Monday, April 02, 2012

Governing by Google Alert

The federal whistleblower in Kentucky's ongoing pension investment placement agent scandal learned earlier today from an email Google Alert that Governor Steve Beshear prefers covering up the issue rather than dealing with it.

Chris Tobe, the whistleblower, had to read on the internet today that he has been replaced on the Board of Trustees of the Kentucky Retirement Systems.

Several other members of the Board have been subpoenaed recently to testify to the Securities and Exchange Commission in their ongoing investigation of the placement agent scandal.

Tobe says the state pension system will run out of money in about three years, necessitating annual payments of $600 million dollars to be made from other revenue sources.

The legislature failed to draw any attention to this situation by allowing scandal-enabling legislation (HB 300) to fly past them last week. The deafening media silence on this issue would not be happening if a Republican were Governor. This fact makes it all the more troubling that no Frankfort Republican could be bothered to speak out on this at all.

Kentucky goes whole hog for ObamaCare

Whether the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down some or all of the federal health insurance law known as ObamaCare may not make much difference in Kentucky thanks to language slipped into the budget bill by Governor Steve Beshear and approved by majorities of the House and Senate.

The last fifteen pages of the just-passed Kentucky budget bill (HB 265) creates a small business health insurance subsidy program, adds new ObamaCare style regulations and empowers Kentucky bureaucrats to seek and accept federal money and implement new regulations without limit. With all that, who needs ObamaCare?

The worst part of the new language goes far beyond Kentucky's 1994 flirtation with HillaryCare which destroyed our individual health insurance market and fit perfectly with Governor Steve Beshear's desire to implement ObamaCare in Kentucky without legislative approval. The two most horrible aspects of this health care power grab is that it, first, actually got legislative approval and, second, that it could create havoc in both individual and group health insurance markets in Kentucky even if ObamaCare is repealed.

Section 7(2) in the ICARE enabling language reads as follows:

(2)           The provisions of this section shall not give rise to, nor be construed as giving rise to, enforceable legal rights for any party or an enforceable entitlement to benefits other than to the extent that such rights or entitlements exist pursuant to the administrative regulations of the executive director of insurance.

 That means the executive director of Kentucky's Department of Insurance just became your health care czar. If your legislator voted for this mess, you should ask him or her to explain why. Some of us tried to warn you (here and here and here).

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Shut up and eat your talking points

The Lexington Herald Leader's news article called it a "compromise budget" but couldn't find anyone to quote who recognized that Kentucky's final budget agreement still spends more than we have.

The Louisville Courier Journal's news article quoted Rep. Stan Lee saying the budget spent too much money, which was good, but also called the budget "lean," which is at best inaccurate.

The Associated Press news article called the budget "lean," "bare-bones," and said it includes "sharp cuts," which it does not and also couldn't find anyone who noticed that spending exceeds revenue way too much for any unbiased observer to use any of these terms.

Meanwhile, we are two days past final agreement on the budget and one day past final passage by both chambers of the legislature and the bill is still not available online.

Some "transparency." And what a disgraceful display of media bias at the conclusion of a three-month long disgraceful display of legislative arrogance and ineptitude. It would have been better to just skip the whole charade and have Governor Steve Beshear, Senate President David Williams and House Speaker Greg Stumbo issue a joint statement urging Kentuckians to shut up and eat their talking points.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Hold your wallet and your Constitution

As the clock runs out on Kentucky's legislative session, a brief encounter among budget negotiators Monday evening sheds light on the need for constant vigilance in protecting citizens from out of control politicians.

At 44:50 of this video, repeated Americans for Tax Reform pledge violator Rep. Bob Damron claimed that an unconstitutional spending provision he wanted in the budget wouldn't be a problem if no one actually fought it in court.

"It only is a problem if somebody challenges it," Damron claimed.

This is not only false, but dangerous and clearly emblematic of the mess our nation is in. The language Damron tried to get in the budget would let legislators create additional spending without going through the legal appropriations process.

In an era of huge public debt, structurally imbalanced budgets and enormous unfunded mandates allowing politicians like Damron to so casually dismiss the Constitution is something we can no longer afford to do.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Webb-Edgington strains at gnat, swallows camel

Kentucky 4th congressional candidate Alecia Webb-Edgington went on CN2 last week claiming that she had to vote against the House version of the state budget because of "fluff" in the bill. Asked to define the fluff, she explained that she couldn't vote for a budget that included a $14,500 appropriation for a curtain divider at a state park.

The amount of waste in both the House and Senate bills goes so far beyond $14k that it is incredible this example was all she could come up with.

I couldn't find the curtain divider in the Senate budget, but the last fifteen pages of both versions of HB 265, the executive branch budget, contain a framework for implementing ObamaCare in Kentucky through the Department of Insurance. That's a whole lot more than fourteen thousand dollars and much less useful than a curtain divider.

Also, both bills spend hundreds of millions of dollars we don't have and both do next to nothing to address the oncoming public employee pension system bankruptcy. Rep. Webb-Edgington should have to explain in greater detail how her incomplete lurch to the right on budget bills qualifies her to run for Congress.

Whether she votes for the final budget bill or not, Webb-Edgington missed a great chance to be a voice for fiscal reason before it is too late.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Kentucky Rep. John Tilley on drugs

CN2's Ryan Alessi asked Rep. John Tilley if this year's legislative session would be a success if the General Assembly passed several bills "cracking down" on drug abuse in Kentucky. Tilley said yes.

"I think so because considering the drug abuse problem, this scourge in Kentucky is the biggest problem we have period," Tilley said.

As someone who doesn't even like to take aspirin, much less anything hallucinogenic, I'm almost tempted to ask   for a hit of whatever Tilley is smoking. If the legislature does manage to pass a budget, it is certain they will do so without addressing the state's growing health care, debt and pension problems.

In fact, they seem poised to make them all worse.

The legislature has no apparent concern that Kentucky Retirement Systems should run out of money in three to five years or that bad health care regulation policy on both the state and federal levels or mismanagement in our public education system combine to cause problems that totally dwarf the public effect of a few people's substance abuse issues.

And again, if you want to start really addressing irresponsible drug use in Kentucky, then drug test welfare recipients.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Banner day for corruption in Frankfort

House and Senate leaders have worked out an agreement to keep surgical costs artificially high in Kentucky and to hinder recovery efforts of at least tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in the KRS placement agent scandal.

And you are very unlikely to read a word of it in the mainstream media.

Both HB 300 and HB 458 sailed through the Senate today. Both bills must go back to the House, but they will get quick approval there. The biggest problem with these bills is House and Senate leaders knew exactly what was in the bills and apparently none of the rank and file members bothered to understand or, perhaps, even read them.

HB 300 makes "placement agent" middlemen permanent fixtures in our already scandal-plagued pension system. The middlemen siphon off millons of dollars at a time from investment funds our elected officials should be protecting. Specifically, we should ban placement agents from our financial transactions, but instead we are writing them into the law as lobbyists who don't even have to report how much they are looting from us.

