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

Section 8 of Kentucky's Constitution reads as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Republicans win Medicare debate

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


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

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

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

Ban deficit spending in Frankfort

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

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

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

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

With "spending cuts" like these...

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

Where's Kentucky's ObamaCare waiver?

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

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

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

David Williams Sugar Tax

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

Williams quickly went into defense attorney mode:

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

What, no David Williams Richie Farmer song?

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

Nice try, David Williams

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

Again.

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

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

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

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

It appears David Williams is adrift.

Phil Moffett on Lexington radio

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

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

Keep talking, David Williams

Career politician David Williams has a tv ad up.

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

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



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

David Williams' Steve Beshear moments

Frankfort's Medicaid debacle is just getting warmed up.

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

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

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

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

Another federal government outrage

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

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

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

Reimburse this!

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

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

Praise for Phil Moffett's issues-based campaign

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

Spreading the David Williams on thick

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

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

Tea Party call to action

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phil Moffett on Louisville radio

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

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

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

Phil Moffett takes off like a rocket

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

David Williams' pension replacement rate

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

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

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

And now we know why.

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

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

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

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

Phil Moffett on Leland Conway Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Questions David Williams can't answer

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

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

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

Many more of these to come...

Phil Moffett on Louisville radio

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

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

David Williams caught on tape

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

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

Phil Moffett on radio

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

Call in with questions to 859-253-5959.

David Williams has already lost

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ten weeks to election day. Should be fun.

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

Phil Moffett: Nullify hemp prohibition

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

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

Repeal campaign finance laws

Kentucky's campaign finance laws should all be repealed.

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

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

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

Time to wake up in Kentucky

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

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

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

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

Time for some Wisconsin overreach

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

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

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

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

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

Taking the Tea Party to Frankfort

Jack Hunter Interviews Phil Moffett for Governor of Kentucky

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

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

Phil Moffett takes on House of Fraud

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

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

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

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

Kentucky requests ObamaCare waiver

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

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

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

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

Frankfort's Department of Oxymoronic Redundancy

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

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

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

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

David Williams' pension scandal is THE issue

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wisconsin labor strife visits Kentucky

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

Phil Moffett responds to Moveon.org stunt

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

This is absurd.

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

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

Phil Moffett is the better choice

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

My memo to the movement

Yesterday a political reporter with a major national media outlet asked me if, having left the Rand Paul campaign, I still supported Rand's candidacy. I was a little surprised by the question because I thought I had made my position very clear. Then it occurred to me that my answer was not likely to wind up in print because it wasn't an explosive or damaging answer and so it was probably worth saying again and a little louder. Yes, yes, a million times yes, I will continue to support Rand Paul for the U.S. Senate and will very proudly vote for him on November 2.

It has been a wild year on the Randwagon. Wilder still has been the year and a half in the nascent Tea Party movement in Kentucky. For those of us who have poured our hearts and souls into promoting capitalism and constitutional government for years, I think the defining moment came just after enactment of the bank bailout when Congress tried and failed to pass a car bailout. When the Bush administration went ahead and gave billions of our dollars to GM and Chrysler anyway -- and out of the bank bailout bill so few people had read -- an important yet threadbare bond between government and people was irretrievably ripped apart.

And then Barack Obama came along and made it even worse.

Some of us who were there at the beginning of the Tea Party movement in Kentucky saw big opportunities right away. I don't claim any special insightfulness for having been there and for seeing in advance what could happen. There was a fundamental shift in the electorate and I didn't have any reason to pretend that it wasn't there, that's all. When I realized very few other people who were in a position to do something about it saw the opportunity, I joined others in working on a plan that will ultimately, I believe, help Kentucky achieve much more of its potential. Further, I think Kentucky will advance so quickly once it grasps correct principles and throws off forever the chains of corruption that have bound it for way too long, that the rest of the nation will take heed of our sudden restoration and want to follow along.

Rand Paul is a good man who came along at the right time with the right message. Waiting around for perfect people to run our federal government is a fool's errand and Rand has rightly campaigned on letting the U.S. Constitution bind them all down from their mischief. If we do that, there is no room for ObamaCare and no room for the wild spending Obama has already enacted or the even wilder tax increases and labor reforms he plans to enact. Rand's opponent Jack Conway largely supports Obama in his recklessness. As far as most Kentuckians are concerned, that's the end of the story. And then the Tea Party movement begins to become America's movement with the election of a few people like Rand to federal office.

