Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Kentucky public debt hits all-time high, grows $186.6 million in only six months

A new report issued quietly today by the Beshear Administration reveals a staggering increase in revenue supported state debt in the last six months. The increase of $186.6 million brought Kentucky's total of such debt to $9.1 billion.

When Gov. Beshear took office in December of 2007, that amount was $6.1 billion and the increase should have been lessened by an unprecedented $3.4 billion in one-time federal "stimulus" funds.

"This is why Kentuckians must band together to stop Gov. Beshear in his illegal ObamaCare charade," said David Adams, who is suing Beshear to stop his health reform efforts which have already been defunded by the legislature. "You stop a shopaholic by taking away his or her credit card. Beshear needs an intervention in the worst way."

These debt figures are available to the general public (and the media, but, oh never mind...) from the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet. Just ask for their ALCo semiannual report issued today.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Yarmuth: let's blow up Louisville economy

At a Tuesday rally for illegally forcing Louisville businesses to raise their "minimum wage" to $10.10 an hour, Congressman John Yarmuth quoted an old left-wing blog talking point that could, if taken seriously, wipe out the unskilled workers in the city and their employers.

"If your business model requires you to pay people less than a living wage, then you shouldn't be in business," Yarmuth said.

While Yarmuth is advocating for a city-wide increase in the minimum wage and not to force employers of unskilled laborers out of Jefferson County, he should be made to explain which businesses in Louisville he wants to victimize first.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Earth to lefties: Alison Grimes is ignoring you because Kentuckians aren't that stupid

The political Left desperately needs Alison Lundergan Grimes to campaign on Kynect/ObamaCare to justify their misinformation. She can't do it because she wants to have a future in Kentucky politics after she loses in November.

They claim falsely that Kentucky's uninsured population has dropped by half under ObamaCare. They claim falsely that Kynect is a massive success. They claim falsely that Kentuckians love Kynect all based on the New York Times finding one Kentuckian who was glad to get Medicaid.

ObamaCare is bad economics, bad health policy and bad politics in Kentucky. Love to see an Obamacrat get raked over the coals for not being Obamacrat enough and it will be great to watch them get louder and shriller as they continue to be ignored. If Kentucky's mainstream media had any honest players left, there is a good story here and "but the people just don't understand how great ObamaCare is!" isn't it.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Alison Lundergan Grimes rips taxpayers for ObamaCare

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes went on the offensive for ObamaCare on Saturday in Covington, against the interests of most Kentuckians.

"I want to make sure we're not ripping insurance from 500,000 people in Kentucky," Grimes told friends and supporters at her campaign's Northern Kentucky headquarters.

The fact is that getting ObamaCare out of Kentucky has nothing to do with "ripping insurance from 500,000 people." Far fewer have even purchased insurance under ObamaCare in Kentucky. What she is talking about is Medicaid, which is not insurance and is financed with money ripped out of the hands of Kentuckians.

According to the Kentucky Department of Insurance, 280,000 Kentuckians actually had their insurance ripped away from them when ObamaCare first hit Kentucky.

Grimes continues to defend Gov. Steve Beshear's illegal implementation of ObamaCare in Kentucky, which is currently being challenged in Kentucky's Court of Appeals (case numbers 13-CA-1521 and 13-CA-1590).

Sunday, September 07, 2014

ObamaCare/Kynect still big loser here

Obamacrats have screamed for years that as soon as people understand ObamaCare, they will love it. They will scream it again Monday, citing a new NBC/Marist poll they claim shows Kynect, which is Kentucky's health "exchange" created illegally by Gov. Beshear in answer to passage of ObamaCare, gaining support.

Don't buy it.

The new poll shows ObamaCare way underwater with 31 percent holding a favorable view and 62 percent unfavorable among registered voters. Capitalizing on unfamiliarity with the name of the state "Kynect" program, ObamaCare supporters will point to a 34 percent positive view of Kynect against only 18 percent negative. What Obamacrats -- and journalists, but I'm repeating myself -- neglect to point out is that 30 percent answered they have "never heard" of Kynect and 18 percent said they were "unsure."

The only way to lower those last two numbers is to explain what Kynect is. It's ObamaCare. Worse, Kynect was created illegally and is currently spending unappropriated state funds in violation of the Kentucky Constitution. Both failures are currently being challenged in state court, another fact Obamacrats don't want to talk about.

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Chamber of Commerce slurps up ObamaCare

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce is going around the state presenting a startlingly uninformative cheerleading session in favor of the "Affordable Care Act."

Ashli Watts, the Chamber's Public Affairs Manager, is delivering PowerPoint presentations billed as providing "what you and your business need to know" about ObamaCare.

But instead of that, Watts' audiences get stale talking points, non-answer answers to specific questions and repeated reminders that the Chamber was initially against ObamaCare but now just wants to help.