HB 458 keeps alive the seriously outdated and failed central planning of medical services scheme called "Certificate of Need." Governor Beshear is using the state's Certificate of Need program to implement ObamaCare. Senate President David Williams and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, by passing this bill, just made it easier for him to do that.

By keeping competition out of the health care industry, Williams and Stumbo are directly increasing your healthcare costs. But you don't have to thank them; the Kentucky Hospital Association already has.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

How powerful is the industrial hemp issue?

There is no question that cultivation of industrial hemp has pockets of strong support in Kentucky, but the Republican primary for Kentucky's 17th state Senate district could show just how potent it has become.

Rick Hostetler, challenging Republican Senator Damon Thayer launched a new page on his web site chastising Thayer for a 2011 KET broadcast in which Thayer seemed to suggest that allowing farmers to grow hemp might lead to people taking hard drugs. See the page by clicking here.

Industrial hemp entered Kentucky Republican politics in the fall of 2010 when then-gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett announced his support for hemp cultivation. He came in second in a three-way race in which both his opponents made anti-hemp statements similar to Thayer's.

Agriculture Commissioner Jamie Comer followed Moffett's pro-hemp statements in his successful 2011 campaign. Before long, nearly all of his opponents followed suit, including his Democratic general election opponent who publicly flip-flopped to a pro-hemp position.

By all indications, Senator Thayer has a very significant fundraising advantage over Hostetler. Industrial hemp advocates may or may not want to latch onto this race to gauge support for this free market issue, but it would be great to see it become a part of the discussion in 2012 and this looks like our only chance.  

Friday, March 23, 2012

Kentucky budget negotiators need Jed Clampett



On the old Beverly Hillbillies television program, when Jed Clampett's nephew Jethro would say or do something particularly stupid, an exasperated Jed would say "One of these days I gotta have a long talk with that boy." Too bad Jed isn't around to talk sense into Kentucky House Budget Chairman Rick Rand.

Kentucky's original budget document written by Gov. Beshear included nearly a billion dollars in new debt spelled out in the bill. The House reduced that debt by about a half and the Senate cut the amount of new debt by half again.

As Rep. Rand was explaining that he didn't want to agree to the Senate's changes, Rep. Stan Lee (R-Lexington) rose to ask a question on the bill.

"According to the newspaper, the Senate cut spending and cut the debt in its bill," Rep. Lee said. "If it's in the paper you know you can believe it. Is what the newspaper reported today correct about the Senate cutting spending and cutting the debt?"

Rand didn't take the bait, but he didn't answer the question accurately, either.

"We cut the debt by half when that bill passed the House," Rep. Rand said.

The answer he was looking for was "No."

We need to reduce spending and reduce Kentucky's debt, but overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate still count on most people not understanding the difference between a real cut and a cut in projected or requested growth. Besides that, the Senate did nothing to address the pension mess or the Governor's wish to implement ObamaCare administratively which the budget bill would allow him to do.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell need to see this

Kentucky Employees Retirement Systems is currently funded at 28%, less than any state fund in the country, KRS Trustee Chris Tobe said.

"Underfunding each year is like a hurricane devastating the pension," Tobe said. He predicts that within three to five years the pension system will require $600 million a year from the legislature just to make annual payments.

The lack of understanding in the legislature on this issue is made clear by the way House Bill 300 is flying through on its way to becoming law.

The problem is that both parties in both chambers of the legislature and much of the executive branch are caught up in a desire to keep this quiet. And the media blackout is at least somewhat understandable; if this were a Republican-only scandal there would already be a thousand news stories and editorials calling for blood.

As it is, there is zero chance of an Attorney General investigation. We need federal intervention quickly. The Securities and Exchange Commission is already looking into the placement agent problem just as the legislature is covering tracks with House Bill 300.

Tobe said requiring placement agents to register as executive branch lobbyists will actually make the problems worse.

He calls placement agents "looters" and says HB 300 "encourages looting with unlimited and undisclosed looting allowed as long as you sign in as a looter."


Senators Paul and McConnell have the biggest megaphones in the state. They should do us all a favor and use them to put a stop to this. 

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Showdown coming on Certificate of Need?

House Bill 458 represents an attempt by the legislature to overturn a Kentucky court ruling in favor of freedom and competition in health care.

The bill sailed through the House in a form that would have shut down the same medical practices who fought successfully in court for their continued existence and to ensure the prohibition of any future such providers of surgical services outside of (much more expensive) hospitals.

The Senate has now amended the bill to grandfather in those existing practices but to prohibit any new providers from lowering consumer prices and improving quality of service through competitive forces.

So now the question becomes: which chamber of the General Assembly believes in the ridiculous certificate of need process more, the House or the Senate?

In other words, if innovation in health care delivery is so dangerous we have to force doctors to do outpatient surgeries in hospitals rather than provide a less expensive alternative then why are exempting anyone from certificate of need? And if those exemptions don't actually put consumers at risk, then why don't we drop this overly burdensome regulation for all Kentuckians?

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Keystone Kops ride in Kentucky

For the third year in a row, Kentucky is about to make a law banning synthetic marijuana.

I'll wait right here for a minute while that sinks in. Read the first sentence again if you have to.

Lead sponsor Rep. John Tilley, the House Judiciary chair, seems pretty sure that he finally has a bill that will work. But he is wrong again.

Look up synthetic marijuana on Amazon.com. It is readily available (as is allergy medicine) and inexpensive. The most Tilley's grand scheme will accomplish is to move retailers of synthetic marijuana onto the internet or out of the state. (Hint to lawmakers: that means less sales tax.)

And lest you think anyone will be made safer by this, consider that retailers usually live in or near the communities they serve and can be made to answer for bad or even dangerous products. It's much harder to hold an internet retailer accountable.

So if you want to cost Kentucky jobs and tax revenue and probably even put more people in harm's way, then go ahead. Knock yourself out and support HB 481 and tell your constituents you fought to make them safer.

It's just not true.

Cover-up is always worse (pension version)

The Senate budget committee today unanimously passed HB 300, the pension scandal cover-up bill. The bill now heads to the Senate floor.

Insufficient work by former state Auditor Crit Luallen paved the way for official Frankfort to continue hiding a kickback scheme run through investment middlemen call "placement agents," which has already cost state taxpayers potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.

HB 300 would further embed placement agents in the Kentucky Retirement Systems by making them register as lobbyists with the executive branch of state government, which requirement does not involve reporting their actual dollar amounts of compensation.

This would be a big step away from what needs to happen, which is a lawsuit to recover all the placement agent fees paid out by the state. Few people in official Frankfort want such scrutiny because then the placement agents will talk about how some of that money was funneled to politicians.

This issue will become much more of a front-burner concern in three to five years when the pension plans run out of money and the taxpayers are on the hook for massive new payments we can't afford.

Your representatives need to hear from you to realize that covering this garbage up will be a much greater crime than starting now the process of coming clean. It will be much more expensive, too.

Voting no on this one is hugely important. Passage of HB 300 will come back to haunt us all.

Kentucky lawmakers suffer from 'meth math'

The Kentucky state Senate is expected to pass a version of the budget bill this week only to go behind closed doors with House negotiators to work out another debt-stuffed fiscal "compromise."