That gets us to Kentucky's race for Governor. I'm going to have much more to say about this in the days and weeks ahead. For now, just let me say that those who yearn for restoration of America's guiding ideas will be emboldened by their successes in 2010 but -- and this is the key part -- they will be far from satisfied. In 2011, only three states will elect a governor. Kentucky's race will be a focal point for much of the nation and the race will go to those who best understand and can capitalize on the power of simple ideas like not obligating future taxpayers to pay future expenses they can't possibly afford to pay and knowing when government can best serve the people by getting out of their way. Kentucky will succeed when our leaders are less interested in building their own political power than they are in shrinking government's influence so the power resides with the people.

Nancy Pelosi would keep us in the weeds

Amid skyrocketing federal debt and looming Obama tax hikes, embattled Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be holding a telephone "Grassroots Strategy Call" tomorrow, apparently for anyone who contributes $5 to the Democratic Party today.

What on earth are they going to talk about: how to pretend people don't hate ObamaCare, how to say with a straight face that cap and trade won't dramatically increase energy costs, or that what this country really needs is bigger road signs proclaiming the efficacy of federal borrow-and-stimulate spending before they can get around to raising taxes next year?

In an email to supporters this afternoon, Pelosi said "Democrats will keep control of the House this year and prevent a return to the catastrophic Republican policies of the past, so long as you continue standing with me every step of the way."

This is funny because Republican primary voters have already made it clear to their candidates that there will be no return to the "catastrophic" bailout economy and reckless deficit spending that not only deflated enthusiasm for Republicans the last few years, but led directly to the catastrophic Democratic policies of the present. Also, given the growing lack of support for Democratic politicians, it's noteworthy that Pelosi qualifies her optimism by predicting Dem victories only if supporters stay on board "every step of the way." Fat chance.

It's shaping up to be a good November for Kentucky Republicans. And then in December, we get to turn our attention to Gov. Steve "Holiday Tree" Beshear.

Mark your calendars for Thursday

This Thursday, July 29, Kentucky's tea party movement takes its next big step in announcing a tea party candidate for Governor in 2011.

Everyone is invited to a press conference at Clear Channel Lexington studios at 2601 Nicholasville Rd at 3:30 pm on Thursday following an interview on the Leland Conway Show.

Anyone with questions may call David Adams at 859-537-5372 or sign up for email updates by clicking here.

The next battlefield is Kentucky 2011

You may have heard that I will be starting work on a new project very soon. This is an important time for the Tea Party movement. We have shared in some amazing success. In doing so, we have built a strong team of Americans sharing our message of smaller government operating within the limits of existing revenues and within constitutional boundaries.

Now is the time to spread the field.

There will only be three gubernatorial elections in the United States next year, so the eyes of the nation will be on Kentucky and how seriously we take our form of self-government. Building a large, national list of people who want to continue to help getting our country back on track is critical to this effort. All Kentuckians have a stake in electing a governor who believes in real reform, obviously, but people in other states do as well. That's because Kentucky gets more money from the federal government than it sends in, so all Americans depend on Kentucky to get off the dole as quickly as possible.

Now is the time to kick our efforts into a higher gear. Please spread the word to everyone you know to join us by clicking here.

Thanks,

David Adams
859-537-5372

On a personal note...

I am suspending publishing of the Kentucky Progress blog immediately to take a position as a consultant with the Rand Paul for U.S. Senate Exploratory Committee.

More about that soon.

This site has been both very hard work and a lot of fun. I expect to return to it at the conclusion of this new project. Meanwhile, the site with its existing posts will remain up as will my contact information at the top of the page.

I've met and worked with a lot of fantastic people during the 4 1/2 years on Kentucky Progress who I probably would not have gotten to know otherwise. I'll always be grateful for that.


Hope to see you soon!

David

Next episode of Ben Chandler vs. voters

Lost perhaps in the recent frenzy of Congressional pillaging is the fact that President Barack Obama's labor union payoff is not yet complete. That means card check is headed back to the front burner.

