Don't let ObamaCare waiver day pass unnoticed

This Thursday, September 22, is the federally imposed deadline to apply for any kind of exemption from ObamaCare.

You very likely won't be getting one. Nevertheless, we should recognize the day as it approaches and when it hits because the enormity of the negative impact ObamaCare will have on our nation can't be overemphasized.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the federal takeover of our healthcare system next fall. If that effort fails to rescue us from the expansion of socialized medicine, then we can expect to see state Medicaid programs going under pretty quickly in 2014, followed by individual and employer-provided plans.

The idea that we can regulate health insurance at the federal or state level in such a way that does anything but raise prices and lower quality of service, needs to pass quickly from the public debate. It's a form of insanity we can no longer afford. Enforcing freely written insurance contracts in courts of law should be the extent to which government is involved in health care.

Obama channels Carter's solar flair

Barack Obama was supposed to usher in a new era of widespread prosperity and trust for America. Just like Jimmy Carter thirty years before him.

Noticing some of recent commentary on Carter's infamous "malaise" speech, particularly some stating that it wasn't all that bad, I went back and read the text. And I have to admit, it isn't all that bad, compared to Obama. What jumped out at me, though, was the same idea that if we just raise taxes and spend it on pie-in-the-sky everything will be fine.

Carter said on July 15, 1979:

"I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000."

"These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans. These funds will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment."

Incidentally, Carter got his windfall profits tax. Take a look at how that worked out for us by clicking here.

Keep this in mind as Obama continues to push for tax increases and as his solar scandal heats up.

Is Snooki coming to Kentucky?

There's a hilarious story out of New Jersey today about bipartisan disgust for "reality tv" stars The Situation and Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and their television show "Jersey Shore" getting $420,000 in film tax credits from the state of New Jersey.

"The governor needs to step up for decency and veto this. If the show wants to go somewhere else, let 'em," said state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), who said it includes negative stereotypes of young Italian-Americans.

"Let us just hope against hope that New Jersey taxpayers don’t end up paying for 'Snooki's' bail the next time she is arrested. What a terrible, terrible and misguided waste." said State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen).

Meanwhile, Kentucky politicians are scrambling to throw taxpayer dollars at just such a project.

From the August Kentucky Film Office newsletter:

"In addition, requests for location, crew and operational needs from the industry have jumped 71 percent in the past year. This increase is due, in large part, to the explosion in outdoor reality and “survivor” type programming in television, which has allowed us to positively showcase our terrain, natural resources and cave areas."

Now would be a great time to start talking about shutting down this ridiculous form of "economic development."

Repeal of "politicians' best friend" bill filed

Rep. Joe Fischer pre-filed a bill Wednesday to prevent local government entities from abusing taxpayers with massive annual tax increases exploiting a loophole written into the "compensating rate" property tax increase law.

This is another perfect Tea Party issue. Please encourage your legislator to support what will be House Bill 48 in the 2012 General Assembly.

Boone County PVA Cindy Arlinghaus deserves a tremendous amount of credit for discovering how this loophole works and blowing the whistle on it.

Comer crushing opponent on YouTube

Kentucky's Republican Agriculture Commissioner candidate James Comer is winning on YouTube, big time. His experience in agriculture gives him a good chance in this race against an unqualified opponent.

Republican party cutting itself in half

The proposed Republican Party of Kentucky rule change to exclude people who didn't support the party's nominees doesn't go back four years as reported last week; it only applies to the current and previous year.

Since the GOP re-organization elections are in early 2012, those who will be excluded from party leadership are people who didn't support GOP nominees in 2011.

This is about purging the party of anyone who opposed Republican nominees in 2011. Latest polling suggests barely half of Republicans support gubernatorial nominee David Williams.

The Republican State Central Committee will meet this Saturday, September 17, 2011 and vote to confirm this proposed rule change, effectively cutting itself in half. If you oppose that idea, please plan on coming to Frankfort at 10:30 am on Saturday to the Best Western Parkside Inn, 80 Chenault Rd, Frankfort, KY. The meeting starts at 11:00 am.

Another retirement plan for state legislators?

Rep. Jim Wayne pre-filed a bill Friday afternoon to create taxpayer financing of judicial races in Kentucky. The bill leaves it up to the Registry of Election Finance to determine which candidates are worthy of access to your money to seek office as a judge.

Under Kentucky law, legislators get a huge boost to their state pensions when they gain a higher paying full time job in state government. Kentucky's candidates for Attorney General should be asked what they think about this idea.

RPK cuts off its nose to spite its face

Kentucky Knows Best PAC has been battling some members of Kentucky's GOP establishment in recent months to stop them from excluding tea party members from Republican party leadership. Finding out about their shenanigans and shutting them down one at a time has been an interesting experience.

Today, RPK has jumped the shark.

According to a media report, the Republican Party of Kentucky has changed their rules to exclude from leadership anyone who has endorsed or financially supported in the prior four years a candidate who is not a Republican.

Two words: Bob Leeper.

Republican leadership voted just last year to endorse and support the Independent from Paducah who currently serves as budget chairman in the state Senate.

RPK leadership just excluded from positions in party leadership themselves and their gubernatorial nominee, Senate President David Williams.

Sheriff Mack coming to Georgetown Kentucky

Champion of the U.S. Constitution Sheriff Richard Mack will speak in Georgetown Kentucky at 7pm ET on September 21.

He will appear at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 201 Wellington Way in Georgetown.

John Kemper: stop money-losing debt restructuring

Frankfort debt restructuring over the last four years has encouraged overspending and will cost Kentucky taxpayers hundreds of millons of dollars for what amounts to an accounting stunt, Republican candidate for state Auditor John Kemper said.


"Looking at the numbers, they are claiming $427 million in cash flow savings from debt restructuring over fiscal years 2009 to 2012 and then there is a real loss of $600 million over the next seventeen years just to make the budget look balanced while Steve Beshear has been governor," Kemper said. "Problems like this inspire me to run for auditor. If I am elected I will work to stop any debt restructuring that loses Kentuckians' money like this."

Kentucky casino bills filed today

Kentucky Republican state Rep. Michael Nemes has filed a casino bill and a constitutional amendment allowing counties to decide if they get either a full casino or slots at racetracks.

The measures pre-filed today (here and here) would create a Kentucky Gaming Commission and taxing schemes of 21% of gambling revenues to the state and a $3 per person admission fee for casinos, of which 2/3 would go to the state and 1/3 to the county or counties in which the casino is situated.

The bill contains no provisions to prevent the state from overcommitting projected casino revenues, which will ultimately be what makes this whole idea a loser for Kentucky if it passes.

How is this NOT news?

It has been a week since the Beshear administration responded to complaints about a state debt web site not being updated in three years by pulling down the link to the site.

Beshear's Republican opponent Senate President David Williams, who voted for every dime of our quickly accumulating debt, has failed to mention Beshear's aggressive lack of transparency on this issue.

State bonded debt has increased by three billion dollars under Beshear. Federal stimulus funds to Kentucky totalled $3.4 billion. We owe almost a billion more in unemployment funds. Revenues went down, but not this much. And Beshear is running for re-election as a good steward of state finances.

Kentucky's state debt is a huge news story and Kentucky's media is missing it. Worse, they are missing it because neither candidate for governor is talking about it.

What am I missing here?

