed the pension wreckage in a document called Kentucky's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).

The Bevin CAFR also revealed state revenues for the fiscal year ending in June were at an all-time high, but that spending was even higher which resulted in a real deficit of $603 million, despite earlier official claims to the contrary.

"Trust in government depends on honest accounting, which didn't happen much under Beshear's smoke and mirrors regime," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Cutting back Beshear's excess starts with eliminating Beshear's deceptions."

Chris McDaniel seeks distance from pension scandal

Kentucky state Senator Chris McDaniel, who got burned in the GOP gubernatorial primary when his running mate couldn't explain voting himself a huge pension increase, wants to increase transparency of legislative pensions in 2016.

Senate Bill 45 in 2016 would require public disclosure of pension benefit information for current and future state legislators, which includes those who have taken advantage of Kentucky's corrupt pension enhancement for legislators who get high-paying state government jobs.

"This embarrassing chapter in Kentucky corruption deserves more attention and more political casualties that we have seen so far," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Anyone who voted for HB 299 in 2005 should be run out of government without further delay."

Bevin finds Kynect in stunning disarray

State sources report barely one in three victims of the Kentucky Health Cooperative train wreck have signed up for a new ObamaCare plan as of last Friday. With less than a week before the deadline for January 1 coverage, the expected 2016 collapse of ObamaCare could well still happen in 2015.

More than 51,000 people lost insurance coverage with the grossly mismanaged "cooperative" earlier this year when its closure was announced. As of last Friday, only 19,000 of their 51,000 ObamaCare victims had signed up for another plan.

"The sound rejection of ObamaCare is surprising only to the reporters and left-wing pundits who have gotten nearly every twist and turn of this saga wrong," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "We just filed a motion last Friday with the Kentucky Court of Appeals to reverse earlier attempts to illegally create the ObamaCare exchange and the Bevin administration should move quickly so we can start the long process of digging out of the mess."

Steve Beshear to soon stop lying about state budget

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear will leave office next week, so the state budget process for next year is very likely to consist of less smoke and fewer mirrors.

"Beshear claims to have balanced the budget fifteen times in eight years, while in the real world Kentucky has gone deeper into debt while blowing through record revenues and a long-since wasted $3.7 billion in federal stimulus funds," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "State law requires the governor make available a comprehensive annual financial report each fall which Beshear has always released quietly the week after Christmas. I hope Governor Bevin makes breaking that little tradition an immediate priority."

Beshear can't amend Constitution by himself for felons or anyone else

Governor Steve Beshear's executive order granting convicted felons voting rights and the right to run for office violates Kentucky's Constitution in the plain language of Section 77, so he should rescind the order immediately.

"Beshear has the right as governor to pardon felons individually when they apply for reinstatement of their civil rights and Section 77 requires that the applications for each case be kept as public records forever, but Beshear takes it upon himself to strike the application process from the Constitution," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "If we allow this usurpation of power to stand, what's to stop this or any other governor from striking other words from the Constitution, like the right to bear arms or an individual's property rights?"

Since Governor Beshear clearly can't be counted on to do the right thing, Governor-elect Matt Bevin should make clear his intention to rescind Executive Order 2015-0871 on his first day in office. The regular constitutional amendment process can then be followed by the legislature if they so choose.

Steve Beshear to challenge Rand Paul

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear plans to announce in early January a run for the United States Senate against Rand Paul. The hope appears to be that his shameless profligacy might draw millions of dollars in leftist donations from around the country.

"Beshear gave us billions in new appropriation-supported debt, billions more in pension debt, signed us up for the Common Core fiasco and ObamaCare so he now wants to put on his diaper and a onesie and go to Washington D.C.," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "It would be a lot cheaper to let him have a pajama party at the Governor's Mansion this weekend with President Obama, Harry Reid and whoever else he wants to have over."

"Minimum wage" is Left's new ObamaCare

Kentucky Democrats just got their heads handed to them in statewide elections while waiting for 500,000 ObamaCare "beneficiaries" to storm the ballot box for their candidates. The same level of self-delusion is evident in their "minimum wage increase" strategy.

The line of thinking goes like this: unskilled workers will forever vote for left-wing politicians who force evil employers to overpay them for unskilled work. What could possibly go wrong with this plan?

The small number of sick people who have benefited from government forcing health insurers to charge their customers premiums as if they were all sick people was dwarfed by the number of people forced to pay. Similarly, when prices go up on everything because the cost of sweeping floors and taking out trash is raised by government force, the relative handful of unskilled workers who don't realize their prices went up too will be far too few in number to elect the next round of left-wing politicians.

Louisville's Metro government is already in court trying to explain how their minimum wage tax increase makes sense legally. Lexington's Council is expected to vote on their own such increase Thursday night.

The vote looks to be a close one, but Council members Richard Moloney, Shevawn Akers and Susan Lamb probably have the most to lose if Lexington's Minimum Wage Tax Increase becomes a reality.

Save taxpayers, kill Herald Leader subscriptions

All state and local government offices should hit the delete key on subscriptions to the Lexington Herald Leader.

"Any state office you walk into in Frankfort or around the state has fresh copies of the dead tree version of both the Herald Leader and the Courier Journal laying around at massive expense to taxpayers," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "We are spending way too much money each day for something anyone who can clear cookies off their computer can get for free and now is the perfect time to cut this waste."

Frankfort Obamacrats want their big win forgotten

In June of this year, the United States Supreme Court rewrote ObamaCare to allow the IRS to give tax dollar subsidies to people who bought health policies on the federal exchange after authorities realized their attempt to force states to set up their own exchanges had failed. Now that Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear is watching his failed legacy about to be reversed by Governor-elect Matt Bevin, he wants Kentuckians to forget that win.

From their luxurious retail locations at Fayette Mall and Mall St. Matthews, Frankfort Obamacrats hope to catch consumers and voters alike unaware by claiming falsely that ObamaCare "discounts" are only available on Kynect, despite the five month old ruling they fought so hard for which validated their position that subsidies also flow through the federal exchange.

"Frankfort Democrats can't get their story straight and clearly haven't learned any lessons from their failed election strategy of lies in 2015," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Surely Greg Stumbo's 'Democrat Jesus' wouldn't condone their actions."