U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia), speaking on a national media conference call Wednesday morning, expressed concern about the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act," which wipes out secret ballot protections for workers in union elections and forces binding government arbitration on American businesses. It's called "card check" and it means unions will be allowed to vote themselves into workplaces by forcing workers to sign cards out in the open instead of voting a secret ballot. Then, if unions and management can't reach agreement, the federal government will swoop in and dictate terms.

Rep. Ben Chandler is in favor of this.

Price said he is concerned the bill sets the stage for "making employers liable for union pensions." That would represent very large costs that will ultimately be passed along to consumers.

Price also said he expects the card check bill to go through the Senate first, where Sen. Tom Harkin is putting together a "compromise." Price is skeptical that this move will work out well for workers.

"I don't think one can compromise away the right to a secret ballot," he said.

The devastating impact this bill would have on American prosperity combined with the cap and trade fiasco, another Chandler "accomplishment," should greatly concern central Kentucky voters.

Mongiardo splits the baby on health reform

Left-leaning Kentucky web sites Barefoot and Progressive and Page One are jumping all over U.S. Senate candidate Daniel Mongiardo for not cheerleading enough on government healthcare reform in the following video.

In fact, they are calling him a "Republican" because he knows the shortcomings of the Canadian system Democrats now seem to want so badly. Mongiardo worked as a doctor in Canada for four years.

In Canada, Mongiardo said, "There's a thing called rationing of healthcare meaning you just don't give it. I never saw a patient in the clinic that I scheduled for a tonsilectomy, in the operating room. There was a three year waiting list for a tonsilectomy. And there was, you know, months and months waiting list for a lot of different things."

Mongiardo describing this experience is considered heresy among the far left. Interesting to see how his candor affects his primary election bid.



Should Mongiardo survive the primary, his big problem becomes his inability to move past what seems to be his only political solution for any political question: electronic medical records.

Closing the barn door too late alert

State Auditor Crit Luallen sures knows how to work the news cycle on an old story that is sexier than it is substantial:



It's almost as if putting government checkbooks online and doing a full audit of the Kentucky Department of Education would be bad for business.

Why not just break some windows?

Wednesday is minimum wage increase day in Kentucky. The economic illiterates at Kentucky Youth Advocates couldn't be more thrilled. So how, exactly, does the government forcibly taking money from some people and giving it to other people benefit the state's economy?



Obviously, it doesn't.

Falling for the broken window fallacy is great politics, but the math is not much different than that supporting Obamanomics.

Wild (and misplaced) rhetoric

The Lexington Herald Leader editorial board is mighty upset about the Kentucky Association of Counties misspending perhaps several thousand dollars.



The funny part, really, is that they are worried about insufficient spending documentation of an organization whose money only indirectly comes from taxpayers when they can't be bothered to look at the much larger pool of abused taxpayer funds going through our public school system.

The last time Auditor Crit Luallen perused any Kentucky Department of Education spending at all, though, she found millions being tossed around on the disgraceful CATS testing system. Fortunately for us, the CATS program was phased out by the 2009 General Assembly.

But no one knows how much the non-functioning accounting system used by our education bureaucracy is costing us unnecessarily. Those who have succeeded in pushing for Washington D.C. to audit the Federal Reserve should help us force a real top to bottom audit of the Kentucky Department of Education.

Lee Cruse looks at taking on Ben Chandler

Growing opposition to Congressman Ben Chandler has fueled quiet speculation in recent months that he might draw a high profile opponent in 2010. One candidate has started raising money and set up a web site and several others are considering the race.



WLEX TV's morning field anchor Lee Cruse says he has been approached about entering the race and is considering it. He had a brief comment about the possibility:

"I am still on the fence because of the personal sacrifice my family would have to make. That’s due to equal time regulations that would require me to leave the job that I love."

Cruse, 39, grew up in Winchester.

Grover brings Big Mo to Lexington

A top Washington D.C. Republican came to Lexington Monday with an optimistic message for local conservatives.

"One of the things that has changed is that we have learned to react to the spending rather than waiting for the tax increases," said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform.