She also said the Chamber has taken no position on the lawsuits challenging ObamaCare, but that the Chamber supports Beshear's (illegal) attempts to create a state based exchange.

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Obamacrats attack Jessamine for Russ Meyer

A Washington D.C. political group has descended on the 39th Kentucky House district to promote the candidacy of Democrat Russ Meyer and ObamaCare.

"After a year of letters, calls, rallies and congressional visits, we passed a bill -- the Affordable Care Act -- that will help everyone get quality, affordable health care that can't be taken away," the group, Working America, claims on its website.

"Russ Meyer is the best candidate for state representative," the group claims in printed material it is distributing.

Meyer's opponent in November, Jonah Mitchell of Nicholasville, opposes ObamaCare.


Thursday, August 21, 2014

Kentucky ObamaCare lawsuits moving forward

The Kentucky Court of Appeals will hear two cases challenging Gov. Steve Beshear's unilateral implementation of the "Affordable Care Act" in Kentucky.

"Our system of government is on trial here," said David Adams, plaintiff in both cases. "Governor Beshear has created a mess by violating state law to force Kentucky into ObamaCare without required legislative approval. If Kentucky's judicial branch won't stop him in this contemptible law-breaking, we have no law. I don't believe we are that far gone."

The first order of business with the Court of Appeals will be a re-hearing of Beshear's ridiculous claim that citizens of Kentucky don't have a right to complain when he breaks the law.

"The legislature has refused to play along with Beshear in his ObamaCare nonsense by killing his executive orders without a single hearing and defunding ObamaCare in the state budget by veto-proof majorities in both chambers," Adams said. "The people's representatives have spoken loud and clear and now is the time for the rest of us to engage."

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

2015 GOP gubernatorial race's missing ingredient

Just got an email from the Hal Heiner for Governor campaign touting a 28-22 lead over James Comer. As much as I like Hal and appreciate his work particularly on education, it's pretty hard to miss the real news in the polling he mentions.

Hal isn't winning.

The headline on the campaign email says Heiner has "taken the lead" but the poll shows him either in 2nd or 3rd. If you throw Matt Bevin into the mix, the Hal is running behind "Not sure" and Bevin. If the race is between Heiner and Comer only, Hal trails "Not sure." By a lot, in both cases.

I'm not sure Matt Bevin will get into this race, but I know that if he did the first thing he would do is put up a web site with a page dedicated to explaining his positions on the issues. Hal has the only official campaign in the race but has yet to do that.

When the issues get the attention they deserve, there are several Kentucky candidates must address. Following state law and getting Kentucky out of ObamaCare is a total no-brainer. Dropping out of the federal "War on marijuana" is perhaps not as obvious yet, but it will be. Deregulating healthcare any way we can should be another easy one with quick, positive results -- starting with repealing certificate of need laws and reducing the scope of Department of Insurance regulation of health coverage. Opting out of federal control of public education must be a top priority of our next governor. Ending Kentucky's ridiculous corporate welfare game and seriously addressing public employee pensions are also winning ideas that can't wait for a champion.

We've suffered long enough under popularity contests and mud-slinging determining who runs our government. If you see a candidate or potential candidate ask them to get specific right away.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Joe Sonka: I see insured people!

Left-wing journalist Joe Sonka has a very funny way of advocating for ObamaCare in Kentucky. His latest effort reminded me a lot of the line from the spooky, supernatural "The Sixth Sense" movie from 1999 in which the main character whispered eerily "I see dead people."

Sonka is upset that Alison Grimes took her U.S. Senate campaign to Perry County without mentioning the "Affordable Care Act."

Sonka:
But an examination of enrollment numbers through Kynect, Kentucky’s state insurance exchange made possible by the Affordable Care Act, shows that the uninsured rate dropped more dramatically in Perry County (where Hazard is located) than in any other Kentucky county.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates, in 2012 there were 19,773 residents in Perry County with health insurance coverage, and 4,202 residents with no coverage. However, by the signup deadline this April, 5,509 people in Perry County had signed up for insurance through Kynect. Assuming the Beshear administration’s statewide estimate that 75 percent of Kynect enrollees were not previously insured (as stated on their application), this means Perry County’s uninsured rate may have dropped from over 17 percent to less than 1 percent.

We are deep into imaginary friend territory here. No one knows how wildly inaccurate the Census Bureau's guess at rates of coverage by health insurance are, but we can only hope it's not worse than Beshear's ridiculous twin claims that 75% of exchange health insurance enrollees were previously uninsured as were 75% of ObamaCare Medicaid enrollees. Current and former "exchange" employees and contractors reported repeatedly that their computers kicked out entries defining applicants as possessing prior insurance coverage, so it is very safe to assume Beshear simply made up both numbers.

