State Treasurer Jonathan Miller said "There is no justification for the General Assembly to say '... we're going to break all these contracts with all these 8900 families.'"
The only problem with this is that no one in the General Assembly has said anything like this or done anything to jeopardize the KAPT contract holders, despite Miller's rhetoric.
That is why even the Louisville Courier Journal has called Miller's actions "grandstanding."
Meanwhile, you are still paying for his self-serving, money-wasting lawsuit.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Misquoted Two Days Ahead of Time?: Miller Blames Herald Leader For KAPT Misstatement
State Treasurer Jonathan Miller blamed the Lexington Herald Leader for a charge that he made against the state Senate in a March 1 press release that has been removed from his website and a March 2 guest blog on BluegrassRoots. Miller had stated that the Senate "raided" KAPT to build a practice gym for UK.
"I love UK basketball, but raiding a fund that holds the personal college savings of thousands of Kentucky families is inexcusable, unconstitutional, and immoral," Miller said.
Speaking on the Kentucky Focus program, he admitted he was wrong, but said it wasn't his fault.
"That was an incorrect statement ... we were basing that on a Herald Leader story that indicated that that was the case," Miller said.
That would be news to the good folks at Midland and Main, since they never mentioned the controversy until March 3.
-------------------------------------
CLARIFICATION: The last sentence of this post is incorrect. As an alert reader has pointed out, The Lexington Herald Leader did indeed mention the bonding project for the UK practice gym but didn't include the linkage to the KAPT program Miller asserted afterward (that is why my search didn't catch it). The mistake was my fault, though.
Interestingly, the article in question did clearly state that the $15 million was to be bonded and did not, as Miller stated repeatedly, involve General Fund cash from his program or any other.
"I love UK basketball, but raiding a fund that holds the personal college savings of thousands of Kentucky families is inexcusable, unconstitutional, and immoral," Miller said.
Speaking on the Kentucky Focus program, he admitted he was wrong, but said it wasn't his fault.
"That was an incorrect statement ... we were basing that on a Herald Leader story that indicated that that was the case," Miller said.
That would be news to the good folks at Midland and Main, since they never mentioned the controversy until March 3.
-------------------------------------
CLARIFICATION: The last sentence of this post is incorrect. As an alert reader has pointed out, The Lexington Herald Leader did indeed mention the bonding project for the UK practice gym but didn't include the linkage to the KAPT program Miller asserted afterward (that is why my search didn't catch it). The mistake was my fault, though.
Interestingly, the article in question did clearly state that the $15 million was to be bonded and did not, as Miller stated repeatedly, involve General Fund cash from his program or any other.
Friday, April 29, 2005
Congressional Budget '05 Foreshadowing of KY '08?
Both houses of Congress passed a budget late last night that includes spending restraint not seen from Capitol Hill in many years. Interestingly, the budget passed without a single Democrat vote.
Could this be a sneak peak at how Kentucky's budget process will go in 2008 with Republicans in the majority of the House and the Senate?
Could this be a sneak peak at how Kentucky's budget process will go in 2008 with Republicans in the majority of the House and the Senate?
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Liberals Can't Do Basic Math
State Treasurer Jonathan Miller and ABC News's George Stephanopolous have one very notable characteristic in common. Neither seems capable of telling the difference between a dollar that is an asset and one that is not.
Miller persists in his stupid claim that the money-losing KAPT scheme is backed up by more than $100 million in cash from liquidated unclaimed property. The reality of course is that there is no such money, no such fund, and the only surprise is that the mainstream media in Kentucky is so willfully blind to this simple truth. Perhaps they don't mind raising your taxes to fill the growing hole KAPT will require us to fill in future years. I do.
Stephanopolous looked like he was going to wet himself when he exclaimed, absurdly, that the President of the United States was "caught in a contradiction" by describing Social Security Trust Fund "dollars" as a filing cabinet full of IOU's and contending that personal accounts would include an option for nervous investors that would include all Treasury Bonds backed by the "full faith and credit of the USA." The difference is that the Social Security Trust Fund money has been spent (that makes it just like the KY unclaimed property "fund" if you are keeping score at home.) When money is gone, it can't honestly be counted as an asset. Surely they taught that to you at Harvard, Treasurer Miller. And it is a shame that Stephanopolous is too thick to see that President Bush just pulled the "gambling in the stock market" rug out from under the Democrats' feet. No doubt the New York Times and Washington Post slept through that one as well.
Democrats are mighty smug on this one right now. They had better hope that their electoral math is better than their financial math.
I'm so glad that President Bush mentioned that the GOP is clearly the party of ideas. Democrats are counting on ignorance in the voting public to stop their slide into oblivion. The numbers (as in the simple math) are on our side. We can only hope that the votes will be.