Speaking to an energized crowd in a Fifth Third Bank conference room downtown, Norquist stressed the importance of focusing on the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 rather than getting sidetracked on animosity for President Barack Obama.

"The most important thing we can do is take the House back in 2010," Norquist said. "Nothing else comes close."

He added that he thinks this is a very realistic goal.

"There are 40 seats Republicans need to pick up and there are 49 Democrats in districts carried by McCain," he said.

That would include the Sixth Congressional district of central Kentucky.

"I think anyone who voted for stimulus, the budget, and cap and trade has a target on his back and you can beat him on those votes alone," Norquist said.

Congressman Ben Chandler voted for all three.

Norquist pointed out that the first Obama tax increase earlier this year ended the longest period in American history without a federal tax increase. The streak spanned fifteen years. He said resisting the suggestion that Republicans move to the left on their policy positions is indispensable to bouncing back in the next election.

"The fact that they want us to drop the tax issue when Obama spent so many millions promising that he wouldn't raise taxes demonstrates how important the tax issue is," Norquist said.

Healthcare reform looks to be the hottest issue for 2009. Norquist dismissed the Obama plan simply.

"I've never gotten one of them to sit still long enough to explain to me why they need $1 trillion to $3 trillion more for a healthcare system that is going to be cheaper," Norquist said.

He also made an interesting point about the global cooling/global warming/climate change controversy. He told a story about Al Gore coming to one of the Americans for Tax Reform meetings. He asked Gore which of his policy suggestions related to the climate would not apply if he suddenly learned that man-made climate change was not real. Gore responded that he wouldn't change any of them. Norquist said this makes it clear that arguing the status of the climate is a waste of time.

Norquist encouraged attendees who have grown frustrated by the Republican party to increase their involvement.

"If you want to change the Republican party, join the Republican party," Norquist said. "It's not important that people on our side of the aisle agree on everything. We just need to agree that the government should leave us alone."

Finding out what's worse than a loan shark

Another day, another one-sided, single-sourced "news" story in the Lexington Herald Leader about shutting down private businesses and turning their functions over to the state.



When are we going to see a story about how much Kentucky taxpayers "lose" to the government each year?

And if payday lending customers go to those businesses because of no alternatives, what do they think those people will do when that option is eliminated legislatively?

Easy. They will hit up the taxpayers.

Horse industry needs a better argument

The Lexington Herald Leader's pro-casino columnist Larry Dale Keeling's latest effort strays from the mark on a key point that deserves unbiased scrutiny. He wrote:

"As a political issue, expanded gambling may not be ripe in the General Assembly. But it's a lot riper than it was just two weeks ago. Progress was made when it passed the House for the first time."

It would be far more accurate to say that a big-government scam is what passed the House. Packing on more than a billion dollars worth of borrowed pork is what passed that bill through the House by one vote. Pretending otherwise just further delays the horse industry from focusing on a workable solution to their problems.

I'm all for freedom in the marketplace and am sympathetic to the industry trying to compete with those in other states. But in our smoke-and-mirrors budgeting welfare state, though, I can't support opening the door to casinos when it mainly means creating another bill of goods to elect politicians while taxpayers get stuck with more debt. The horse industry shatters any validity in its argument by joining forces with those in Frankfort who won't let a little thing like running out of money stop them from spending.

I want the horse industry to succeed, but we have to realize that slots only at the tracks will not be enough for the billion-dollar vote buyers. They will cut your throats at the first opportunity by setting up casinos outside the tracks. Figure out a way to expand your revenue stream without further damaging taxpayers. The political saber rattling just isn't going to cut it.

Sunday evening vanity alert

Found in the Lexington Herald Leader:

How about Benito Mussolini instead?

After public disclosure of his taxpayer-funded trip to see his Argentinian mistress, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had the gall to compare himself to the Old Testament adulterer King David, who maintained his power after his crimes became publicly known.

Sanford, a former 2012 presidential hopeful, should reimburse South Carolina taxpayers the cost of his trip, resign, and go away quietly.

"A country of arbitrary rules"

Potential U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Rand Paul said current federal policies run the risk of doing significant damage to American society:



Speaking to the Scott County Young Republicans, Dr. Paul compared the crisis in our current government to that of ancient Rome past its prime and discussed the risks of the Federal Reserve inflating the currency.