Taking two very questionable data points and concluding from them that the uninsured rate in Perry County "may have dropped from over 17 percent to less than 1 percent," much less that the fantasy should be touted as fact in a U.S. Senate race, may run a thrill up the leg of Obamacrats and Beshear lackeys, but such science fiction writing does nothing to advance real public policy discussion.

Monday, August 11, 2014

University of Kentucky student health plan covers abortion

Kentucky law forbids health insurance companies from covering abortions except in the case of saving the life of the mother, but United Healthcare's student plan at the University of Kentucky covers elective abortions.

At the bottom of page 23 of the plan document under the headline "Benefits for Elective Abortion," it reads: The exclusion will be waived and benefits will be paid for elective abortion as for any other Sickness."

"Elective abortion" is also listed under "Exclusions and Limitations" in the policy, but "elective" is defined in the policy on page 25 as services that "do not meet the health care need for a Sickness or Injury," services deemed experimental or "not recognized and generally accepted medical practices in the United States." In other words, the policy makes no distinction between a legal abortion and an illegal abortion. It covers them all.

I guess the folks at UK figure it is cheaper to pay for abortions than for delivery of a child.

We've dealt with the Beshear administration's lack of honesty on this issue before.

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

WellCare of Kentucky not paying Medicaid doctors

Sources report Medicaid managed care provider WellCare of Kentucky has stopped reimbursing doctors whose patients present their coverage for payment.

Doctors' office personnel are currently turning away WellCare members and urging them to call Governor Steve Beshear. Kentucky has added over 600,000 people to the Medicaid rolls under ObamaCare.

This failure was not difficult to predict.

"'Counting ObamaCare 'success' one Medicaid recipient at a time is for people who enjoy playing hide-and-seek alone," said David Adams, plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking clarification of the law Beshear violated in signing Kentucky up for the optional ObamaCare Medicaid expansion.

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Supreme Court justice shows stronger sign of gubernatorial run

Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott has recused himself from involvement in the Court's two ObamaCare lawsuits, likely signaling a campaign for the the Republican nomination for Governor.

Justice Scott told the Lexington Herald Leader last month he was considering making a run and there is no other readily apparent reason for him to step down from hearing the ObamaCare cases.

The timing of the recusal also points to likely imminent action from the Court on the cases.

"Continuing to allow Gov. Beshear's ObamaCare charade to drag on with him continuing to fail to make implementation legal serves no purpose unless you enjoy watching MSNBC hosts slobber all over him," said David Adams, plaintiff in the two lawsuits challenging legality of ObamaCare implementation in Kentucky.

Monday, August 04, 2014

Beshear puts more lipstick on ObamaCare pig

The Interim Committee on Health and Welfare voted today in favor of Gov. Steve Beshear's third attempt to make ObamaCare legal in Kentucky, but there remains no chance whatsoever that his latest executive order will be ratified by the entire General Assembly. And that is what matters.

"The legal case for ObamaCare in Kentucky gets thinner by the day as illegal state expenditures pile up and nothing can be done to make it fit state law," said David Adams, plaintiff in two state lawsuits seeking clarification of already-pretty-clear state law forbidding Beshear's unilateral acceptance of optional portions of the "Affordable Care Act." "Kentucky's brain dead media would be all over this if the governor breaking the law so egregiously were a Republican or if there were an extramarital sex act involved."

The symbolic vote passed 11-7 with eleven yes votes coming from Democrats and seven no votes from Republicans. Nine committee members missed the meeting, including seven Republicans.

Friday, August 01, 2014

"Follow the Constitution" is GOP ticket in 2014

Republican candidates who want to maximize GOP voter turnout as well as attracting voters registered otherwise would do very well to focus on the rule of law and the ways in which their opponents fall short on that front.

A Tea Party Patriots poll of Republican voters across the country finds nearly all of them believe the most important issue involves a failure of government to follow the rule of law. The best answer from Democrats to complaints about their illegal tactics is to attempt to justify their actions.

Our prisons are full of people who, like these Democratic politicans, demonstrate failure to grasp why flouting constitutional and statutory restrictions on their actions is inherently bad.

Pointing this out repeatedly and keeping the discussion on opponents' problems with the rule of law should be fertile electoral policy any time, but seems to be especially so now.

For federal candidates, questions to ask involve your opponents' support for any number of the president's illegal and unconstitutional actions including asking why the opponent supports or does not support them. State candidates would do very well to look into Gov. Beshear's many illegal actions regarding ObamaCare implementation and question their opponents in a similar manner.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Leftists trying to microchip subsidies into ObamaCare

ObamaCare opponent overreach is an unfortunately common frustration for those trying to fight the federal takeover of our healthcare system by steadily bringing in supporters based on undeniable facts. An example of this is the claim that ObamaCare calls for Americans to micro-chipped as part of the law.

Something like that was in an early version of the ObamaCare bill, but never made it into law.