Meanwhile, out in the open, they are attacking allergy sufferers in a clumsy attempt to do something about methamphetamine abuse.

In 2008, dentists testified about similarities between conditions they call "Mountain Dew mouth" and "meth mouth." A Kentucky lawmaker joked that the popular soft drink should be made illegal. It was a stupid joke, to be sure, but at least back then Kentucky's nanny staters were adding two and two and coming up with something remotely resembling four.

Presumably if they were looking at "Mountain Dew mouth" today, our big government friends in the House and Senate would attempt to ban toothbrushes.

Please call your representatives today and tell them to kill Senate Bill 3.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Frankfort will tax your allergies and colds

Kentucky's House Judiciary Committee just voted in favor of the Snot Tax. The bill now needs the approval of the full House and Governor Steve Beshear and then some users of allergy medicines will be forced to get a doctor's prescription for a little nasal relief. For now.

Supporters of the measure claim that it will stop the manufacture of methamphetamine in Kentucky, which it absolutely will not do. Then they will come back next year and tighten the bill's restrictions.

If you didn't get hit by this year's version of the bill, breathe easy while you can. But remember that this is how big government always expands -- by lulling most of the people to sleep in the belief their restrictions only hurt someone else. They know there is plenty of time to come back and zap you next year.

These are the people we trust to write our state budget in secret. Then after they pass it, we get to find out what is in it. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Friday, March 16, 2012

Time for another Kentucky tea party rally



Some Kentuckians may think the Obama administration alone is making healthcare unreasonably expensive.

They would be wrong.

House Bill 458 effectively prohibits doctors from saving their patients money by performing more outpatient surgeries outside of expensive hospitals.

We can stop HB 458, but we need to move fast. Please make plans to attend a tea party rally and press conference focused on keeping healthcare costs down by introducing more competition to the system. It's Wednesday March 21 at 10:00 am ET at the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort.

The big government anti-capitalism types in both parties are ready for a fight on this one as their power is at stake. Your voice is desperately needed now. Please spread the word.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Is your representative talking about this?

Frankfort politicians in both political parties have turned a blind eye to rampant corruption in the Kentucky Retirement Systems for too long, costing Kentuckians many millions of dollars. Cleaning up the mess should be a key issue in the 2012 elections, state Senate candidate Don Butler said.

"House Bill 300 would further enrich the very people who are bleeding our state pension system dry by keeping 'placement agents' in every dark corner of our state capital when we don't need them and can't afford them," Butler said.

"We are giving huge sums of money to these crooks who should all be run out on a rail rather than be left alone to buy up politicians with our money." "It should be common sense for those who understand the issue that we don't need to spend millions on placement agents," Butler said. "At any rate, we shouldn't legitimize them as HB 300 does. It may be better politics to wait and see if my opponent votes for this and then blast him, but if we miss this chance to fix this problem, we may not be able to do it next year. Please call your senator and demand a 'no' vote on House Bill 300."

Butler faces incumbent Republican Senator David Givens in the May 22 GOP primary.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Independent counsel blisters Crit Luallen

A national leader in the field of forensic investigations in the money management industry is criticizing former Kentucky state Auditor Crit Luallen for botching a pre-election audit of the state pension system last summer in an ongoing scandal that appears to involve tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in losses on her watch.

Edward Siedle of Benchmark Financial Services in West Palm Beach, Florida expressed shock that Luallen could miss obvious "red flag" signs of corruption at Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS).

"The entire investment management contracting process at KRS appears suspect at this time," Siedle said.

He said her audit was "remarkable in its failure to adequately address the most obviously troubling issues surrounding use of placement agents at KRS."

Placement agents are salespeople who connect investment firms with big money clients like the KRS in return for unjustifiably large fees paid by the firms. Large institutional investors like KRS should have no problem at all in negotiating away entirely these placement agent fees which, Siedle said, are so improperly accounted for that we still don't know how much we have paid or are paying in excessive fees.

Siedle cited some of the circumstances behind the placement agent "pay-for-play" activities, which read like a modern day, high tech Bluegrass Conspiracy tale with the penny loafers and cocaine traded in for wingtips and the cold-sweat desperation of a big government apparatchik realizing the gravy train is about to hit the wall. The common denominator, of course, is the politicians too dumb and too crooked to speak up before it all comes crashing down.

The good news, as Siedle sees it, is that at least some of the improperly spent funds may be recoverable. First step, though, is to end the cover-up and to start getting everyone talking about where the money is.

In what amounts to an interesting side note but should be instructive nonetheless given any future political aspirations Luallen may have was her published assessment of who ultimately pays placement fees. Luallen said in her audit "it was also determined that the payment of placement agent fees by investment managers did not correlate to an increase in the management fees paid by KRS or reduce the funds available to pay benefits to retirees."

Simply put, if Luallen had the last word on this, the millions in squandered funds wouldn't be recoverable in court because the most powerful woman in Frankfort for the last two decades doesn't think we were overcharged at all as she apparently doesn't understand how service providers pass increased costs along to consumers.

That's the same kind of reasoning that has allowed the Obama Administration to say they are going to give away free health insurance by just making the insurance companies pay for it.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Kentucky's official GOP stumbles over Bob Leeper

Tea Party Republicans in Kentucky attempting to make their voices heard within the GOP have experienced a different kind of March Madness this year. Republican officials across the state trying to slam the door shut on tea partiers seem to expect that a movement built on ideas neglected by the party and fueled energy and creativity absent in too many of its campaigns and officials is now populated by people who can't read.

At issue is the Republican Party of Kentucky's preamble, which states that party officials must exhibit "devotion to our party's principles and loyalty to its candidates."

Arbitrary application of the term "loyalty" inspired the Campbell County Republican Party to disenfranchise former Campbell County Tea Party president Erik Hermes on March 3. He has filed an appeal to RPK Chairman Steve Robertson.

If the Republican Party of Kentucky doesn't overturn this "loyalty pledge" nonsense on appeal it will be their Bill Clinton moment. Any active Republican who remembers the Clinton years remembers well his claim that it "depends on what your definition of 'is' is." Now the establishment GOP is playing the same game with the word loyalty. In 2010 the entire Kentucky GOP state Executive Committee voted not to support the Republican nominee in the state Senate's 2nd district. Is that not breaking their pretended "loyalty pledge?" And if not, why not? Did Senate President David Williams and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell break the pretended "loyalty pledge in 1999 when they supported Democratic Gov. Paul Patton's re-election? How about in 2007 when they opposed Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher's re-election bid? The ball is in their court. The GOP establishment should explain exactly why this bogus restriction applies only now and excludes people so arbitrarily.

The Republican Party of Kentucky's actions have amounted to an attempt to delegitimize itself and has already created a chilling effect for conservative Republicans who would like to make their voices heard within their own party. Damage has already been done and the time to start reversing that damage is now.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Worse than a tax increase

Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington announced her signing of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge by stating that the "national debt is over $15 trillion and growing because the federal government spends too much of our money, not because it collects too little in taxes."