Rep. Jim Wayne wants to eat your "puny" county

Be on the lookout for a new line of attack against the Tea Party: liberals who praise and agree with us.

At the end of a recent CN2 interview, Rep. Wayne was asked about the Tea Party.

"I think the Tea Party -- we need to listen to them. And the reason we need to listen to them is because we not only have a tax problem in this state, we have a spending problem in this state and that's where the Tea Party can help us."

Sounds good, right? Two problems though. Wayne represents the far left wing of the legislature and when he talks about a tax problem, he means they aren't high enough. But when he starts talking about a spending problem is when it really gets dicey.

Wayne then made a case for cutting government spending by consolidating counties because of all the money spent on courthouses and "multiple sheriffs and county judges and magistrates and everything that are all going to get pensions and all going to get salaries and all going to get health insurance and so on and so forth."

While there is no excuse for all the money spent on palatial courthouses in recent years, which Wayne voted for building, by the way, and the idea of shrinking government by consolidating some bureaucracies makes sense, eliminating elective offices makes government bigger and further removed from the people being represented.

Imagine your county being merged with another, larger county and all your local representatives being eliminated. In subsequent elections, with most if not all successful candidates for local office coming from the more populous area of the new, larger county, where do you think their attention will tend to be directed?

The far left is trying to seduce the Tea Party with their talk of smaller government, but what they are offering is fewer, larger governments with less representation and more distance between elected officials and their employers. Don't buy their snake oil.

Kemper catches Steve Beshear erasing web page

Governor Steve Beshear has made state finances less transparent to Kentuckians by hiding the one statistic telling the whole story about our fiscal situation, state Auditor candidate John Kemper said.

"Kentucky is billions of dollars deeper in debt than we were when Beshear came into office, but you have to be an archaeologist to find exactly how much," Kemper said. "We complained that his administration hadn't updated the page showing state bonded debt and the response today apparently was to pull down the link altogether. An independent auditor would shed light on this and since my opponent owes his political career to Beshear, I'm doing it. Governor Beshear should post our debt figures where they are easy to find or explain why he doesn't want to."

Thank you Oregon and North Carolina!

Kentucky had the third highest state gasoline tax increase in the country in 2011.

Only seven states increased gas taxes on their citizens this year.

Todd P'Pool case shines light on bad law

A Kentucky Knows Best email yesterday about the poorly written state law being used against Attorney General candidate Todd P'Pool stirred up some interesting information.

Republican Todd P'Pool is being hounded by Jack Conway using a law Governor Steve Beshear wrote thirty seven years ago and that the Kentucky Supreme Court found unconstitutional ten years ago.

Now is a great time to go through Kentucky's campaign finance laws to justify what we can (which won't be much) and throw out the rest.

Thanks to Marcus Carey for the heads up on the Supreme Court case.

Repeal KRS 121.310 for P'Pool and Conway

Both the Lexington Herald Leader and Louisville Courier Journal reported this week on supporters of Kentucky Attorney General candidate Todd P'Pool facing felony convictions for talking about their candidate and his opponent Attorney General Jack Conway.

The news stories are here and here.

At issue is KRS 121.310, which appears as follows in Kentucky law:


The law is so sloppy and imprecise it should be repealed. To do otherwise is to allow an unconstitutional prosecution of speech while empowering government to make up the rules as it goes along.

First, the law doesn't necessarily restrict only employers. By stating "no person shall" without defining person, much less specifying employers as a target, the law could mean to inhibit anyone from talking to someone who has a job. Then, we could interpret "coerce or direct any employee" to mean "tell any employee." Worst of all, the rest of paragraph (1) could easily apply to wearing a t-shirt or possessing a political bumper sticker or flyer.

And paragraph (2) is worse.

Todd P'Pool's supporters shouldn't face felony convictions under this ridiculous statute and Jack Conway's shouldn't either, which they clearly and easily could if Republicans sought to make the point. Repealing this nonsense makes sense for all Kentuckians.

Lexington taxpayers to get blindsided in September

A jury trial scheduled for September 26 in Jessamine Circuit Court will rock Fayette County taxpayers and shake up Lexington's political scene.

John Vest vs. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, originally filed in 2007, resulted from official mishandling and cover-up associated with multiple cases of civil rights violations at the Fayette County Detention Center.

Former mayors Teresa Isaac and Jim Newberry were directly involved in the mishandling and cover-up.

Vest was the FBI's informant whose testimony sparked an October 2006 raid by dozens of federal agents to the Lexington jail. Vest's only request was to be transferred to another city job with immediate supervisors who might be less likely to try to kill him.

Had Vest simply been transferred, much of this would have just gone away. In fact, rumors are circulating of both Isaac and Newberry eyeing a rematch with Mayor Jim Gray. But they may have to reconsider after Lexington taxpayers finish writing a multi-million dollar check to Vest due to official misconduct by these incompetent politicians.

Frankfort finds its hurricane

Earlier this year, Frankfort politicians agreed to "balance" Kentucky's Medicaid budget by borrowing $166 million in 2012 funds to spend in 2011.

They also set out to save money in 2012 and beyond by switching to a managed care system. Of course, they are attempting to do this without reducing the state government Medicaid workforce.

Perhaps an early indication of how things are going so far comes today with news that Kentucky's Medicaid Managed Care Hotline is backed up and excess calls are being routed to Pennsylvania, where they can't be answered due to complications related to Hurricane Irene.

Just pointing this out

The top issue in America right now is jobs and the role government has played in messing up the economy by taxing too much, spending too much and building up its own power at the expense of the people.

The failure of Gov. Steve Beshear's opponent to credibly differentiate himself on these issues surely has a lot to do with the fact that Intrade.com gives him just about a zero percent chance of winning in November.

If you really disagree, of course, you should probably call Intrade.

Is it the Kentucky typo tax?

Kentucky Auditor candidate John Kemper pointed out something odd about the record-high deposit to the state's rainy day fund a month ago: it's illegal.

"Kentucky state law prohibits putting more than half of an annual surplus into the budget reserve trust fund, also known as the rainy day fund," Kemper said. "A change in the law in 2010 allows the governor to spend all the rainy day money without the General Assembly's permission for the rest of this fiscal year. Our legislators are going to have to be more careful controlling spending in the next budget."

Budget officials in Frankfort said this morning that the legislature changed the law in the 2010 special session to allow Beshear to put more than half of the $156.8 million "surplus" into the rainy day fund. But HB 1 didn't notwithstand KRS 48.705. Instead, it temporarily rescinded KRS 48.700.

Big difference.

We will never know for sure who mixed up the numbers of the two statutes, but by notwithstanding KRS 48.700, the legislature allows Beshear to spend all of the $121 million in the rainy day fund without the permission of the General Assembly.

Giving Beshear control over that much money is not a great idea and something at least some members of the legislature claim to oppose doing. If Beshear misappropriates any part of that money, we should call it the Kentucky typo tax.

Tea Party stops local tax increase; more coming

Kentucky Auditor candidate John Kemper congratulated the McCracken County Board of Education on Friday for rejecting a property tax increase and he encouraged other boards and local governments across the state to follow suit.

"Frankfort hides a lot of taxing and spending by passing it off to the local level," Kemper said. "Tea party groups across the state are engaging local officials and impressing on them the importance of tightening their belts just like the rest of us. As our message grows stronger, we need to see more officials all over Kentucky work harder to get spending under control rather than raising taxes."

