Frankfort Democrats try another tax increase today

Kentucky's House budget committee takes up HB 278 this morning, which would increase the minimum wage in Kentucky to $10.10 by July 1, 2018.

"This minimum wage tax increase hits consumers where it hurts by necessitating higher prices and is further evidence of the fact state government bureaucrats have no business trying to manage our economy," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "It's just more redistribution games from people who can't accept that the best thing for them to do is get out of the way."

Former election official casts pall over caucus

While other Republicans set about casting votes for president today, former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson took to Facebook to complain bitterly about heavy traffic at the polling location in his home Boone County.

"I am going to miss UK Senior game festivities and the opening tip because of the poor planning by the Boone County GOP in implementing this caucus," Grayson posted.

The really stupid thing about this is Grayson should have known that the caucus was squeezing 62 precincts of Boone County Republicans into one polling place today and if he had only planned ahead he would have had plenty of time to vote and get to all his "festivities."

Grayson's time working at Harvard after losing to Rand Paul in 2010 certainly didn't make him any smarter and -- if possible -- seems to have made him an even bigger crybaby than he was then. Grayson lost every single Boone County precinct in his U.S. Senate bid.

Authoritarian Trump natural heir to Obama

Whether you like Donald Trump or not, it seems clear his appeal is rooted in a belief that he will make things better in America by force. After eight years of Americans being forced to accept a radical dumbing down of public education, massive redistribution of resources through taxation and excessive accumulation of federal debt, a hostile takeover of the healthcare system and foreign policy disasters rammed down our throats in the name of keeping us "safe," can it surprise anyone that the most political energy in America now is coalescing around a figure who wants to "Make America Great Again" by running roughshod over critics, doubters and opponents?

Republican establishmentarians deserve blame for feathering their own nests at the expense of effectively combating Obama in the marketplace of ideas and allowing authoritarianism to flourish, but it's the same failed urge for a shortcut that inspired millions to welcome "Hope and Change" by any means necessary which now seems to generate no curiosity about how exactly we are going to make things "Great."

Trump's primary opponents have failed to pin Trump down with the simple question: How? Hillary Clinton made the same mistake in 2008. Don't expect her to repeat that failure.

America desperately needs a president who will voluntarily limit the power of his or her office to its constitutional boundaries and fight to end government's fantasies about managing our economy whether through currency manipulation, industry regulation or subsidization. America desperately needs a president who will champion state and local experimentation with education policy and social welfare. America desperately needs a president who understands national defense doesn't begin with groping grandmothers in airports and doesn't end with bombing people who fire back missiles purchased by proceeds from our own multi-billion dollar aid checks.

Time grows short.

Are we dropping the ball on Kentucky Caucus?

The Kentucky Republican presidential caucus will be held on Saturday, March 5 between 10 am and 4 pm. Way too many registered GOP voters don't even know that.

You can find your polling place by clicking here.

Any questions?

Kratom ban in Kentucky will worsen heroin

For all the billions of dollars government spends attempting to fight "drugs," you might think by now we would know better than allowing politicians to manage any part of the issue much less ban anything else.

"People across Kentucky are using a mild, natural product called kratom to step down from heroin addiction while Senate Bill 136 would ban kratom and throw people in jail for using it," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "If this stupid bill becomes law, heroin deaths will only increase. Politician tossing should be a sport."

Beshear: Conway was terrible, Stumbo worse

Gov. Steve Beshear's message in a Lexington press conference today was supposed to be about getting Matt Bevin to turn his back on the half million people who believed his campaign promises about undoing ObamaCare damage in Kentucky, but it didn't work out that way.

Beshear spoke to a half dozen nodding supporters at the Hyatt Regency hotel with a somber Crit Luallen and an utterly miserable-looking Audrey Tayse Haynes nearby. He told them ObamaCare is not a disaster. They looked like they really wanted to believe him.

"The picture of Beshear's Magical Misery Tour says a thousand words about what's left of Kentucky's Democratic Party in the wake of Obama and ObamaCare," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Beshear's effort here serves as an admission that the proper forum for this discussion, Jack Conway's gubernatorial campaign, was a huge failure and that Speaker Greg Stumbo's evaporating House majority is even less equipped to make a case for ObamaCare when reality is too clearly in opposition."

Anti-7th Amendment bill walks like gun control

Senate Bill 6 in Kentucky's 2016 General Assembly would force an innocent person harmed by medical error or negligence to go through a tangled mess of red tape taking a year or more before being allowed to seek reimbursement for losses, in violation of the 7th Amendment of the Kentucky Constitution and Section 7 of Kentucky's Constitution.

"There is nothing in Senate Bill 6 which protects consumers or lowers healthcare costs and the idea of asking a panel of doctors if you can hold another doctor who hurts you responsible is like asking Nancy Pelosi if you can buy a gun," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.

Appreciating Rand Paul's efforts on race relations

Senator Rand Paul deserves to be congratulated for his efforts in the presidential race to improve race relations in America and we should carry on his fight, 30th district Kentucky House candidate Waymen Eddings said.

"The divide between people of different races comes down to lack of communication and we need to continue talking to bring people together," Eddings said. "Freedom for all still needs to be won and we can not afford to ignore Senator Paul's color blind message of putting the individual first in the 21st Century."

ObamaCare takes next step down

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield took another big step toward dumping its Kentucky ObamaCare customers today, announcing they are practically eliminating insurance agent commissions on their health plans.

"With today's action, we get one step closer to the planned total destruction of health insurance in America and the time when ObamaCare and total government control of healthcare mean the same thing," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Customer service at health insurance companies was already bad enough, but this is a huge nail in the coffin."

"Bad Doctors Gone Wild" bill SB6

Whether through negligence or sheer incompetence, a tiny fraction of Kentucky doctors account for most medical malpractice lawsuits each year. Senate Bill 6 would essentially eliminate the ability to sue for a malpractice by encouraging doctors to obligate any patients so harmed to skip court and rely on "binding arbitration."

"This is the legal equivalent of throwing the baby out with the bathwater," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The Kentucky and U.S. Constitutions guarantee a plaintiff's ability to sue for losses caused by another person and once in a while someone may try to abuse that right, but we can't pretend that gumming up the works and delaying or preventing a legitimate day in court does anything but make that worse. Senate Bill 6 must be withdrawn or defeated."

Louisville House candidate defends gun owners

Attacking innocent Kentuckians' right to bear arms is the standard politician's answer to inner city crime and violence, but it doesn't work, 30th district House candidate Waymen Eddings said.

"My opponent, Rep. Tom Burch, has a 21% rating from the National Rifle Association, but his being an opponent of self-defense rights has not made anyone safer and only makes crime worse," Eddings said. "Working to improve public safety while also protecting individual rights will always be my top priority."

"Criminals are not known to comply with KRS statutes so then my opponent's approach simply imposes even more restrictions on my law abiding neighbors in Louisville. Gun control is a bureaucratic gesture, not a solution. So, I intend on engaging the community to find the true answers. These answers will be responsive to the unique dynamics of violent conflict in an urban environment while not penalizing the lawful citizen for the actions of the criminal element."

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."