If she understands that, though, how could Webb-Edgington have voted for six of seven debt-filled House Democrat budget bills prior to this year? Her vote against the current budget bill is a good one, but her track record leaves voters to wonder if it was just an election-year move and whether she would stand strong in Washington D.C. when she hasn't in Frankfort.

The key to winning the Republican party nomination in Kentucky's 4th congressional district this year will be successfully navigating the distance between tea party and establishment Republicans. Alecia already started off the campaign on the wrong foot.

As tea party activists continue to grow their influence in Northern Kentucky, it will be interesting to see what the candidates do to bridge this gap.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Are you a Red Star Republican?

Current leadership of the Republican Party of Kentucky is now apparently excluding certain active Republicans from party activity with the use of a "Red Star" next to their names on voter lists.

There is nothing in party rules that allows such exclusion. Some insiders point to the preamble to party rules which states: "Devotion to our Party’s principles and loyalty to its candidates are and should be the only qualifications for holding any position in the Republican Party."


If that is what the establishment types are hanging their hat on to start kicking people out of the party, they are doing it arbitrarily. Repairing selective application of this "rule" would require expulsion of the entire GOP state Executive Committee, which voted in 2010 to not support the Republican nominee in the state Senate's 2nd district. If there is a specific statute of limitations on this imaginary "loyalty clause," it should be specified immediately. Otherwise, we might wonder if it applies to the state Senate President. A Republican, he supported Democratic Governor Paul Patton's re-election in 1999.


If you don't support such shenanigans used to personally attack fellow Republicans despite (and arguably because of "devotion to our Party's principles", you just might be a Red Star Republican.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Get this camel's nose out of Kentucky's tent

Governor Steve Beshear has been scrambling around since passage of ObamaCare trying to find a way to implement the federal takeover of health care in Kentucky.

He has found it and stopping him is up to you.

Buried at the bottom of the House budget bill is language to resurrect the Insurance Coverage, Affordability and Relief to Small Employers (ICARE) program, started under Governor Ernie Fletcher despite opposition from some conservatives at the time. Fortunately, the health insurance subsidy scheme was soon defunded by the legislature despite Gov. Beshear's campaign promise to expand it.

Beshear is back with an eye toward bigger spending. Much bigger spending.

If you happen to be combing through HB 265 looking for differences between the old and the new ICARE, there are several but one big one that jumps out if you are concerned about stopping ObamaCare from inching its way into our state.

On page 176 of the bill, under the label "Section 6(2)," you will find the following language: "The department shall work with the Office of Health Policy within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to review the availability of federal funds for the ICARE Program."

The available federal funds mother lode is ObamaCare. Beshear has already telegraphed his interest in implementing ObamaCare administratively and this would open the door widely for him in the name of paying for bigger state government with federal funds.

ICARE should also be removed from the budget bill because we don't need another government redistribution racket making health insurance more "fair," but stopping ObamaCare is the reason with more zeros behind it.

Call your legislators.

They want more special sessions in Frankfort

Senate Bill 7, filed Monday by Senate President David Williams, would move the candidate filing deadline to late April and primary election day to late August. The supposed rationale is to increase accountability for legislators' actions in election year legislative sessions.

It won't work that way.

What this bill will do is push more real legislative action into special sessions in the summer months after the filing deadline. Look at how uneventful most sessions are through the month of January and how the current one remained so as the redistricting process dragged things out this year.

The filing deadline should happen at the same time we want legislators to start working. Move it to the first of January and we will stop the even year practice of legislators sitting on their hands in January. That way, they might even get to work on the budget earlier and take away much of the need for expensive special sessions. Otherwise, we will only move more lawmaking activity to later in the year.

Friday, March 02, 2012

Your next Kentucky sneeze may cost you

Kentucky's Senate Republicans passed a ridiculous Snot tax compromise bill that will require some people (not  many, they promise, and surely not you) to get a doctor's prescription before they can get all the allergy medicine they need.

They are already talking about needing to come back next year and to tighten the current restrictions so that even you will have to get a prescription.

Can't they just settle on letting Senator Stivers and Senator Williams travel around to WalMarts and yell at people who appear to have allergies? This bill doesn't change anything in terms of methamphetamine production and just encourages the nanny state inclinations of politicians with too much time on their hands.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Let's keep the Snot tax dead

The Kentucky state Senate took their tweaked Snot Tax bill and attempted to bring it to a floor vote today but stop short when sufficient votes for passage could not be found.

The new bill would still send allergy sufferers to their doctor for expensive prescriptions. The only difference is that it would also set up a bureaucracy to monitor in state purchases in a ridiculous attempt to limit the production of methamphetamine.

A Senate Republican source who asked to remain anonymous to avoid punishment from leadership said the bill remained seven votes short of passage despite a full-court press.

They went through the same process last year with this effort. It's funny to watch Senate leadership try and fail repeatedly to browbeat members into going against their constituents on healthcare costs. When are they ever going to learn?

House panel votes to keep surgery expensive

Surgery in a hospital is much more expensive than surgery in a doctor's office and Kentucky's House Health and Welfare Committee wants to keep you going to the hospital.

The committee voted this afternoon to require doctor's seeking to establish outpatient "ambulatory surgical centers" in their office's to apply to the state's archaic and inefficient Certificate of Need department so the state can prevent them from providing these services in competition with hospitals.

If you know you don't want a Kentucky Snot Tax, then please understand this issue involves much more money than that.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Senate still wants to tax your allergies

Kentucky Senator Robert Stivers filed Senate Bill 3 today as part of the continuing effort to force allergy sufferers to get a doctor's prescription before they can buy allergy medicine containing pseudoephedrine.

"Snot tax" supporters claim that limiting access to allergy and cold medicine by innocent people will help with the drug problem in the state.

It might be interesting to see this come to a vote to learn where the players are on the issue.


Monday, February 27, 2012

Obama declares war on Tea Party

You may not want to hear anything Barack Obama has to say between now and election day. But Obama feels the same way about you -- and he controls the IRS, which gives him the upper hand in trying to shut you up.

And, of course, he is now abusing that power.

Obama is using the Internal Revenue Service to prevent citizen groups from forming 501(c)(4) corporations. This effectively limits individual citizens' ability to associate and petition the government for redress of grievances as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

If you are a member of the Kentucky 912 Project, Obama has you in his crosshairs right now. The Kentucky 912 Project is comparing notes with other liberty groups across the country and have found dozens whose applications for 501(c)(4) status have been denied or revoked by the IRS.

In case you were looking for another reason to support dismantling the IRS, you can now include ending the ability of an out of control president using federal power to take your voice away.

This is a great example of an issue that you don't have to be directly affected by to understand that we must stand with our friends in their time of need before we find ourselves standing alone against such tyranny.

Please read up on this issue and tell everyone you know.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Kentucky casino bill sleeps with fishes


It was pretty easy to see this coming.


Kentucky can't create a casino bill that generates income for the state and expands revenue at the racetracks sufficiently to gain the votes to pass the legislature.


And this afternoon, the bill they put up failed on the Senate floor.