The funny thing is ObamaCare apologists freaking out over the idea that they might be held to the actual language in the law and not what their intentions are have taken up the same tactic of trying to distract people by quoting from old versions of the ObamaCare bill.

Greg Sargent, a Washington Post columnist, makes the silly argument that we have to ignore the language in the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" and run ObamaCare taxes and subsidies in states that opted out of setting up an exchange because an earlier version of the bill said something about taxes and subsidies flowing through both federal and state exchanges.

I've been explaining to friends for the last few years that ObamaCare doesn't require insertion of microchips, but as fast and loose as Obamacrats are with the rule of law maybe we can't be so sure.

Is Beshear defrauding feds or Kentuckians?

If you want to see Gwenda Bond's head explode -- and believe me, you do -- ask her for a copy of Kentucky's NCE application for our state ObamaCare Health Benefits Exchange.

As spokewoman for Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services, she is the person Beshear administration officials referred me to when I asked for a copy of the document formally requesting additional time to spend federal dollars on the Commonwealth's ObamaCare program.

The reason Gwenda is so upset is the "Affordable Care Act" requires all federal implementation funds given to states to set up their own exchanges to be spent by December 31, 2014, but gives flexibility for an extension if additional time is needed for the initial set-up of the "exchange." Beshear has been bragging across Kentucky and around the nation that Kentucky's exchange is ahead of schedule and operating better than other exchanges. So which is it: is Kentucky moving slowly and in need of remediation or does Beshear simply lack the legal authority and state spending ability he needs to proceed without state funds in a mere five months and finds himself in need of a federal bailout he can't have without breaking federal law?

A CMS FAQ document on NCE grants specifies: "the funds may not be used to cover maintenance and operating costs." Beshear has no money for such costs and no legal authority to cover them. So, you see the problem. After claiming falsely that he didn't need state funds for ObamaCare, Beshear now needs them but doesn't have them and doesn't qualify for an extension of federal funds and time is running out on his charade.

Lawsuits 13-SC-652 and 13-SC-667 currently await Kentucky Supreme Court action seeking clarification of Beshear's violations of state law in trying to force us into ObamaCare without legislative approval.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Beshear's $8.5 million ObamaCare/Kynect problem

Governor Steve Beshear filled last year's budget hole last Wednesday with $91 million in funds shifted around from someplace else. One of those other places was Kentucky's ObamaCare exchange, which coughed up $8.5 million for the cause.

The tangled web of problems with this transaction is worth looking into.

Beshear admits up front that the ObamaCare bucks are actually Kentucky Access funds. As Kentucky Access funds, they could be considered "lapsed funds," which a divided Supreme Court just last month declared fair game for General Fund spending. Beshear moved Kentucky Access funds to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange with an executive order filed in 2013 that expired unratified last Tuesday, the day before Beshear ordered the money to be thrown into the General Fund.

So technically, Beshear didn't raid Kentucky ObamaCare. He raided Kentucky Access, which had unspent tax funds after last fiscal year because Kentucky Access doesn't exist anymore. Otherwise, Beshear would have been taking state funds out of Kentucky ObamaCare, which funds through budget negotiations this spring he insisted did not exist and would not be needed in the new biennium.

But we are in the new biennium and, as Beshear now admits, the ObamaCare exchange does need state funds even though the legislature refused to give him any and explicitly forbade him from spending. Yes, Beshear wrote another executive order in 2014 to replace the old unratified one, but state law very clearly forbids him from doing this.

So if you are keeping score at home, Beshear just raided a fund of $8.5 million that he said in court last year that he wouldn't need even though he knew he did and now he has to replace it even though the legislature has refused to grant him the necessary authority to get it, to replace it or to spend it if he does.

Wouldn't it have been much simpler, Governor, to just be honest and follow the law in the first place? Obamacrats...

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Beshear sends along critical new evidence

I just got a letter from Gov. Steve Beshear's attorney in my two ObamaCare lawsuits which he claimed was in answer to my week-old question about illegal "exchange" funding in the state budget.

In the letter, attorney Patrick Hughes advised me of state Open Records law, again, reminded me that because the cases are on appeal the discovery process is over, quoted back my question to state Deputy Budget Director John Hicks, and then answered half the question.

Hughes answered the easy part, admitting that state funds have been written into the budget. Thanks, counselor, I needed that evidence. Again, the legislature voted nearly unanimously in March to prohibit any state spending in the new biennium on anything "directly or indirectly related to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange." There is no legal authority for the expenditure, as this letter also tacitly admits.

Beshear did not veto the defunding language because his veto would have easily been defeated by the legislature. He claimed then, falsely, that no state funds were necessary and called the spending prohibition "symbolic" and meaningless.

So much for that claim.

Thanks to everyone who shook the governor up the last couple of days to force him to cough up this invaluable admission.