John Kemper challenges Jack Conway

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway needs to clarify creditor rights in the event of a municipal bankruptcy in the commonwealth, John Kemper, candidate for Auditor of Public Accounts, said.

"With our growing debt, pension obligations and Obamacare on the way, we need to be clear about what happens if we can't pay the bills. Who gets paid first: bondholders or pensioners? Without a law that spells out what we have to do, it's up to the Attorney General to specify who gets paid when there is not enough to go around."

Kemper's political opponents have attacked him for warning about Kentucky's excessive accumulation of debt, but he hopes politics doesn't stop them from acting to protect taxpayers.

"It's a simple request, really," Kemper said. "I'm willing to overlook the fact that no one has done this yet if General Conway just gets on it now."

Maybe you prefer a debt-enslaved Kentucky?

Kentucky Auditor candidate John Kemper will hold a press conference at the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday morning August 18 at 11:30 am. He will address his Debt Free Kentucky platform.

We need a Tea Party upgrade

Lexington activist Kim Shady best summed up Barack Obama's tirade against the Tea Party this week when she said blaming us for the S&P downgrade was "like blaming Paul Revere for the British coming."

Indeed, the Tea Party confounds ruling class politicians in both parties simply by telling the truth about overspending and hyperactive big government. And bad Republicans don't like it any more than bad Democrats do.

That's why we've formed Kentucky Knows Best Political Action Committee to help channel the power of the movement into winning Kentucky state legislative races in 2012 and beyond. If you'd like to know more or to help, please call me at 859-537-5372 or email kyprogress@yahoo.com. You may also contribute to the effort by clicking here.

Thanks,


David Adams
Executive Director
Kentucky Knows Best PAC

Call your Congressman

As of right now, all six Kentucky members of the U.S. House of Representatives are officially "undecided" on the Obama debt deal.

Please join a Kentucky Debt Limit Town Hall meeting Tuesday August 2 at 7pm ET at the Scott County Courthouse in Georgetown, KY. Your input is highly valued and greatly appreciated by the Tea Party.

And obviously our elected representatives need to hear from you now.

See no, hear no, speak no political stunts in KY

A perfect example of what is wrong with Frankfort presented itself this afternoon when Gov. Steve Beshear put out a press release proclaiming that he put $121 million in the state's rainy day fund.

Beshear actually does well with this if you see it for what it is. He is a politician running for office, trying to get a positive news story and no tough questions. The Lexington Herald Leader picks up the assist.

The rest of us are supposed to pretend not to remember the $166 million in Medicaid funds "borrowed" from 2012 three months ago. And of course he will get away with it politically because his Republican opponent voted for the same nonsense.

That's bad enough, but we are also supposed to ignore the state debt this money would be much more properly applied to than to use it for political stunts like this. Again, his Republican opponent voted the same way.

And this $121 million could be dropped into the deep dark hole of unfunded public employee benefits without even making a sucking sound as it disappeared into the abyss. But because there are no political points to score between establishment politicians, the big media sees no story.

More than one mandate to kill

One element of the federal debt limit debate seems to be turning to a Republican effort to repeal ObamaCare's requirement that all people buy health insurance.

The so-called "individual mandate," though, isn't the worst part of ObamaCare. And pulling it out by itself leaves the worst part to wreck healthcare in America even faster.

The worst part of ObamaCare is the requirement that health insurance companies provide coverage to all applicants without regard for pre-existing health conditions. This provision removes market forces from health insurance and leaves the only remaining issue as whether premium payments come directly from consumers or from the government. As costs continue to spiral upward, more consumers will be unable to pay and Medicaid will get bigger and bigger.

Removing only the individual mandate will just make that devolution occur faster because younger and healthier people will avoid the whole mess and self-insure. That leaves older and sicker people to drive up costs faster in the government-controlled plan, destroying what's left of the insurance market and leaving it all to bureaucrats.

The solution to ObamaCare is to get government out of healthcare as much as possible. But trying to piecemeal our way out of ObamaCare could make us worse off than ever.

One way to solve debt standoff

There were rumors this afternoon that the White House and Senate had worked out a budget deal with spending cuts and without tax increases (and a fun-to-watch left-wing panic attack).

The White House denies it now. Seems like we could easily dispense with all this tax loophole stuff by simply repealing all income taxes.

Other states should follow Kentucky on this

We don't yet know how the federal debt ceiling debate will be resolved, but we can tell how poorly it has gone on the state level. That's because the debate has never happened here. It's time that changed.

The debt accumulated over the past decade by Frankfort politicians in both political parties has been staggering -- more than forty billion dollars.

We already can't afford the debt we have. I offer as proof the $30 million Kentuckians lost last month in a bond market scheme rolling over debt and making our budget appear balanced. If we could afford to make bond payments and balance our budget, there would be no need to give tens of millions of dollars to New York bankers and lawyers to paper over the mess we have made of our state finances.

The right thing to do in Washington D.C. is to strengthen our federal debt limit by adding a balanced budget requirement. The right thing to do in Frankfort is to strengthen our balanced budget requirement by adding to it a state debt ceiling. We can't afford to let our politicians drive us deeper into debt and we must be at least as diligent in Frankfort as we are in Washington.

Please join friends and fellow Kentuckians at the Scott County Courthouse in Georgetown at 7pm ET on August 2 to learn more about this issue and what we can do about it. Please help by spreading this invitation as widely as you can. Thank you for all that you do to make Kentucky a better place for our families.


Sincerely,


David Adams
Executive Director
Kentucky Knows Best PAC

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Starting Kentucky debt ceiling conversation

Kentucky needs its own debt ceiling; there can be no question about that. Frankfort politicians in both parties have been too eager to hide their overspending in financing games with bonds and by failing to properly fund public employee retirement benefits.

The damage currently amounts to more than $40 billion dollars, nearly all of it accumulated in the last decade. Stopping Frankfort politicians from making it any worse is something nearly all of us should be able to agree on.

The solution involves defining "debt" and crafting legislation to get a handle on the spending process in Frankfort.

Do we want to require full funding of retirement benefits each year?

How do we define debt?

Who can we get to sponsor a Kentucky Debt Ceiling bill?

Do we have the political will to force establishment politicians in both parties to voluntarily limit their political spending appetites?

Will there ever be a better time than right now to start this initiative?

Beshear upsets everyone on ObamaCare

The strange sight of Kentucky's effort to escape the ravages of ObamaCare without appearing to do so continues during the public comment phase of our request for an ObamaCare waiver.

So far, Kentucky Voices for Health, Kentucky Equal Justice Center and Consumer Watchdog have combined to criticize the Beshear Administration's complaint with ObamaCare, contradict the evidence in the state's petition for waiver and even to suggest that Beshear is lying to get out of complying with federal law. Surely there will be more of these letters made available as the Obama Administration gets closer to ruling on Kentucky's request.

It's amazing no one is getting Beshear on the record about this as he is angering the extreme left for not hungrily lapping up his ObamaCare soup while disappointing the rest of us for not doing enough to show that many Democrats realize what a mess this is going to be.

Is Kentucky Pro-ObamaCare or not?

The federal government rolled out proposed regulations for ObamaCare's state health insurance exchanges yesterday, leaving Kentuckians with some interesting questions to ponder.

First of all, do we want ObamaCare or not?

Several states have been slow to embrace any part of ObamaCare or are actively fighting it. Some have even gone so far as to refuse federal money earmarked for setting up the bureaucratic infrastructure to facilitate the "Affordable Care Act."