Maybe next year they will try something different. But if they can't reconcile the vast differences between those who want most of the revenue to go to tracks and those who want most of the revenue to go to the state, then those who just oppose casinos don't have to do much other than sit back and watch the circus.


And now that it is over for 2012, let's hope we can do something serious about spending less in the budget than revenues will cover.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tea Party rocks the rotunda

I will be on the Leland Conway radio show Tuesday at 3:50 pm ET talking about Wednesday's Tea Party rally in Frankfort.

You can listen online at wlap.com or on Lexington radio at 630 AM. The Facebook event page is here.

See you Wednesday at 10:30 am ET in the capitol rotunda.


Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Tea Party pulls it all together

We've had tea party events in Kentucky focused on federal issues and tea party events focused on state issues,  but on Wednesday we will have federal candidates drawing attention to a state issue.

The juxtaposition is creating significant interest.

On February 22 at 10:30 am ET at the state capitol's rotunda, confirmed speakers Alecia Webb-Edgington, Gary Moore and Thomas Massie, 4th district congressional candidates, and 6th district congressional candidate Andy Barr join state legislators and others to draw attention to state government overspending and debt.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Leland Conway rallies for debt ceiling

WLAP talk personality Leland Conway will speak to a tea party rally in support of a state debt ceiling in Frankfort next week.

The rally will be held at the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday, February 22 at 10:30 am ET. The public is invited to attend.

The tea party has been pushing hard for a mandated limit on state debt since last fall. The state Senate has named this issue their highest priority with Senate Bill 1.

Please spread the word about this event. Click here to go the Facebook page.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Left coast state bites Obama

Oregon hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate in almost thirty years. But earlier this week a bipartisan coalition of state House members turned on President Barack Obama by voting to refuse to set up a state-run health insurance exchange, a key component of ObamaCare.

If they can do that there, it stands to reason our guys and gals in Frankfort can figure it out, too.

The Oregonian reports, however, that some legislators there are determined to keep drinking the Kool-Aid.


"Democrats protested that the exchange would be funded by federal money as well as insurance fees, and would not affect the state budget."


This is just the latest example of politicians who haven't read something they are voting on that will cost taxpayers money. The bulk of the ObamaCare federal money goes away in 2016 and the impact on state budgets will be substantial. In any case, it is ridiculously false to claim that there will be no impact on state budgets. Even Nancy Pelosi isn't trying that one.

Kentucky politicians would do very well to get out in front of this one.




Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Big Tea Party advance today

Nine months ago, Kentucky's state Senate President openly mocked tea partiers who wanted to limit the state's debt. On Wednesday, the Senate's top priority -- Senate Bill 1 -- was announced as, you guessed it, a state debt ceiling bill.

The bill prohibits the accumulation of any additional general fund appropriation-supported debt when the ratio of that debt exceeds six percent of general fund appropriated revenues. An exception in the bill for "emergency" situations requires a request by the governor and approval of majorities of both chambers of the legislature.

The current debt ratio is over six percent.

I'd prefer to see the ratio set lower -- like five percent -- and I'd prefer to do without the "emergency" escape hatch. But if it takes giving some on these two points to get the bill through, it looks like a step in the right direction.

If we can keep them below six percent, we can go for five percent later. And get ready to resist any bogus "emergency" debt bills.

This is a great issue for House candidates to start making noise about right away.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Tea party should demand a refund

Kentucky's legislative redistricting has been a disaster because of incumbent politicians seeking first to protect their turf. The shenanigans have caused some challenger candidates to file multiple times as the district boundaries have changed.

And the boundaries could change yet again.

The legislature should move immediately to refund any filing fees for candidates who have had to file more than once. While they are at it, they should refund fees to any candidate who decides not to run when the final lines are established.

I know the idea is to frustrate anyone who wants to come into the process from the outside in hopes he or she will just go away. This abuse of the public is exactly the type of thing we must fight against.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Extend Bush tax cuts now

On January 13, 2013, the Bush tax cuts are set to expire and taxes will go up for most Americans. Making them permanent should be an immediate priority for all presidential and congressional candidates, even those proposing to drop rates lower.

Lower rates are for next year. Right now is the time to prevent January 1 from being Tax Increase Day 2013. Even if Republicans liberate the White House and the Senate, there will certainly be enough Democrats in the Senate to filibuster against a bill to keep rates where they are now.

Representatives Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth have shown themselves to be untrustworthy on taxes already. They should hear from us every day between now and election day on extending the Bush tax cuts. Kentucky's Republican members of Congress should get the same earful at least until the House passes such a bill.

Showing taxpayers what they could buy with the money Obama and the Democrats want to take from them on New Year's Day would make an interesting campaign message.

Only one way to get more cosponsors

Kentucky House Bill 26, the welfare drug testing bill, has sixty cosponsors. The only way to get more names on a bill in Frankfort is to propose naming a bridge after a war hero.

Rep. Tom Burch is locking up the bill in the House Health and Welfare Committee with complaints which prove only that he hasn't bothered to read the bill.

Please call your legislators and ask them to tell Rep. Burch to read the bill and then to pass it out of the committee he chairs.


Friday, February 10, 2012

TEA time in Kentucky

The final, official list of Kentucky state House candidates includes at least two dozen very serious Tea Party Republican candidates.

One name to watch is Jessamine County's Matt Lockett.

Lockett faces House Majority Caucus Leader Bob Damron in the 39th House district.

Damron just voted to move the largest concentration of Republicans in Jessamine County out of the Sixth Congressional district so Rep. Ben Chandler might be more likely to carry water for Washington D.C. Democrats for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately for Damron, those conservative voters are back in Bob's district after he and Speaker Greg Stumbo botched the redistricting process for the state House.

Bob has also raised the ire of Americans for Tax Reform after he failed to keep his promise on their Taxpayer Protection Pledge when he voted to raise taxes.

Why isn't Kentucky Tebowing?

Long-time fans of Tim Tebow know that he was a home-schooled kid who, under Florida law, was allowed to play football at a public high school. That's how he came to the attention of the Florida Gators and, ultimately, became an NFL throwing-and-praying sensation.

The issue should come to the attention of Kentucky's General Assembly now because Virginia is close to passing its own "Tebow law" which would give that state's homeschool students access to sports teams their tax dollars are already paying for.

Yes, doing this dredges up tough questions about sports eligibility and recruiting but sorting them out is a small price to pay for restoring lost taxpayer rights to homeschoolers who choose to exercise them. And Kentucky public school students would benefit from a glimpse into the homeschool world.

Of course, maybe that is what "Big Ed" is afraid of in Kentucky. It's way past time to fundamentally alter the way we view utilization of our public education dollars. Putting the focus on serving children rather than protecting bureaucratic turf has to start someplace. Let's start here.

Thursday, February 09, 2012

After Indiana victory, Right to Work comes here

Supporters of freedom from forced unionism in Kentucky workplaces are mapping out a strategy to make Kentucky a Right to Work state within six to eight years.

In Right to Work states, an individual can't be forced to join a union in order to get or keep a job.