All hands on deck!

Every club, organization, and group of every kind in Kentucky's Sixth Congressional district should call Rep. Ben Chandler's offices Monday and invite him to come to your next meeting and explain his support for Cap and Tax.

This battle is far from over. The bill now goes to the Senate and it will be amended there. If it passes the Senate, it will have to go back through the House for agreement on the changes.

Invitations to Chandler should also be sent to local media via press release. If your Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Garden club, neighborhood association, bridge club, or whatever needs help calling out Rep. Chandler for this latest outrage, I'll be glad to assist you. My contact information is at the top of this page.

The key is that when Chandler refuses to show up or fails to respond, we do another press release and keep hounding him.

Rep. Chandler's Washington D.C. office number is (202) 225-4706 and his Lexington number is (859) 219-1366.

Pelosi power pooper passes

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Energy Tax bill 219-212. U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler voted for it.

Georgia Congressman Tom Price attempted to stop debate to request a moment of silence for the millions of Americans who will lose their jobs as a result of the bill's implementation.

Someone's desperate for a PR victory

Gov. Steve Beshear is going to great lengths today to take credit for state taxpayers picking up the tab for storm cleanup.



4:00 UPDATE

And, of course, it worked. The Kentucky Post seems to think that the Governor's administration, rather than taxpayers, will be picking up the $14.6 million. That's quality journalism right there!

Ben Chandler turns off your air conditioner

In case you were wondering, U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler voted for the Cap and Tax procedural vote that barely passed the House.



Evening update: Rep. Chandler voted for Cap and Tax and the bill passed the House.

We shouldn't have to beg

We can't improve a government that we can't see. That is what the transparency movement is all about. In Kentucky, Rep. Jim DeCesare, Sen. Damon Thayer, and Secretary of State Trey Grayson have been leaders in the fight against a stonewalling Frankfort which is strangely reluctant to allow taxpayers to see what is going on with our money.

The federal effort remains small as well (click here for more):



Every city and county government in Kentucky should post their checkbook registers to the internet for everyone to see. Every school district, too. We have the technology and the resources and we shouldn't have to beg for government that has nothing to hide.

Trouble in casino paradise?

Kentuckians seeking to make our state budget problems go away -- or even get just a little better -- might want to look at a Friday New York Times article about a new billion dollar tax increase in casino-rich New Jersey.

My favorite part to start the weekend with a laugh was the new tax on lottery winners.



Maybe they should just stand at the door of their casinos and bum rush any patrons who try to leave with any cash or with room left on their credit cards.

Big government is the problem here. It's a shame that Kentucky's horse industry has cast its lot with people who buy votes with billions of dollars of borrowed public money. If they really want to "level the playing field" with tracks in casino states, they should seek to do so without digging Kentucky into a deeper government hole. They have energy, passion, and numbers on their side, but if it is mainly going to go for driving our state deeper into the fiscal ditch, I wish them slow and painful failure.

President says Kentucky needs ObamaCare

The Obama Administration will release reports for every state in the nation Friday describing how things will be better for everyone in each state if we let him implement socialized medicine.

Another "press release journalism" hit job

How would you respond if one of your enemies put out a press release about you and the newspaper called you for a response, but you couldn't see details of what was said?

When it happened to Kentucky Coal Association's Bill Caylor Wednesday, he said he hadn't seen the "study" put out by MACED, a left-wing advocacy group based in Berea.

But the Lexington Herald Leader went ahead and ran a front page story:



Fortunately, Kentucky now has independent blogs. To see CyberHillbilly's response to the silliness, click here.

Do you support Obama's Energy Tax?

Word is bond

Potential U.S. Senate primary opponents Dr. Rand Paul and Secretary of State Trey Grayson, while also racing to a June 30 fundraising deadline for midyear reporting purposes, have been quick to make a very timely promise.

It's called the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and it's a promise to voters to never vote for a tax increase. Dr. Paul, who as the chairman of Kentucky Taxpayers United has collected dozens of such written promises from candidates over the years, has already signed his. Weeks ago, Secretary Grayson scheduled a meeting with Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist for this coming Monday in Louisville to sign his no-new-taxes pledge.