Kentucky has not passed enabling legislation to set up a health insurance exchange, but has sent a major mixed signal by accepting federal exchange grant money, throwing it in the bipartisan state budget and spending it anyway.

The Beshear Administration is expected to gain approval within a few weeks to temporarily avoid a relatively inconsequential mandate in ObamaCare. At that point if not sooner, Beshear should have to explain why he didn't seek a broader waiver.

Frankfort politicians of both parties took the money Obama sent and they spent it. They really should have to explain why.




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Kentucky media still missing ObamaCare story

Another development in Kentucky's uneasy political tapdance around ObamaCare today highlights the continued failure of state mainstream media to cover a very important story state Democrats would prefer not to talk about.

The federal Department of Health & Human Services notified Kentucky's Insurance Commissioner today that we will have a decision on Kentucky's request for an ObamaCare waiver within thirty days.

Kentucky has asked for a temporary exemption from a small part of ObamaCare's effort to control healthcare prices. While still publicly supporting ObamaCare, the Beshear administration has referenced Kentucky's failed price-fixing efforts in the health care market which destroyed our health insurance market two decades ago, despite the unmistakable similarities between that state legislation and ObamaCare.

It's pretty hard to overlook the fact that ObamaCare supporters in Kentucky have even less desire to talk about what requiring health insurance companies to cover all applicants does to consumers, but state reporters seem to be giving it a pretty good try as well.

Kentucky makes another short list

Twenty six states' attorneys general have joined legal efforts to stop Obamacare and ten states have signed on in support of it. Kentucky's cartoonish AG Jack Conway is part of a Fearful Fourteen group of AGs avoiding a clear position on the issue. Conway's opponent in November is Todd P'pool, who strongly opposes Obamacare.

End taxpayer funded primary elections now

You don't often hear complaints in Kentucky about public financing of political party primary elections, despite the millions of dollars in costs each year directly associated with them. That's largely because most people don't think about it, but also because most voters belong to one of the two major parties and would consider themselves beneficiaries of the status quo, if they thought of it at all.

That's no reason to keep doing it. Democrats and Republicans in Frankfort have combined to rig ballot access laws to protect their duopoly. And most of them would be just as happy to continue socializing their candidate selection costs as well. This setup has benefited the Republican Party in adding additional voices to public policy debates in a Kentucky once totally dominated by Democrats, but any analysis of the nearly unanimous voting in favor of recently passed, disastrously constructed state budgets suggests further action is needed to end suppression of more voices in the state.

Political duopoly isn't working in Kentucky and we can help improve the situation quickly by improving ballot access laws to remove the artificial benefits enshrined in statute for the sole purpose of boosting the major parties. Then we can stop making independently registered voters pay for political primaries. It's not just a matter of fairness for those left out of the process in May. It will very likely lead to better public engagement on the issues and better choices for all of us in November.

Take debt ceiling fight to the states

The federal debt ceiling has been raised 74 times since 1962. I'm sure someone at this very moment is whining that the Tea Party was silent each time Congress took it up, but the point that is that we certainly aren't being silent now. What was once a quiet vote without debate now has Washington D.C. tied up in knots.

It is time to take that fight to the state level.

Frankfort officials very quietly blew $30 million dollars two weeks ago on bond market shenanigans designed to make Kentucky's state budget appear balanced. You have heard absolutely nothing about this in the mainstream media even though state-level waste should be a greater concern to us because Frankfort can't just print up more money.

Now is a great time to draw attention to the need to tie Kentucky politicians hands to keep them from plunging us even further into debt. They will say that the bond market and the ratings agencies keep them from borrowing too much, but we have been down that road before. Lots of people are talking about the federal debt ceiling now and that should continue at least for the next several weeks. Let's take advantage of that to encourage our friends in Kentucky to contact their state representatives and tell them to set a limit on how much the state can borrow.

Aetna bails, Beshear wails

A frantic letter from Governor Steve Beshear's Insurance Commissioner to the Obama Administration today paints a clearer picture of how ObamaCare stands to hurt Kentucky.

In the letter, Commissioner Sharon Clark states that Aetna, the nation's third-largest health insurer is pulling out of Kentucky's individual and small group health insurance markets immediately. ObamaCare is the reason for their departure, which makes Kentucky's health insurance market even less stable and less competitive since Congress passed the new law.

Clark wrote: "Kentucky's individual marketplace remains fragile and in recovery after a previous health reform efforts (sic) in the 1990s. Given Aetna's intentions, the Commonwealth of Kentucky remains concerned that insurers exiting the market may cause an unsustainable influx of individuals into Kentucky Access, Kentucky's high risk pool. With the current budgetary environment, the effect of a large increase in membership into Kentucky Access that may occur with an additional carrier exiting the market could be extremely detrimental to the pool."

In other words, Kentucky is still trying to get over our flirtation two decades ago with HillaryCare. This is our own Democratic Governor starting to realize that Obama's health fiasco will hurt Kentucky. Please keep spreading the word about bad policies like ObamaCare. When even elected Democrats are getting the message, it's clear the Tea Party movement is having a major impact.

Just a $30 million political game, this time

One week ago, Kentucky state finance officials went to New York and spent $30 million on a bipartisan campaign stunt. You probably haven't heard anything about the nearly $400 million our state borrowed last week or the net loss of $30 million on restructuring of bonds for the sole purpose of making last year's state budget appear balanced. Want to know why?

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans in Frankfort care to draw attention to the fact that their self-congratulatory press conferences about how they set their differences aside and balanced the budget are based on you not knowing how much the charade is costing you.

We will never stop this kind of nonsense from repeating itself until we can draw attention to it and turn up the heat enough to make it stop. Kentucky Knows Best PAC blew the whistle Tuesday on how convicted felon state legislators are allowed to keep their fat pensions for life and already that issue has stirred Kentuckians to action.

With the state budget, the stakes are much higher and the need for sustained action is much greater.

Please forward this message as widely as you can and tell everyone you know that pretending to balance Kentucky's budget while borrowing and spending hundreds of millions of dollars is a fraud perpetrated against the people of Kentucky and that we have the power to make the politicians stop it. Working together, we can exercise that power.

Solving Kentucky's felon legislator problem

Kentucky has made national news today by paying a bloated legislative pension for life to former Beshear administration official and former State Rep. Steve Nunn. So the obvious question now is about preventing this from happening again.

That should be easy.

We just need to amend KRS 6.696 by striking the words "relating to his duties as a legislator" and the next time a former state legislator gets a huge pension boost via gubernatorial appointment and then gets convicted of a felony, taxpayers at least won't have to pay him a huge pension.

Blago loses pension, Steve Nunn keeps his

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, found guilty of trying to sell President Barack Obama's old U.S. Senate seat, will lose his state pension due to the felony conviction. Former Kentucky State Representative Steve Nunn, however, gets to keep his state pension even after pleading guilty to murder earlier today.

Kentucky law states a lawmaker convicted of a felony loses his pension only if it is a felony "relating to his duties as a legislator." Nice loophole, I guess. Nunn is also a beneficiary of the 2005 legislative pension grab, though it could have been worse.

Kentucky Roll Call's Lowell Reese determined that Nunn's 2009 arrest saved taxpayers half a million dollars in pension benefits, but he will still be able to draw nearly $30,000 a year in prison.

cross-posted on Kentucky Knows Best.