Union dues are often used to support left wing causes and candidates, in opposition to the interests of most Kentuckians. Indiana became the only rust belt state to go Right to Work on February 1.

This law is particularly necessary in Kentucky because of special protections granted labor unions such as prevailing wage laws which artificially inflate the cost of public construction projects.

New job growth in Indiana as a result of Right to Work should help the effort to end forced unionism in Kentucky.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Richie Farmer: how low can we set the bar?

Former Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer made international news last week when it was revealed that he applied for unemployment benefits after his two terms in office ended in December.

Well, you won't believe this.

Apparently Richie got the rejection letter all the rest of us knew would be coming. And then he filed an appeal.

Kentucky has a long tradition of colorful characters running for -- and serving in -- political office. As long as name recognition is a key determinant of electoral success, we may have a tough time upgrading the quality of our candidates and officeholders. But if this sad tale doesn't motivate us to give less money and less power to our government, I don't know what will.

Still not kicking the right butts

On Wednesday morning, the Kentucky Senate Health and Welfare Committee will spend a significant amount of time on "Medicaid managed care provider problems." There are a lot of them.

The state Medicaid program is a serious mess. This comes after Gov. Steve Beshear spent the first three years of his first term "studying" managed care in Medicaid and just the last few months hurriedly putting it into place.

And now he and his friends are frantically trying to pretend ObamaCare won't make it much worse.

Let's define marriage as between free people

A federal appeals court in San Francisco today said states can't define marriage as between one man and one woman.

Two things should happen as this issue makes its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. First, the "Johnson Amendment" which allows the Internal Revenue Service to limit the freedom of speech of churches should be repealed. Then we should repeal all taxes on income in order to end government involvement in both the exercise of religion and the definition of marriage.

The left will not allow those two things to happen, of course. They would rather keep the same-sex marriage activists busy supporting Democratic candidates than risk being consistent on the protection of individual freedom in America.

Meanwhile, churches and socially conservative people will continue to resist efforts of the left to take for themselves another weapon against those who don't accept their agendas.

Rep. Damron, call the Governor

Speaking on the Jack Pattie show this morning, House Majority Caucus Leader Bob Damron said the state of Kentucky is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on ObamaCare before setting up the federal law's health insurance exchange bureaucracy.

This is false.

Governor Beshear, while denying to state reporters that he is working to create the ObamaCare infrastructure in Kentucky, has accepted millions of federal dollars for that purpose and has informed the National Conference of State Legislatures that he is using the state's Division of Certificate Need to implement by executive order what the legislature is too chicken to pass or kill in public.

Friday, February 03, 2012

Steve Beshear's lips still moving

Governor Steve Beshear is still denying to Frankfort reporters that he is working to sneak an ObamaCare health insurance exchange past the legislature.

Stopping ObamaCare in Kentucky should not be very difficult at all.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Is this the Seinfeld legislature?

The 2012 Kentucky General Assembly has been pretty underwhelming so far. One sign this might be the "session about nothing" is that four bills to remove an unpopular, expensive and, frankly embarrasssing legislative pension provision haven't even gotten as much as a committee hearing.

And it's not like they have been busy taking on other issues of substance.

Please call your lawmakers and ask them to pass HB 117, SB 26, HB 65 or SB 28.

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

What, no more politician cake?

Caleb Brown at the Bluegrass Institute points out former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer's application for unemployment insurance at the end of his term lays bare an ugly fact -- we train our political class to not think past the next election.

Of course, these are the same people who piled a record amount of debt on us in 2011.

Glauber: stop Beshear on ObamaCare

The failure of Kentucky's legislature to protect against exploding costs of ObamaCare could be the most expensive story of the 2012 General Assembly, 26th district House of Representatives candidate David Glauber said.

"Governor Steve Beshear is working to advance the federal healthcare law by executive order and without the approval of the legislature," Glauber said. "If he did ask, even the House Democrats would surely refuse him in an election year. If we don't stop the federal law, in 2016 our already unaffordable state Medicaid expenses will skyrocket."

"We need a bill to prohibit Governor Beshear from creating a state health insurance exchange under the ObamaCare law without input from the legislature," Glauber said.

Monday, January 30, 2012

David Glauber signs Kentucky tax pledge

Kentucky's fiscal woes were created by overspending and not a lack of revenue, said 26th state House district candidate David Glauber, who is encouraging all legislative candidates to join in him swearing off tax increases.

"State government revenue is at an all-time high, but spending is even higher," Glauber said. "Now that Governor Beshear is talking about tax reform, we need to tie our politicians' hands against the possibility of raising taxes on hard working Kentuckians. We are taxed enough already."

Earlier today, Glauber signed the Americans for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge, promising not to vote for tax increases. He encouraged other candidates to follow suit.

"Kentucky can't thrive with a government that keeps getting in our way. We need lower taxes and fewer regulations so the private sector can be profitable. Profitable companies hire more people," Glauber said.

David Glauber seeks to represent the new 26th House district comprising part of Bullitt County and part of Hardin County.

Kentucky should do this

Missouri's state Senate is considering a bill to prevent their governor from doing what Kentucky's Governor Steve Beshear is doing to us with regard to ObamaCare.

Beshear is quietly attempting to implement ObamaCare by creating, via executive order, the bureaucracy to enforce a federal takeover of the health care industry.

ObamaCare mandates a health insurance "exchange," which Kentucky has already taken millions of federal dollars to start implementing. We really need the legislature to take action on this right away.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Media freedom (could be) people freedom

A news item getting worldwide coverage this week was a ranking of press freedoms in 179 countries placing the United States 47th, tied with Romania.

Everyone across the political spectrum in America should be able to agree that our freedom of speech is a cherished right and that we don't want to be outdone by a nation separated from communist domination by less than a quarter of a century.

In fact, it's not good enough that the USA merely crack the top 25 in next year's ranking. We should have the freest media in the world.

I have an idea.

Our constitutional freedom of speech guarantees on both the federal and state levels include a term that has created some confusion we need to clear up in order to better protect our freedoms. The term is freedom of the press.

The Kentucky and United States Constitutions were written at a time in which the cutting edge communications technology of the day was a printing press. Employees of media corporations sometimes claim their profession is the only one protected by the Constitution. This is clearly not accurate. If the internet, television, radio or even telephones existed in the late 18th century, it is certain the word "press" wouldn't be found in either document or the other technologies would be included as well.

To update and clarify free speech rights in the United States we need to change our definitions of "media" and "press" to include all individuals, since we all have broadcast capabilities our founding fathers could not even imagine.

Click here to read proposed legislation for Kentucky.  Our state law does not include a "press exemption" or "media exemption" such as that used on the federal level to create special rights for media corporations, so a federal solution would be a little more involved. But it is worth the effort to protect our sacred freedoms. If you agree, please forward this post widely.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Kentucky industrial hemp rolling

The industrial hemp bill in Kentucky's House of Representatives has 15 co-sponsors, seven of which are Democrats.

Kentucky agriculture needs the freedom to grow industrial hemp and it can't happen until our politicians lose their ridiculous fear that someone might mistake this incredibly useful crop with a hallucinogenic drug.