The Taxpayer Protection Pledge has drawn attention recently because of the way U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler used it to sneak into office under false pretenses and is now poised to vote for the largest tax increase in history.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, will be in Lexington on Monday night, 6 pm to 8 pm at the Fifth Third Bank building for a private reception. If you'd like to attend, contact Dawn Cloyd at dcloyd@thielaudio.com.

Don't need a new car? Pay up anyway

Before running out of Frankfort slapping each other on the back for such a "successful" special session, legislators slipped into a corporate welfare bill $25 million to give to Kentuckians who buy new cars after September 1.

And we're doing this while we are hopelessly broke.

Watch your back, Steve!

House Speaker Greg Stumbo kicked off his run for Governor in 2011 with the following announcement Wednesday afternoon:



I guess that's more fun than Stumbo saying "We punted the serious issues again in 2009, called an extra session and wasted more taxpayer money, but we managed to make government bigger, more powerful, and more expensive. Thanks!"

Healthcare reform for the rest of us

In case you aren't excited about ABC television's Socialized Medicine Obamathon tonight, here's a better way:



Briefly, what we need is the ability to buy health insurance across state lines, separation of health insurance from employment, to get the federal bureaucracy out of healthcare, and to get real about the idea that more government is going to make healthcare cheaper unless what they really mean is rationing of services.

Blowing the whistle on the wrong scam

After decades of rampant abuse of our public employee pension system by politicians and bureaucrats resulting in a more than $30 billion underfunding, its funny to see KRS getting worked up about a few phone calls.



If you like this year's wasteful special session, you would have loved last year's, in which the politicians claimed to fix the state's pension problems. And then they came back earlier this year and raided the system again.

The only way to get out of the pension mess Frankfort has put us in is to pour money into the system at a much faster rate. And that means less spending on other pet big-government projects.

Now.

A flat tax never killed anyone

Did a tax avoidance strategy in Washington D.C. cause the deaths of nine people in a DC Metro accident Monday? (Click the image below to expand and read.)

Independence Day Tea Parties in Kentucky

Friday July 3 ---

Jenkins City Park in downtown Jenkins, Kentucky. 6pm to 8pm.

Madison County Courthouse in Richmond. 6pm to 7:30pm.


Saturday July 4 ---

Jefferson Square in Louisville. 11am to 2pm.

Laurel County Courthouse in London. Noon to 1pm.

Corbin City Hall in Corbin. Noon to 2 pm.

Grant County Courthourse in Williamstown. Noon.

State Capitol steps in Frankfort. Noon to 2pm.

Fayette County Courthouse in Lexington. Starts at 3:30pm right after the parade.

I will be speaking in Madison County and Laurel County. Hope to see you there!

$60,000 for your Tuesday hot air

The Kentucky legislature is expected to spend much of the day Tuesday in conference committees seeking agreement on everything but slots.

Just go home, guys.

There's my Herald Leader!

Agreeing with the Lexington Herald Leader editorial page's slots bill opposition recently was pretty strange. Tuesday morning brought a return to normal:



If "incentivizing" our economy with corporate welfare worked, then Kentucky, with one of the most active state economic development cabinets in the nation in this decade, would already be an economic nirvana.



Since the government's definition of "economic competitiveness" translates into English as Kentucky being one of the poorest states, shouldn't we be considering a new strategy instead of tweaking and expanding the old one?

One thing that should be perfectly clear by now is we don't need state government trying to serve as a mini-Obama, picking which companies get welfare and which ones pay it. What we need to do is repeal corporate taxes, which are all passed along to consumers anyway. Pay for the cuts by making government smaller. Until we start thinking like this, we will continue getting the same bad results from Frankfort.

Keep killing the zombie casino effort

Interesting to hear red-faced slots supporters in the Capitol Annex Monday evening snarling about raising $100,000 against every Republican Senator in next year's elections.

I thought they were all immediately moving to Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Kentucky is never going to start moving toward general prosperity until we get past these money games. To think that we are using $742 million from Washington D.C. (improperly, of course) to fill in a hole caused by rampant overspending and then borrowing more than $1 billion more to buy votes to set up another money-losing scheme should have us all grabbing our torches and pitchforks.