Walking back Weiner's wild wages

Now that Congressman Anthony Weiner is taking his photography and social media skills home from his illustrious legislative career, the next thing to do is look at the fat government pension he gets.

Apparently his taxpayer-provided benefits are worth about a million dollars.

Today should be a great day to ask professional politicians to try to justify their pensions in order to get some of that money back.

They must be joking update

The Lexington Herald Leader covered Governor Steve Beshear's big announcement today that he sold a 2.1 acre lot in Frankfort to Franklin County. Interesting spin here:



Of course if you are keeping score at home, the number that matters to you is not $78,750 or $7.4 million, but instead $30 million, which is what this bipartisan charade will cost you next week in the bond market.

If Mitt Romney governed Kentucky...

Consider the interesting way in which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is both against ObamaCare and for it on the campaign trail. It's kind of pathetic, really, and there is no way he is going to get away with it.

Too bad he is not a Democratic governor running for re-election in Kentucky. Steve Beshear appears to be getting a total pass for refusing to oppose implementation of the federal health care takeover while quietly seeking exemption from it.

The sincerest form of quackery

Anyone who remembers the mess Kentucky made of its health insurance market in 1994 forcing insurance companies to ignore pre-existing conditions should know enough to not expect much from ObamaCare's Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan.

Inexplicably, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear remembers, but stops short of doing enough to protect Kentuckians.

What part of "freedom" don't they understand?

Section 8 of Kentucky's Constitution reads as follows:

"Printing presses shall be free to every person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of the General Assembly or any branch of government, and no law shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof. Every person may freely and fully speak, write and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty."

Nothing there suggests any kind of authorization for the government to restrict any kind of political speech. In fact, the guarantee of freedom to speak, write and print on any subject couldn't be more clear.

So how do our politicians justify limiting our ability to criticize them?

Ask anyone who voted for SB 8 in 2008. That would probably be a lot like a Kentucky Senate version of Jay Walking.

Getting this right is pretty important. The Kentucky Constitution explicitly guarantees absolute freedom of speech and we have elected officials trying to create additional legal hurdles for citizens wishing to criticize them.

Call your state Senator and ask if he or she can explain why state government should be allowed to override our state constitution. Please forward this post to other Kentuckians so we can get this right.

Republicans win Medicare debate

The left has officially jumped the shark with their latest Mediscare attack video:


Increasing Medicare deductibles and eliminating the standardization of Medicare supplement insurance will help implement free market improvements to health care for our nation's disabled people and seniors.

With a year and a half till the 2012 elections, Republicans don't have to do much to sound like the adults in the room compared to Obama on Medicare.

The Rep. Paul Ryan plan for Medicare is a start and should help with the repeal effort on ObamaCare. As more Americans see how well they do with less government involvement in their healthcare, the closer we will get to eliminating this unconstitutional (not to mention counterproductive) activity.

Ban deficit spending in Frankfort

Kentucky has added $2.46 billion in bonded debt over the last three years, that we know about. Frankfort politicians have figured out they don't have to go through the political pain of raising taxes or cutting spending, because so few people pay attention to mounting state debt.

And this doesn't even include the debt of unfunded pension liabilities which are piling up even faster. While harder to track, they are no less attributable to political opportunism of elected representatives who have neglected for years to appropriately set money aside.

Kentucky's balanced budget requirement does not preclude politicians from borrowing or refusing to fund future liabilities. That shouldn't be hard to fix.

Please forward this post as widely as possible. If we accomplish one thing in the 2012 General Assembly, this should be it.

With "spending cuts" like these...

Frankfort politicians claim to have cut the state budget eight times over the last three and a half years. Hope you didn't think that meant they were actually spending less money, because it didn't.

Where's Kentucky's ObamaCare waiver?

The Beshear administration is hiding its latest communication with the federal government about the disastrous health insurance regulation in the law known as ObamaCare.

Beshear quietly asked for an exemption from the law back in February. Since then, Obama asked for more information about Kentucky's request and, according to sources with information about the negotiations, Kentucky has sent additional documents.

Funny we aren't hearing anything about this as Beshear attempts to make the case for his re-election in part by touting, falsely, how transparent his administration has been.

David Williams Sugar Tax

Moderate Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams went on the attack against his conservative Tea Party challenger Phil Moffett in a televised debate. In this clip, Moffett merely points out that Williams "floated" the idea of raising taxes on soft drinks:

Williams quickly went into defense attorney mode:

But here is the KET evidence of Williams, right before voting to increase taxes on gasoline, cigarettes and tobacco, saying that other "unhealthy" items should be treated the same way:

What, no David Williams Richie Farmer song?

The lack of enthusiasm for Phil Moffett's opponents doesn't get much clearer than this:

Nice try, David Williams

Kentucky Senate President David Williams continues to watch his gubernatorial dreams of personal government pension excess fade after a horrid last few weeks saw him botch the regular legislative session budget negotiations before wilting in the special session, giving Governor Steve Beshear exactly what he wanted.

Again.

All Williams could do as Democrats ran rings around him was protest weakly and pull together the last remaining handful of House Republicans who can't decide if they should actually follow Williams or just fear him for a poorly conceived attempt to extend the session.

Watching Williams expose his ineptness is fun for those of us who have been aware of it for a while. It's interesting that Williams yesterday in Northern Kentucky shifted from his prior strategy of trying to run the Republican primary by criticizing Beshear to ratcheting up his attacks on insurgent Tea Party candidate Phil Moffett.

In an NKY.com article, Williams touted his "experience" while claiming Moffett lacks "capacity to execute" and has a platform that is "shallow."

I think we have had more than enough of Williams' execution and depth.

It appears David Williams is adrift.

Phil Moffett on Lexington radio

Tune in to WVLK AM 590 on Thursday morning at 9:00 am ET to hear Phil Moffett on the Jack Pattie Show.

Tune in on the internet at www.wvlkam.com. The call-in number is 859-253-5959.

Keep talking, David Williams

Career politician David Williams has a tv ad up.

What do you think?
"Bold, tough, real, cutting taxes and government." Right...

Here is another video to consider. In this one, taken on the Senate floor in 2009, Williams is making his case for a tax increase (HB 144) and promising that if he got the money, spending would be limited and the state's rainy day fund would be replenished first. And he touts the coming Obama Bucks stimulus funds, promising also that those funds would be used first for the rainy day fund.



Well, it's two years later and $1.3 billion in Obama stimulus has already been spent by our bold hero. Since July 1, 2009, the state's appropriation supported debt has increased $1.7 billion. And there is no money in the state's rainy day fund.

David Williams' Steve Beshear moments

Frankfort's Medicaid debacle is just getting warmed up.

That didn't stop Gov. Steve Beshear from writing a post mortem in today's Courier Journal, congratulating himself for postponing part of Medicaid's day of reckoning. Beshear also takes the opportunity to bash Senate President David Williams for proposing what amount to miniscule spending cuts that also don't address any real problems.

This is why our political process so often fails to stop the growth of government. If Democrats can bash Republican "cuts" that don't really address overspending while Republicans can pretend to want spending cuts without changing anything, then the worst elements in both parties can keep getting nominated and taxpayers lose either way.

Kentucky's Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett started his campaign last year pushing for real spending cuts, but Beshear/Williams is a ruling class politician's dream come true. They both get to yell talking points at each other while Kentucky goes deeper in debt.