Coming on the heels of advancement of Kentucky's milk freedom bill, this progress is a welcome sight. If you haven't already, please ask your representative to sign on to the hemp bill.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Kentucky milk freedom advances

The Kentucky Senate Agriculture Committee advanced a bill on Thursday to clarify the freedom of Kentuckians to produce, sell, buy and drink raw milk.

Senate Bill 47 came about as the result of an ugly incident in Louisville last May in which local "health" authorities raided a food club and took their fresh milk.

The bill has only four sponsors in the Senate. Please contact your Senator and ask him or her to support food freedom in Kentucky. Especially with the federal government getting more aggressive toward food freedom, getting this right on the state level is worth the effort.

It's not too soon to start talking this up with your House representative as well.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Going cold turkey off Kentucky crazy checks

Kentucky is about to make national news big time with a bill that would require a drug test for welfare recipients suspected of abusing illegal drugs.

Lonnie Napier's HB 26 now has 55 co-sponsors in the 100 member state House.

Florida passed a similar law that was blocked by a federal judge last October because it didn't limit testing to cases in which there is probable cause. A 1999 Michigan law was also thrown out for the same reason.

A similar measure is under consideration in Tennessee, but Kentucky is the one state in which someone is doing this correctly.

We can agree to cut this, right?

Kentucky legislators appear to be dragging their feet on clearing up the David Williams pension scandal in Frankfort, perhaps because too many of them are afraid of the Senate President.

But what about Steve Nunn? The Kentucky Knows Best PAC stirred up interest in bloated legislative pensions last summer with the news that convicted murderer and former state Rep. Steve Nunn would draw his state pension in prison for the rest of his life simply because he didn't murder his girlfriend while he was a legislator.

Cleaning this mess up will be very easy. See details by clicking here.

You can get the ball rolling by calling or forwarding this post your representatives or to Rep. Mike Cherry and Sen. Damon Thayer. While the legislature is patiently waiting for the candidate filing deadline to pass, dealing with this should be an easy and painless way to pass the time.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Small victory for free speech

State Rep. Jim Wayne (D-Louisville) withdrew a public financing of judicial campaigns bill today that would have given participating candidates funds to match independent expenditures made on behalf of an opponent.

Particularly during a presidential election year in which hundreds of millions of independent expenditure dollars are sure to be spent, it's interesting to see attempts like this to counter private funds devoted to a political campaign with funds forcibly taken by the government.

Glad to see such a ridiculous bill fail to get any support in the House. We should use the demise of this misguided attempt as a reason to reinforce individual free speech rights in Kentucky.

Kentucky Medicaid enrollment shocker

Kentucky's Medicaid/KCHIP enrollment under ObamaCare will increase by 42%, a new Urban Institute study projected.

This is significant mostly because Kentucky already can't afford what we spend on Medicaid (14.8% of general fund appropriations in the current budget proposal.) But also, there is this: the Urban Institute, a left-wing think tank supports ObamaCare. The Heritage Foundation, which opposes ObamaCare, projects an increase of only 31%.

The Urban Institute suggests Kentucky will be able to make up for much of the additional costs by almost entirely eliminating uncompensated care costs. Yet again, if Massachusetts serves as a guide, that's another bad bet for Governor Beshear, who continues to force ObamaCare on us through the back door.

Monday, January 23, 2012

How will you protect free speech in Kentucky?

Theresa Camoriano, a Louisville attorney, understands better than most that we don't appreciate our free speech rights until we notice them being taken away. Mrs. Camoriano has written a legislative bill to ensure that individuals can maintain those rights in the face of a state government growing increasingly hostile toward its citizens who dare to speak out.

Her bill would amend KRS 121.015 by adding the following to it:

(18)     "Press" means any resident of the state of Kentucky who engages in any form of communication. 

(19)     "Media" means any resident of the state of Kentucky who engages in any form of communication.

(20)     "Newspaper" means any form of printed material that includes any advertisement or other information for the purpose of public distribution, including information printed on paper, billboards, signs, fliers, web pages and other electronic print material.

The purpose of this portion of Kentucky statute is to clarify that the speech and press rights of the flesh and blood residents of Kentucky are no less than the speech and press rights of legal persons taking the form of newspaper and broadcast businesses operating in Kentucky.




Given Kentucky's clear constitutional prohibition on government infringement of free speech rights, this change in state law shouldn't be necessary. But as long as we have Democratic elected officials promoting nonsense like this and Republicans willing to go along when they don't want to be criticized either, we need to be proactive.



This language would prevent the Commonwealth of Kentucky from punishing any citizen for simply exercising his or her right to speak freely. Anyone opposed to that?

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Everyone wants to co-opt the tea party

Possibly the greatest political quote in history, from Mahatma Gandhi, applies to the tea party in a big way: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

In the battle between the tea party and the establishment, we are in the thick of phase three.

Newt Gingrich just won South Carolina and many of his voters claim to also support tea party principles. That might make your skin crawl if you oppose some of the big government positions Speaker Gingrich supports, but defeating the establishment was never going to be easy and we should expect a few more big twists and turns before we win. Newt is just another brick in the wall.

Where others view with disgust a dalliance between Newt and the tea party, I see a movement securing its footing for a major advance. Hold on tight for a very bumpy ride.

But at some point soon (very soon, I hope) the tea party will be bigger than both the Republican and Democratic parties. Then the only way someone can get elected to office is to swear a blood oath that he or she will make government smaller and less powerful.

The establishment, I think, will keep doubling down on their big government garbage past the point at which it stops working for them. In 2010, we got a very small taste of what that looks like. This year may not be the tipping point, but there is no question we are close.

Another positive sign is that Washington D.C. Democrats are saying out loud that the GOP has gone too far with the tea party and that they think they will get back all their power in 2012. They might win some races, but that would only pour gasoline on the tea party fire. If we do take a step back this year, the next move forward will be unstoppable. That could get really ugly because the power players are so entrenched, but the big government folks really are out of other people's money. They are running out of time faster than we are.

To end this post on a related but somewhat lighter note, I noticed today some on the far left using a familiar tea party symbol to support one of their own, Senator Kathy Stein. Did you see this?
If the Dems wave Gadsden Flags like this at their Sunday afternoon rally, I suspect the media will try to blame the tea party for any police cars they set on fire.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Unbridled "Medicaid Eligibility" foolishness

Governor Steve Beshear's 2012-2014 budget proposal includes a bonding request of $50 million for a Medicaid Eligibility program to "provide for real-time time determination of applicant eligibility."



Aside from the obvious stupidity of spending $50 million for a program to tell if someone is eligible for Medicaid or not, the laundry list of federal agencies involved in the project suggests strongly this has something to do with the ObamaCare program the legislature is quietly allowing Beshear to implement without our approval.

If there is any resistance left in Frankfort, now would be a great time to start resisting.

Kathy Stein gets her David Williams payday

Sen. Kathy Stein has been redistricted out of her state Senate seat. Expect her to quickly get appointed to another state job to cash in on the David Williams pension scam.