Miller persists in his stupid claim that the money-losing KAPT scheme is backed up by more than $100 million in cash from liquidated unclaimed property. The reality of course is that there is no such money, no such fund, and the only surprise is that the mainstream media in Kentucky is so willfully blind to this simple truth. Perhaps they don't mind raising your taxes to fill the growing hole KAPT will require us to fill in future years. I do.
Stephanopolous looked like he was going to wet himself when he exclaimed, absurdly, that the President of the United States was "caught in a contradiction" by describing Social Security Trust Fund "dollars" as a filing cabinet full of IOU's and contending that personal accounts would include an option for nervous investors that would include all Treasury Bonds backed by the "full faith and credit of the USA." The difference is that the Social Security Trust Fund money has been spent (that makes it just like the KY unclaimed property "fund" if you are keeping score at home.) When money is gone, it can't honestly be counted as an asset. Surely they taught that to you at Harvard, Treasurer Miller. And it is a shame that Stephanopolous is too thick to see that President Bush just pulled the "gambling in the stock market" rug out from under the Democrats' feet. No doubt the New York Times and Washington Post slept through that one as well.
Democrats are mighty smug on this one right now. They had better hope that their electoral math is better than their financial math.
I'm so glad that President Bush mentioned that the GOP is clearly the party of ideas. Democrats are counting on ignorance in the voting public to stop their slide into oblivion. The numbers (as in the simple math) are on our side. We can only hope that the votes will be.
Mongiardo Under Fire; Needs Miller To Count Money
Nice lightweight Sen. Daniel Mongiardo is now officially "the embattled Senator from Hazard" as his wind-aided campaign for the U.S. Senate has been shown to be bankrupt (or as Jonathan Miller would say "actuarially sound.")
Particularly funny in Ryan Alessi's story was Democrat state Chairman Jerry Lundergan's offer to do "anything we can," maybe even a fundraiser. After the failed John Edwards fundraiser from earlier this month, that may be tough.
Particularly funny in Ryan Alessi's story was Democrat state Chairman Jerry Lundergan's offer to do "anything we can," maybe even a fundraiser. After the failed John Edwards fundraiser from earlier this month, that may be tough.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Social Security Expert on Kentucky Progress Radio
Be sure to tune in this afternoon 5:15 pm to 6:15 pm to WEKY 1340 AM for my interview with Peter Ferrara, Director of the Social Security Project and author of the foremost conservative plan for Social Security reform.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Social Security: Cards on The Table
The Senate Finance Committee heard testimony on five different Social Security reform plans today. And ladies and gentlemen, we have one clear winner.
Two of the plans are tax increase non-starters that don't even include personal accounts. In fact both plans, by Peter Oszag of The Brookings Institution and Joan Entmacher of the National Women's Law Center spent all their time beating the same drum about how awful it would be to allow people to own their own Social Security only to finish up with a quick line about soaking the rich. You can read their plans here and here, if you must.
Two plans urge establishing personal accounts but fall short by advocating benefit cuts. Doing this just doesn't make any sense politically. Again, if you are as masochistic as you are ambitious, these two are here and here.
Only one plan shows an understanding of how personal accounts provide a better deal for workers and sustains the system permanently (and includes a neat wrinkle that calls for reduced government spending, which everyone claims to want). Peter Ferrara, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Innovation. This one is worth reading and the link is here.
The Social Security Trust Fund has as much money in it as Jonathan Miller's Unclaimed Property Fund. Zero. In 2018, (less than thirteen years away if you are keeping score) we will have to dig into other programs or raise taxes to meet current obligations of Social Security. If we do nothing, present law dictates that benefits be cut 28% when Social Security can't pay all its own obligations. The "there is no crisis" crowd can't be allowed to win this one.
It is time to engage.
Two of the plans are tax increase non-starters that don't even include personal accounts. In fact both plans, by Peter Oszag of The Brookings Institution and Joan Entmacher of the National Women's Law Center spent all their time beating the same drum about how awful it would be to allow people to own their own Social Security only to finish up with a quick line about soaking the rich. You can read their plans here and here, if you must.
Two plans urge establishing personal accounts but fall short by advocating benefit cuts. Doing this just doesn't make any sense politically. Again, if you are as masochistic as you are ambitious, these two are here and here.
Only one plan shows an understanding of how personal accounts provide a better deal for workers and sustains the system permanently (and includes a neat wrinkle that calls for reduced government spending, which everyone claims to want). Peter Ferrara, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Innovation. This one is worth reading and the link is here.
The Social Security Trust Fund has as much money in it as Jonathan Miller's Unclaimed Property Fund. Zero. In 2018, (less than thirteen years away if you are keeping score) we will have to dig into other programs or raise taxes to meet current obligations of Social Security. If we do nothing, present law dictates that benefits be cut 28% when Social Security can't pay all its own obligations. The "there is no crisis" crowd can't be allowed to win this one.