David Williams' campaign tried with some success to paint Williams' last-minute anemic cuts proposal as his Chris Christie moment. But Williams has agreed with Beshear on all of Beshear's smoke-and-mirrors budgets and all the tax increases that have gone through bear Williams' "yes" vote as well. Kentucky Republicans are desperate for a Senate President who will stop having so many Steve Beshear moments.

Another federal government outrage

A federal judge in Washington D.C. quietly ruled on Wednesday that Americans can be forced by the federal government to join Medicare. The ruling relies on the idea that Medicare is a "different" kind of entitlement, so the federal government can force you to take it.

This is bad news not only for those who don't want Medicare and would prefer instead to make their own healthcare decisions. This does not bode well for those opposed to ObamaCare. I suspect U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer probably also believes ObamaCare is a "different" kind of entitlement.

Nowhere in federal law is acceptance of Medicare mandated. Our out-of-control federal government is just making it up to suit their illegitimate power grabs.

Reimburse this!

Governor Steve Beshear got caught flying his state plane to a fundraiser in Louisa, Kentucky. He has promised to reimburse taxpayers.

While we are getting politicians to reimburse for ill-gotten gains, Senate President David Williams should pay taxpayers back for getting his name stuck on the Expo Center in Corbin. And then we should have a long conversation about how he can get right with taxpayers over his pension scandal.

Praise for Phil Moffett's issues-based campaign

University of Kentucky political science professor Stephen Voss got a break from his frustration with typical politicians and their lack of seriousness on policy issues when he started following Phil Moffett's campaign for governor.

Spreading the David Williams on thick

Earlier this month, National Journal ran a hit piece on Phil Moffett in which an anonymous "Kentucky GOP source" wildly overstated David Williams' role in Rand Paul's 2010 campaign. Then yesterday, Politico unbelievably likened Williams to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Such a comparison might make sense if Williams didn't spend the whole General Assembly session pushing for a statewide smoking ban and a snot tax. He had his chance for a Chris Christie moment in January. If he were serious at all about cutting spending, he would have started talking up his alternative to Beshear's borrowing sometime before the very last minute.

Looks like Williams has the support of one anonymous GOP operative locked up. Score one for empty political posturing.

Tea Party call to action

Kentuckians must decide now to stand up to brazen Frankfort politicians and their expensive ways. When a thief breaks into your home and steals your television, at least you know how much you have lost. But when politicians get together and start scheming, whether they are banning legal products or mandating extra costs onto every day activities, getting a handle on how much it will cost you over time can be much more challenging.

Huge multimillion dollar spending projects, usually sold to unsuspecting taxpayers as entertainment or, worse, economic development vehicles have gained favor with big-spending politicians in recent years. The losses for taxpayers stay hidden behind long-term bond deals and rosy projections that it will all work out eventually.

A recent example of this big-government charade can be found in Corbin, Kentucky. You probably won't be surprised to learn that the building in question is named after a certain Frankfort politician who wants to be Kentucky's Governor.

A monument to wasteful and corrupt state government in Corbin could play a role in the state's gubernatorial campaign, Republican Tea Party gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett said on Monday.

The Arena at the David L. Williams Southeastern Kentucky Agricultural and Exposition Complex has cost state and local taxpayers millions of dollars in taxes, interest and operating losses since the state legislature changed Corbin to a fourth-class city in 2006 to implement a restaurant tax to begin funding for the building.

"Naming rights alone for this building could be worth many thousands of dollars, but Kentucky taxpayers were forced in 2008 to give it to a politician who is running for governor," Moffett said. "My opponent hasn't reported the value of this donation on his campaign finance reports, so apparently he feels entitled to the whole thing. These ruling class politicians just don't get it, do they?"

Phil Moffett is running for Governor so we can put a stop to these ridiculously unbelievable, but true, stories of official misconduct. Phil's campaign is picking up great momentum, but he needs everyone who wants the Republican party to stand for more than nominating by seniority to stand with him now. Please tell your family and friends that the Tea Party has more work to do in Kentucky. Please click here to donate to the campaign; any amount will make a difference. Please click here to listen to Phil's Monday interview with Mandy Connell on Louisville's WHAS.

Phil Moffett on Louisville radio

Kentucky's Tea Party gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett will be a guest on the Mandy Connell Show on WHAS radio Monday morning, March 14 at 10 am ET. You can tune in on 840 AM in Louisville or listen online at www.whas.com. The show will be archived in case you miss it.

The response to Phil's positive message is growing stronger every day and it isn't hard to see why. Phil supports taking control of Kentucky's fate away from ruling class politicians and restoring it to the people and the principles of smaller government we can afford with a tax code set up to let the private sector create jobs, an education policy that rewards creativity and problem-solving instead of just getting by and a state government unafraid to fight against bad federal policies like ObamaCare and the EPA's war on coal.

With little more than two months before the primary election it is clear Kentucky Republican primary voters see this race increasingly as between the worst of the big-spending, tax-raising Frankfort establishment on one hand and the Tea Party's Phil Moffett on the other.

Phil Moffett takes off like a rocket

Phil Moffett went to coal country last night. His free market message contrasts starkly with that of his big government, tax-increasing primary opponent.

David Williams' pension replacement rate

The New York Times lists ten states with the most generous pensions for public employees. Kentucky comes in at number seven in terms of "pension replacement rate," the portion of a pensioner's salary that he gets in retirement. Kentucky is by far the poorest state on the list.

Kentucky legislators in recent years have failed to properly fund our public employee pension accounts. That's a big part of the problem. Poor investment returns are too. But state employees getting 58.8% of their working salary in retirement are shocked to learn about what Senate President David Williams and House Democrats rigged up for themselves and their fellow career politicians.

Greg Stumbo is already set, thanks to Senate language inserted quietly into a pension bill in 2005, to get 100% of annual salary from his one term as Attorney General every year for the rest of his life after he retires. David Williams pushed vigorously for this legislative pension increase just three years before he started sounding the alarm on our state's government pension crisis.

And now we know why.

If David Williams can get himself elected Governor for one term, Kentucky taxpayers will pay him 100% of his governor's salary every year for the rest of his life. It works the same if he gets appointed or elected to any other six-figure state job.

These ruling class career politicians still don't get it, do they?

Phil Moffett is running to stop these outlandish raids on the public treasury. Phil supports getting the politicians out of our tax code once and for all by repealing all 240 state taxes, fees and surcharges currently on the books and replacing them with a single-rate retail sales tax on goods and services. This will be the greatest shift in power away from politicians and to the people in state history. Phil supports using the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to fight back against federal government excess like ObamaCare and the EPA's war on coal. Phil supports removing wasteful spending from our school systems, instilling discipline back in our classrooms and improving educational options with effective charter school legislation. Phil will work to shrink or remove government operations that don't fit within the necessary functions spelled out in our state Constitution.

The energy of the Tea Party gets its next big test on May 17 with Kentucky's Republican gubernatorial primary. Phil Moffett is the candidate who will take our fight to Frankfort.

Phil Moffett on Leland Conway Show

Kentucky's 2011 legislative session came to a grinding halt yesterday in a dispute over funding for Medicaid, borrowed money and minor spending cuts. The disaster continues on Monday in a special session sure to feature more of the same heated campaign rhetoric.

Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett took to the airwaves in defense of taxpayers. Phil appeared yesterday on the Leland Conway Show on WLAP 630 AM in Lexington.

"It really mirrors the federal level fight we're having," Phil said. "It's a relatively small amount of money we're talking about, less than a percentage point of our total budget. How these gentlemen can not come up with a reasonable alternative to cut these costs just goes to show you that they don't have the backbone to balance our budget in the long run. We need to make some changes."

Phil Moffett has been talking for months about a better, permanent solution to this latest spending battle among the Frankfort politicians. The Kentucky Club for Growth took note of this back in January. None of the Senate Republican agenda passed, as expected. Wouldn't it have been better to have spent all this time talking about real fixes rather than having to listen to Williams and Beshear go on and on about statewide smoking bans and keeping cold medicines out of the hands of innocent people?

"There is a failure in Republican leadership and there is a failure in Democrat leadership as well," Phil Moffett said. "These people are not serious about doing cost-cutting and they continue to bury us in debt. I don't see how we as taxpayers can have any confidence that they'll do a better job in this special session or down the road to make the changes necessary."

Indeed, we can't have any confidence in the current leadership in Frankfort. They need to listen to the people and engage us in the conversation rather than pulling these ridiculous political stunts. Overspending and debt are bankrupting the state while they are arguing over who gets to pick out drapes in the Governor's Mansion.

Kentucky needs a leader who will make decisions based on principle, not politics. The ruling class politicians still haven't gotten the message.

Questions David Williams can't answer

Senator Williams, you have claimed that you didn't know anyone would abuse the pension bill you pushed through in 2005 that would triple your pension if you get elected governor. When did it occur to you how much money you would make by abusing it yourself?

Senator Williams, after Gov. Steve Beshear used your own pension grab bill to attempt to take over the state Senate by throwing taxpayer cash at Republican Senators, you tried to repeal the pension grab, but Speaker Greg Stumbo wouldn't let you. Stumbo is already set to get paid an Attorney General's salary every year for the rest of his life because of your actions. Do you consider Stumbo smarter than you or just luckier?

Senator Williams, because of your vote on legislative pensions Kentucky taxpayers would have to pay you a governor's salary for the rest of your life if you were elected to one term as governor. When did you realize that was going to look really bad?

Many more of these to come...

Phil Moffett on Louisville radio

Phil Moffett, Kentucky's Tea Party Republican candidate for Governor, will be a guest on the Mandy Connell Show this morning at 10 am. Tune in on 840 AM or listen online at www.whas.com.

Phil may also make a brief appearance this afternoon on the Leland Conway Show on WLAP 630 AM in Lexington.

David Williams caught on tape

Stupid politician tricks in Shepherdsville on Saturday night featured Kentucky state Senate President David Williams expressing his shock and dismay that anyone would abuse the rigged pension scheme that he set up in 2005. He then tried to blame the whole mess on Governor Steve Beshear and topped off the evening by claiming falsely that he and the legislature have not underfunded state public employee pensions over the last decade.

The really funny thing about this is that Williams has no better answer. This scandal can't be swept away with a tidal wave of lawyerspeak. It will be fun watching him continue to try though.

Phil Moffett on radio

Kentucky's Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett will be a guest on the Jack Pattie Show on Monday morning at 9am ET. Tune in at WVLK AM 590 or listen online at www.wvlkam.com.

Call in with questions to 859-253-5959.

David Williams has already lost

David Williams' legislative pension chickens are coming home to roost while he is still busily trying to count his unhatched legislative pension eggs.

WHAS radio talk show host Mandy Connell asked the question at last night's Bullitt County GOP Lincoln dinner.

"You also have some votes in the past that have led to a legislative pension situation where legislators are double-dipping and triple-dipping and going back for other pensions. How do you reconcile where you have voted in the past that would not necessarily jive with some of the things you are saying now? How does that go together?"

Williams asked her to be more specific, which is fair, but it was also very funny to watch for those who knew what what coming (and knew that he knew too.)

"The legislative pension system allows for a high three situation that has been abused by legislators who are now receiving huge pensions because of a rules change that you in previous years have voted for."

Williams then spent the next five minutes rambling about the abuse being "unanticipated," blaming the problem on Steve Beshear and then trying to change the subject with a bunch of nonsense about actuarial assumptions and by stating falsely that the legislature has adequately funded the pension system over the years.

The bottom line is there is no way for Williams to wiggle out of the fact that he pushed through HB 299 in 2005. He knew what the bill would do but he didn't care because he wanted the money. Inexplicably, he thinks Republican primary voters are too stupid to figure this out.

If Williams is elected governor, because of HB 299, you will pay him his governor's salary every year for the rest of his life. He has known this question was coming for a long time and he clearly has no good answer.

Ten weeks to election day. Should be fun.

If you have been hesitant so far to get on board with Phil Moffett's gubernatorial campaign, now is the time.

Phil Moffett: Nullify hemp prohibition

Skyrocketing food and fuel prices should be met by Kentucky nullifying federal prohibition of industrial hemp cultivation, Republican Tea Party gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett said.

"We are out of time for continuing the confusion about what hemp is and what it could do for Kentucky's economy," Moffett said. "Hemp as both a food and fuel source could be a great blessing to Kentucky especially if recent trends continue or worsen. There is no good reason for allowing the federal government to stand in our way."

Repeal campaign finance laws

Kentucky's campaign finance laws should all be repealed.

Section 8 of Kentucky's Constitution states: "Printing presses shall be free to every person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of the General Assembly or any branch of government, and no law shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof. Every person may freely and fully speak, write and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty."

The federal government and every state except Kentucky have written a "press exemption" into their campaign finance laws in order to claim that a news article or editorial can't be considered a campaign contribution and to get around this kind of absolute guarantee of free speech rights. In 2007, the Federal Election Commission ruled that bloggers are also exempt from campaign finance laws. But if a non-blogger, non-journalist Kentuckian wants to print up some flyers or yard signs or bumperstickers or whatever, he is suddenly subject to campaign finance limitations.

Big government types in the Kentucky Senate have tried repeatedly to enact a press exemption in order to give Kentucky's unconstitutional campaign finance laws some legal underpinning. The fact that they have also repeatedly failed to enact a press exemption means there is really no justification for Kentucky to place any kind of limits on political speech. After all, campaign finance laws mostly came about as an attempt to keep corruption out of politics in the 1970's. How well is that working out for us?

Time to wake up in Kentucky

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll reports that 48% of Americans either believe the new Republican majority in the U.S. House have already repealed ObamaCare or aren't sure if it has been repealed.

The truth, of course, is that ObamaCare is still bearing down on us like a freight train and despite Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear starting to admit that it won't work out well for us, ObamaCare is still very much alive.

Lack of awareness allows ruling class politicians like David Williams to continue his attempt to paint himself as some kind of conservative crusader when he has so clearly shown himself to be a big part of the problem.

Don't just assume that everyone around you already knows what's going on. Chances are pretty good that they do not.

Time for some Wisconsin overreach

The word of the day for political pundits appears to be "overreach." They are talking about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the hubbub created by his attempt to limit public employee collective bargaining in his state. Walker has been called every name in the book for attempting to address his state's fiscal mess and it's telling that the end-of-times rhetoric heaped on him was somewhat less pronounced in 1993 when Democratic Governor Douglas Wilder of Virginia banned all collective bargaining in his state, which goes beyond Gov. Walker's proposal. It should also be noted that Virginia has not exactly spent the last two decades imploding for lack of public employee collective bargaining "rights."