So far, the Kentucky legislature in 2012 has shown no inclination to clean up any part of the pension mess or address the debt problem.

Forty eight days remain in the 2012 General Assembly.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Only 8 cosponsors on concealed carry bill

Kentucky state Rep. Mike Harmon is trying again to restore to Kentuckians the right to carry a concealed firearm without getting a government permit first.

The biggest surprise about this bill, filed Wednesday, is that only seven other House Republicans have signed on with Rep. Harmon.

Please call your representative and ask him or her to stand up for our Second Amendment rights. In an election year in Kentucky, surely we can pass a bill like this.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Say no to this "health" nonsense

Kentucky's House Health and Welfare Committee will take up HB 206 on Thursday. It's a bill that would spend millions of dollars putting health departments across the Commonwealth through a new national accreditation process.

Sounds pretty hopey-changey to me.

If we need to improve our public health departments, that's fine. But the Public Health Accreditation Board needs to develop a track record of doing more than calling themselves experts before we spend money we don't have on their program.

The bill will pass the committee because that is how they roll. But the bill shouldn't stand up under much scrutiny. Let's hope it gets some before it hits Gov. Beshear's desk.

Tennessee might beat Kentucky this time

Tennessee's state Senate leader Ron Ramsey needs to get with Kentucky state Rep. Lonnie Napier before he gets much further with his welfare drug testing proposal. But once Ramsey gets clear on the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, he appears to really be on to something.

Ramsey says he wants to drug test nearly everyone getting any kind of government benefits. The problem with this is that in order to get through the inevitable court challenges, any such bill must limit testing to cases in which there is shown to be probable cause.

But that's easy to fix.

The really interesting part is where Ramsey's Tennessee proposal goes next. He doesn't just want to test welfare recipients, but also corporate executives getting government subsidies and even legislators.

You see, this isn't just about drugs. It's about questioning who gets government money and why. Once we start weeding government recipients out based on anything -- and drug abuse is a fairly easy one to sell -- then we are one big step closer to questioning the programs altogether.

And we can't get government under control until we question thoroughly the value of every program, eliminating the ones with limited value. Failed welfare programs and "economic development" are two fine examples.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Proliferating pain pill perversity

A new legislative proposal in Frankfort underscores the need to teach economics more widely in Kentucky.

House Bill 251 would cause some health care providers to be prosecuted as felons for accepting cash for their services. The intent is to cut down on overprescribing of pain pills, but at a time that our federal government is moving toward destroying our healthcare system through radical manipulation of insurance options, the last thing we need to be doing is telling sick people they can't pay cash to go to the doctor.

In fact, multiple medical examples such as contact lenses, plastic surgery, and LASIK, which are not payable by health insurance, suggest strongly that we should be encouraging cash payment for healthcare rather than throwing people in jail.

There are better ways to make prescription drug abuse more illegal than it already is. We don't need to throw bad economics into the mix.


Beshear sneaking ObamaCare past legislature

Understanding what is going on with ObamaCare in Kentucky depends on which Steve Beshear you believe.

With no chance a state ObamaCare exchange bill could pass even the Democratic-controlled House this year, Beshear's best option is to do nothing and let the law collapse on its own. His administration, when pressed by concerned Kentuckians, insists that is the approach it is taking. But they have told others something altogether different.

Last month, the Beshear administration told Health Policy Director Joy Johnson Wilson at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington D.C. that Beshear is proceeding secretly to implement a state-run exchange by executive order through the Division of Certificate of Need in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services' Office of Health Policy.

We can't afford ObamaCare in Kentucky and as word spreads of Beshear's duplicity, outrage across the Commonwealth will send that message to Frankfort very clearly. 

The legislature should move immediately to get its members on record in support of or against Beshear's sneaky ObamaCare implementation. Such action would shine some much-needed light on Frankfort. 

Monday, January 16, 2012

Rep. Richard Henderson gets two things right

This Thursday, January 19, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer starts making good on his campaign promise to restart hemp cultivation in Kentucky with a 3:30 pm press conference to unveil a bill by Rep. Richard Henderson that would make the growing of hemp legal in Kentucky.

Misinformed opponents sometimes confuse hemp with marijuana, which is odd since hemp cross-pollinates with marijuana and renders it useless as a drug. The economic benefits of hemp cultivation are well-documented. Kentucky House members who care about growing our economy should join Rep. Henderson and Commissioner Comer.

Rep. Henderson is also one of the forty seven cosponsors on Rep. Lonnie Napier's welfare recipient drug testing bill. We need more lawmakers in Frankfort who understand both industrial hemp's many benefits and who can tell the difference between it and the drugs on which welfare recipients shouldn't be spending our money.

The Thursday press conference will be held in the State Capitol. Please plan to attend if you can and invite friends. Further details will be made available here when we get them.

Stopping welfare waste starts here

Kentucky state representative Lonnie Napier has the best bill in the country for drug testing welfare recipients and so far forty six of his fellow House members agree.

The bill's forty seven cosponsors (including Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Majority Caucus Chairman Bob Damron) are more than enough to guarantee the bill a floor vote in case Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Tom Burch attempts to tie up the bill prematurely.

More efficiently attacking abuse of the welfare system is a great tea party issue. If your representative is not a cosponsor, please call him or her today.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Is David Williams Sugar Tax coming back?

Kentucky Senate President David Williams may be taking another flip on his flip-flopping over the proposed Snot Tax just as a new study could help revive his 2009 call for a tax on sugary drinks.

Sugar tax advocates say the federal government could save lives and billions of dollars in public health expenses by levying a penny-per-ounce "user fee" on certain soft drinks.

But just three weeks ago, Kentucky lawmakers killed a proposal which would have stopped Kentuckians from using food stamps to buy some junk foods.

Frankfort rarely misses a chance to make government bigger, but can't stomach a commonsense approach that would reduce spending and improve people's lives at the same time. And big-government Republicans who won't sign no-tax pledges always seem to be in the middle of it.


Thursday, January 12, 2012

How to limit Kentucky's debt now

Kentucky's General Assembly should add to its two proposed constitutional amendments limiting state debt by simply seeking to pass a bill to do the same thing.

The two main advantages to this approach are that simple majorities are necessary to pass a bill -- as opposed to super majorities for constitutional amendments -- and that a new law created in this fashion could take effect immediately rather than next year.

We need to not wait any longer than is absolutely necessary to start the process of getting Kentucky's debt crisis under control.

And it doesn't have to be complicated at all. Take a look at KRS 58.020. This brief paragraph in state law could be improved greatly just by adding the following language:

"General fund appropriation-supported debt service" means the amount appropriated by the General Assembly for interest or other required periodic payments associated with general fund appropriation-supported debt, whether or not the debt has actually been issued.


The authorization of general fund appropriation-supported debt service by the General Assembly shall not at any time result in a ratio of authorized general fund appropriation-supported debt service to revenues of greater than five percent.


If the amount of authorized general fund appropriation-supported debt service exceeds five percent at the time of adoption of this provision, no new debt shall be authorized by the General Assembly until the level of authorized general fund appropriation-supported debt service falls below five percent.

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