My friends who threw in with the casino mob used the "levelling the playing field" argument to say "all the other kids are doing it." The point, though, is that all the other kids are broke because they have fallen for yet another fool's gold scheme. Kentucky is going to have to stop falling for them and stop following the failed examples of neighboring states if we are ever to right our ship.

Cooking up different ways to bankrupt our state is never going to improve our fiscal situation. Never.

We should stop trying pretty soon, don't you think?

Ben Chandler goes squishy, again

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler has already decided to take a firm stand on both sides of the socialized medicine issue. Now, he appears determined to say nice things about monetary system transparency without actually doing anything about it.



This is Chandler's form letter that he sends to everyone who asks him to cosponsor the Audit the Fed bill.

Slots for Tots, or not?

The Kentucky House of Representatives is still sitting on the slots bill passed Friday. The Senate has already passed the budget and appears ready to go home if the House doesn't produce their bill by 4:30 this afternoon.

I suspect the House will send over Slots for Tots and it will die in the Senate.

4:30 pm Update: The House met the 4:30 deadline and the Senate is going into budget committee to consider the slots bill.

6:00 pm Update: The Senate budget committee is now hearing testimony in opposition to casinos, which the House refused to do.

7:10 pm Update: Senate budget committee has killed the slots bill.

Attaching a label to Mitch McConnell

Winchester Sun editor Randy Patrick recently interviewed Sen. Mitch McConnell biographer John David Dyche. Here's an interesting excerpt:



You can read the rest of the interview here.

Moving the electorate on a similar shift from its current big-government mindset to support of liberty and support for smaller government will be tough with no apparent Ronald Reagan type on the horizon. As dependency continues to grow, some catalyst is needed to move us back in the other direction. Sen. McConnell could play an important role in that.

Slow news day in Lexington?

If our intrepid mainstream reporters in Lexington are looking for something to do today, they should read this and then ask mayoral candidate Teresa Isaac her opinion about how her successor Mayor Jim Newberry has handled the ongoing federal investigation of the Fayette jail inmate abuse scandal.

Why I do what I do

At the state Lincoln dinner last month, Senate President David Williams said "For those bloggers who want to see a battle over taxation and spending, you're about to see Armageddon."

That is, indeed, what I want to see. And what Kentucky needs to see.

In his Louisville Courier Journal column this morning, Joe Gerth printed that Williams quote, but left out the word "blogger."

Countering mainstream media spin was my original intention in starting up this site over four years ago. Having them sometimes try to edit me out of the picture is just part of the payoff.

Living to see a real Frankfort battle over taxes and spending (or, in this case, borrowing and spending) would just be awesome. And this could be the week it happens.

You don't have bring on the end of the world, Senator Williams. Just say no and go home.

Do you approve this message?

Attorney General Jack Conway has started running a television commercial telling parents to "friend" their children on Facebook and to watch out for online predators.

If anyone in Frankfort is really looking for someplace to cut unnecessary state expenditures, this kind of "welfare for politicians" should go first.

Rand Paul defends Bunning from attacks

Sen. Jim Bunning's political opponents have continued efforts to smear Kentucky's junior senator over a $20k a year salary he earns for baseball autographs. Yesterday, potential Republican rival Dr. Rand Paul came to Bunning's defense:

"It is okay for Ted Kennedy to accept $2 million or Hillary Clinton $6 million up front for a book, likely ghostwritten, but Jim Bunning is taken to the shed for accepting $20,000 for signing autographs."

"The Congressional ethics rules are a farce, and I believe the attacks on Jim Bunning are partisan in nature. Many years ago, Millicent Fenwick, a liberal Republican from the Northeast, was a great champion of so-called ethical rules on earnings for Congressmen. Of course, she rarely mentioned that she had never worked a day in her life and lived off of a family trust fund."

"Current ethical rules allow multimillionaire businessmen to continue earning large checks from ownership of business but limit the earnings of anyone who must expend labor. Thus teachers, lawyers, barbers, and doctors are limited in outside income."