In short, the Wisconsin debacle is about little more than partisan politics. Moveon.org proved as much this past Saturday with rallies across the country, including in Frankfort, providing lots of heated words but precious little light on the subject of getting state finances under control.

Left-wing activists want to capitalize on the emotional nature of the debate to energize the Democratic Party faithful. That's why the discussion has morphed into something involving all kinds of union activity and an extremely liberal usage of the term "worker rights."

Tea Party leader Phil Moffett responded:
“No one is arguing against workers having rights,” Moffett said. “That’s just rhetoric coming from the other side. We need to peel back the things we can’t afford like prevailing wage laws. We need to make Kentucky a right to work state. And we need to end teacher tenure and the state merit system. These efforts to get politics out of state employment have failed. We need to try something else.”

Much of what is wrong with government in America comes about as a result of sentimental attachment to policies that do not function as intended. Kentucky needs a governor who can lead the state past those sentimental attachments and toward solutions that work for everyone, not just those with political connections.

Taking the Tea Party to Frankfort

Jack Hunter Interviews Phil Moffett for Governor of Kentucky

During last week's 'Tea Party Goes to Washington' Book Bomb Jack Hunter interviewed Tea Party Candidate for Kentucky Governor.

Help Phil Moffett. Donate today at http://www.philmoffett.com/donate/

Phil Moffett takes on House of Fraud

News reports of Saudi royal family members squandering billions in public dollars on ostentatious lifestyles may foreshadow coverage of the retirements of Kentucky politicians like House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President David Williams.

Reuters describes Saudi princes blowing through multimillion dollar stipends and going back to the government to demand more when their supply of cash runs dry. The source of their riches is the good fortune to be born into the House of Saud. Kentucky's political elite are set to reap a retirement bonanza by virtue of voting themselves multimillion dollar pension bonuses in Frankfort's House of Fraud.

Kentucky's HB 299 in 2005 made an instant pension millionaire of Stumbo, who, after serving one term, will get paid 100% of an Attorney General's salary for life in retirement thanks to his buddy Williams strong-arming the bill through the legislature. If Williams can get himself appointed or elected to higher office for as much as three years before he hangs up his gavel, he will reap millions in taxpayer-provided pension largesse as well. Williams is running for Governor.

The Tea Party was created to point out and to stop nonsense like this. Phil Moffett is the Tea Party Republican candidate for Governor and his entire platform is devoted to eliminating Kentucky's political ruling class, clearing out government incentives for waste and corruption and leveling the playing field so Kentuckians from all walks of life can earn an honest living and thrive in the Bluegrass State.

Kentucky requests ObamaCare waiver

With absolutely no fanfare, Governor Steve Beshear has admitted that ObamaCare won't work for Kentucky. Previously an unqualified supporter of Obama's policies, Beshear emailed the White House earlier this month and asked to delay some ObamaCare damage until after his term in office ends later this year.

With Kentucky quietly joining the growing list of states requesting exemption from part of ObamaCare, Kentuckians must fight harder for repeal of the whole thing, Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett said.

"Governor Steve Beshear is very slowly starting to realize ObamaCare will bankrupt Kentucky and Senate President David Williams has been too busy fattening his pension to notice," Moffett said. "Kentucky's elected officials are turning our state over to Obama one stimulus check at a time when we should be getting government out of our health care decisions and out of our lives. This moment is what the Tea Party is all about."

In the email requesting the waiver, Kentucky Department of Insurance Commissioner Sharon Clark mentioned Kentucky's failed experiment with big-government health reform in 1994, saying that we still have not recovered from that move which left the insurance market "completely destabilized." Interesting that she could recognize that but couldn't add it up to see that government meddling is what caused that problem and the ones ahead.

Frankfort's Department of Oxymoronic Redundancy

The Louisville Courier Journal's Joe Gerth today describes "legislative productivity" in terms of the number of bills that become law in a General Assembly session along the way to suggesting Kentucky may not need annual sessions.

If I believed eliminating annual sessions would actually reduce government mandates or regulations or costs that do harm to Liberty, I might be more interested in going to the trouble of amending the state constitution again to remove them.

But before we even get into that, let's make clear that the definition of legislative productivity should not be seen as the number of bills passed but instead as amassed debt and distortive impact on economic activity. Putting it in those terms would more accurately describe the failure of Kentucky's political class.

It is worth mentioning here that in 2010 state government increased our debt costs by extending the terms on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bonds in order to make the current budget appear balanced. And they authorized bonding of an additional $2.855 billion.

David Williams' pension scandal is THE issue

Kentucky's Senate President David Williams wants to be Governor in the worst way.

Ask him why he deserves the promotion and he will tell you Kentucky is "adrift" and that he has experience to make us not "adrift." Of course, that's a funny approach to take since Williams has cut his teeth over the last quarter century mostly voting in favor of making government much bigger and harder to afford. Over the past decade, in which he has held de facto veto power over the legislature, state indebtedness has exploded from $3 billion to over $44 billion.

Williams refuses to apologize for raising taxes and debt, opting when pressed to list some taxes the legislature has reduced or eliminated in recent years. Great, only 240 more taxes, fees and surcharges left, too many of which Williams has supported and continues to support increasing.

The biggest issue personally for Williams is his government pension. He is set to receive an annual pension equal to 100% of his highest legislative salary when he retires. He will get that pension for the rest of his life. In 2005, Williams pushed through a bill that would make him a government pension millionaire if he can manage to get himself appointed or elected to higher state office. If he becomes governor, Williams' years as a legislator combine with his 2005 pension grab to instantly make him a government pension millionaire. We would actually wind up paying him a governor's salary in retirement for the rest of his life. Democrats are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to make this an issue this fall. Republicans should beat them to the punch and eliminate David Williams from consideration for the state's highest political office before this scandal messes up the party's chances in November.

Steve Beshear doesn't want to have to run against tea party leader Phil Moffett and his fresh approach to managing state government. He would much rather run against Williams, who will have a tougher time differentiating himself from the incumbent.

Williams can't answer questions about his pension scandal now and he won't be able to answer them this fall if he is still running. Kentucky Republicans can save themselves a big headache by encouraging Senator Williams to drop out of the race now.

Wisconsin labor strife visits Kentucky

The Phil Moffett for Governor campaign is the only one seriously addressing abusive labor union issues.

Phil Moffett responds to Moveon.org stunt

Left-wing activist group Moveon.org held a rally in Frankfort today in support of left-wing activists in Wisconsin. They are trying to frame their effort as supporting union-provided worker rights, without which employees, they suggest, would have no rights at all.

This is absurd.

Kentucky's Tea Party Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett cut through the nonsense.

"No one is arguing against workers having rights," Moffett said. "That's just rhetoric coming from the other side. We need to peel back the things we can't afford like prevailing wage laws. We need to make Kentucky a right to work state. And we need to end teacher tenure and the state merit system. These efforts to get politics out of state employment have failed. We need to try something else."

Phil Moffett is the better choice

Kentucky Senate President David Williams has been very expensive to keep around in Frankfort with his votes to pile up more than $40 billion in debt on us over the past decade. And if he were to get elected governor, we would have to pay him more than $120,000 in retirement every year for the rest of his life because of pension language he slipped into the law books back in 2005.