It is time to engage.
Social Security War Begins
The Senate Finance Committee begins work today on Social Security reform. Despite the questionable polling data, ranting editorials (forget the link, you know what I am talking about), and obstructing politicians (see Ben Chandler), the time to do the right thing has come.
Saving Social Security must include personal investment accounts. Otherwise we are just raising taxes or cutting benefits. We have already poured trillions into this rat hole. Let's at least look at ways to get better value. I haven't heard anything from the Democrats to lead me to believe that compromising on the accounts will do anything but make a flawed program worse.
Saving Social Security must include personal investment accounts. Otherwise we are just raising taxes or cutting benefits. We have already poured trillions into this rat hole. Let's at least look at ways to get better value. I haven't heard anything from the Democrats to lead me to believe that compromising on the accounts will do anything but make a flawed program worse.
Monday, April 25, 2005
2020 Democrats: Bush To Draft You Now, Starve You Later
A group of young liberals from Boston called 2020 Democrats connects their misunderstanding of Social Security to their continued confusion over the war on terror. The funny part is they lay it out in a talking points memo.
The group says President Bush "played those games with our generation once and wound up with a war and a potential draft" and "his (Social Security) plan would cost nearly $5 trillion over the first twenty years."
The "potential draft" quote relates to a long-since discredited late attempt by candidate John Kerry to scare young voters against supporting the President in the 2004 election. The $5 trillion "cost" represents the Social Security Trust Fund dollars that have been spent as off-budget money and will have to be replaced eventually whether Social Security investment accounts are set up or not. The cost is real, but the reason for the cost has nothing to do with personal accounts. These young "future leaders" in the liberal movement might need to have someone check their homework.
The group says President Bush "played those games with our generation once and wound up with a war and a potential draft" and "his (Social Security) plan would cost nearly $5 trillion over the first twenty years."
The "potential draft" quote relates to a long-since discredited late attempt by candidate John Kerry to scare young voters against supporting the President in the 2004 election. The $5 trillion "cost" represents the Social Security Trust Fund dollars that have been spent as off-budget money and will have to be replaced eventually whether Social Security investment accounts are set up or not. The cost is real, but the reason for the cost has nothing to do with personal accounts. These young "future leaders" in the liberal movement might need to have someone check their homework.
Rudolph: KY Needs To Stop Lagging With KAPT
Finance Cabinet Secretary Robbie Rudolph lays out the case for cutting our losses in the money-losing KAPT mess still championed by Treasurer Jonathan Miller, who seems to be happy to let Kentucky continue to lag behind West Virginia.
LA Times: All the Non-News That Fits
Here is a last ditch effort from the Left Coast to head off the GOP Senate effort to end filibusters of judicial nominees. The story is real (the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is afraid Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) will keep his promise to shut down the Senate), but rehashed only to stop the Senate Republicans from acting in support of President Bush's nominees.
I say since Joe Biden(D-DE) is calling for "compromise," the Republicans should go ahead with their plans and call Reid's bluff. Oh, and forget the compromise on this one.
I say since Joe Biden(D-DE) is calling for "compromise," the Republicans should go ahead with their plans and call Reid's bluff. Oh, and forget the compromise on this one.
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Pedophilia Scandal In Kentucky
Would you believe that Planned Parenthood is shielding Kentucky pedophiles from prosecution in the name of "privacy?"
Check back with Kentucky Progress this week for information about this disgusting criminal behavior.
Check back with Kentucky Progress this week for information about this disgusting criminal behavior.
Concede One Fact, Make Up Another?
"Now sure, a few workers may win big under the President's plan but all it takes is one poor investment and workers could lose everything," Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY) in a statement not reported by the media.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
The Number is Zero, Rep. Chandler
"Over the past few years we have seen a number of stock market disasters where individuals lost every penny of their retirement income on the stock market," said Ben Chandler (D-KY), in trying to scare constituents out of a common sense approach to investing (diversified index funds) and back into the pitiful returns of Social Security.
ChandlerWatch: Congressman Plays Head In Sand
"We can rely on the savings in the Social Security Trust Fund to continue payments (to beneficiaries). The program is not in crisis but in fact has enough saved to cover several generations without reform."
--Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY) making his case against fixing Social Security.
What Congressman Chandler doesn't want you to know is that the Social Security Trust Fund has no money in it. In fact, he has been vocal in his support for tax increases to address the Social Security shortfall despite his campaign promise in January 2004 not to ever support higher taxes if the voters of central Kentucky would send him to Iceland to serve as one of Nancy Pelosi's appointees to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Advocating tax increases makes sense for Chandler only in the sense that it would provide the revenue to paper over his "misstatement" quoted here.
--Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY) making his case against fixing Social Security.
What Congressman Chandler doesn't want you to know is that the Social Security Trust Fund has no money in it. In fact, he has been vocal in his support for tax increases to address the Social Security shortfall despite his campaign promise in January 2004 not to ever support higher taxes if the voters of central Kentucky would send him to Iceland to serve as one of Nancy Pelosi's appointees to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Advocating tax increases makes sense for Chandler only in the sense that it would provide the revenue to paper over his "misstatement" quoted here.
Friday, April 22, 2005
ABC Does It Again
On the heels of ABC's "GOP Leadership Talking Points" scandal, ABC's Chicago affiliate stepped in it when trying to make hay out of an innocuous, polite comment by retiring Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL).
During a wide-ranging interview in which Hyde and reporter Andy Shaw discussed Hyde's long career in Congress that will end next year, Shaw asked if the Clinton impeachment was "pay back" for Nixon.
What Rep. Hyde did not say was "You idiot, why would you ask such a stupid question? Some people may have thought that, but in Congress we just went on the facts of the case."
Instead he politely replied "I can't say it wasn't, but I also thought that the Republican party should stand for something, and if we walked away from this, no matter how difficult, we could be accused of shirking our duty, our responsibility."
In this way, Hyde made his best effort to diffuse that part of the conversation, ignoring the stupid question and allowing the interviewer to get back on track.
The funny thing is that the ABC7 Chicago website had a headline this morning that blared "Clinton Impeachment Was Retaliation For Nixon, Says Retiring Congressman." This was, of course, completely untrue.
At some point today, they pulled down the story, according to the Drudge Report. Now it is back up with the story re-written and the headline changed to "Rep. Hyde Reflects on 30 Years of Office."
I guess they were hoping no one would notice their effort to turn bad journalism into an embarrassment for a Republican.
During a wide-ranging interview in which Hyde and reporter Andy Shaw discussed Hyde's long career in Congress that will end next year, Shaw asked if the Clinton impeachment was "pay back" for Nixon.
What Rep. Hyde did not say was "You idiot, why would you ask such a stupid question? Some people may have thought that, but in Congress we just went on the facts of the case."
Instead he politely replied "I can't say it wasn't, but I also thought that the Republican party should stand for something, and if we walked away from this, no matter how difficult, we could be accused of shirking our duty, our responsibility."
In this way, Hyde made his best effort to diffuse that part of the conversation, ignoring the stupid question and allowing the interviewer to get back on track.
The funny thing is that the ABC7 Chicago website had a headline this morning that blared "Clinton Impeachment Was Retaliation For Nixon, Says Retiring Congressman." This was, of course, completely untrue.
At some point today, they pulled down the story, according to the Drudge Report. Now it is back up with the story re-written and the headline changed to "Rep. Hyde Reflects on 30 Years of Office."
I guess they were hoping no one would notice their effort to turn bad journalism into an embarrassment for a Republican.
Clear Channel Radio Takes The KAPT Challenge
Kudos to Caleb Brown, reporter at WHAS and the Kentucky News Network and host of the Sunday morning Kentucky Focus program. Mr. Brown will have Jonathan Miller and Kentucky Progress' David Adams on his show this weekend to investigate the KAPT scandal.
All we ask is that he look into Mr. Miller's bogus claim that there is $150 million in unclaimed funds backing up the money-losing KAPT program.
UPDATE: Caleb Brown seems to be asking the tough questions of both sides, those urging fiscal responsibility AND the State Treasurer. This story is set to take off next week.
All we ask is that he look into Mr. Miller's bogus claim that there is $150 million in unclaimed funds backing up the money-losing KAPT program.
UPDATE: Caleb Brown seems to be asking the tough questions of both sides, those urging fiscal responsibility AND the State Treasurer. This story is set to take off next week.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Rep. Hyde Comments Taken Out of Context
The MSM will be pretty worked up Friday about Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) saying that Clinton's impeachment was payback for Nixon. He didn't say it.
In a wide-ranging interview about his career in the House and after questions about the personal attacks that he took as House manager of the Impeachment proceedings, Hyde was asked if he thought Clinton was payback for Nixon.
He said "I can't say it wasn't, but I also thought that the Republican party should stand for something, and if we walked away from this, no matter how difficult, we could be accused of shirking our duty, our responsibility."
Hardly the announcement that it will probably be made out to be.
In a wide-ranging interview about his career in the House and after questions about the personal attacks that he took as House manager of the Impeachment proceedings, Hyde was asked if he thought Clinton was payback for Nixon.
He said "I can't say it wasn't, but I also thought that the Republican party should stand for something, and if we walked away from this, no matter how difficult, we could be accused of shirking our duty, our responsibility."
Hardly the announcement that it will probably be made out to be.
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