"The unintended consequence is to deter citizen legislators who live in their state and continue to work. Once elected officials are completely dependent on their Congressional salary, they are even more likely to vote to please special interests in order to continue to get elected."

"I agree that politicians should not be allowed to make $50,000 speeches to groups that receive or seek federal funds, but we should rethink rules that prevent elected officials from continuing their original careers."

Dr. Paul has formed an exploratory committee to consider a run at Bunning's Senate seat, as has Kentucky's Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

Cheering for a trainwreck

The Senate has amended and combined various bills in the already disastrous special session, effectively tying the whole process in knots.

Good.

Next week will be lots of fun watching the House and Senate slug it out if only because any agreement now very likely won't include a lot of the junk (here and here) proposed by Gov. Steve Beshear and House Speaker Greg Stumbo -- and perhaps none of it.

5:20 pm update: Senate President David Williams said the House Democrats have until 4:30 pm on Monday to deliver the slots bill to them or he will send the Senate home ending the special session.

Obama blows up Kentucky special session

Gov. Steve Beshear may want to talk to his buddy in the White House.

The Obama administration is threatening states with loss of federal funding if they use stimulus funds (from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund) for purposes other than to increase school funding:



This is, of course, exactly what we are in Frankfort doing right now. From the budget bill HB 1:



In other words, the federal government is telling us that Gov. Beshear needs to go back to the drawing board on his budget plan and that this special session is now officially a bigger disaster than anyone could have imagined.

Checkmate, again

US News and World Report has a story about schools that will delight public school bureaucrats who only read headlines and then spin superficial analysis into a justification for giving more money and power to public school bureaucrats while expecting less from them.



The story is actually fairly well balanced if you read it all. There are some real problems with the study referenced in the article, but refuting it is not really necessary.

Regular public schools that fail mainly just get more money. Public charters that fail get shut down. Which type of school do you think is going to be more motivated to innovate and improve?

Kentucky law currently prohibits establishment of the kind of school that is routinely shut down if it fails to educate students.

Panic thick enough to cut with a knife

Rep. Charlie Hoffman is the last person in the General Assembly who would betray labor union chiefs. So it was interesting to see him file an amendment to the slots bill that would repeal prevailing wage requirements on school construction projects.



It's like a tell in poker. And all the House Dems' chips are on the table.

Repeal the state income tax, require drug testing of welfare recipients, post all government (state, local, and school) spending on the internet, repeal certificate of need and give us school vouchers and maybe we'll talk.

(Midnight update -- thanks to Kristen Webb Hill, who pointed out the LRC entry of this amendment has Hoffman's name on it, but that the actual amendment language has Rep. Jeff Hoover's name on it. That would make more sense and would also be the second time this month the LRC has put the wrong name on a bill.)

(9 AM update -- House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover was indeed the sponsor of the prevailing wage amendment and the LRC has fixed their error. Bet Rep. Hoffman got some interesting phone calls last night and early this morning. Here is the new entry on the LRC web site:

Next up: energy

I'm headed to Lexington for a discussion about energy production in Kentucky. We're meeting at The Inn on Broadway at 6:30 pm.

The meeting is open to the public.

Stumbo clings to overspending habit

Rep. James Comer just demonstrated to House Speaker Greg Stumbo that Kentucky could build 28 more schools with the proposed school spending in the current vote buying scheme if we only suspended the prevailing wage.

Stumbo responded that he is willing to "study" the issue. Wonder how long it will take him to study the impact of lowering construction costs by twenty percent and decide to waste the money anyway because his labor union supporters want him to.

This is no revenue shortfall crisis. It is a crisis of propping up failed ideology.

Moberly denies vote buying

Rep. Harry Moberly is testifying to the House Budget Committee and complaining about the "vote buying" criticism of tying votes for slots to spending on school construction.

He said tying policy priorities via spending to revenue measures was "Budgeting 101" and something that is always done.

Right. If only we did a better job of linking our spending to our revenues, we wouldn't even be talking about a budget crisis in the current year, much less sucking up $742 million in federal money to even come close on the next two years.

Will Gitmo prisoners come to Kentucky?

Well, it looks like Tennessee is doing what it can to keep the terrorists we know about out of their state:



Rep. Stacey Campfield is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.