How Rand Paul can beat Boehner's budget bill

Boehner Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will combine with Nancy Pelosi's Democrats to pass a smoke-and-mirrors budget bill as fast as possible, suspending the nation's debt limit and busting sequester spending caps. Senator Rand Paul has promised to fight the measure by any means necessary. His fight need not be in vain.

Moderate House Republicans claim falsely the bill makes cuts to Social Security Disability. This is a great place for Senator Paul to start shining light into this dark hole, because the bill simply moves money from Social Security Retirement to Disability without making needed reforms.

"Washington D.C. Republicans used to make fun of Obamacrats financing ObamaCare with billions of dollars stolen from Medicare, but now they are taking a very similar approach with Social Security Disability," said David Adams, Kentucky Progress publisher. "When Obama came into office, there were four million Americans on Disability and now there are twelve million. Addressing the fraud involved in this massive increase gives Senator Paul just the opening he is looking for."

The Stop Disability Fraud Act of 2014 never got off the ground in Congress, but now would be a great time for Rand to dust it off and start it moving. It's embarrassing to watch Republicans campaign on cutting waste and never follow through when they have the chance. This moment of conservative discontent is Rand Paul's big chance.

Beshear legacy: missing billions, hidden details

A newly released official report from Frankfort shows a $2.8 billion increase in budgeted state debt since Gov. Steve Beshear took office in December 2007, while another, more detailed financial report required by law to be released before Election Day remains hidden from the public.

The Semi-Annual Report of the Kentucky Asset/Liability Commission indicates state appropriation-supported debt as of June 30, 2015 was $8.9 billion. On December 31, 2007, when Beshear was sworn into office, it was $6.1 billion. Another document, the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), shows state government net assets declining from $17.3 billion in 2007 to $10.0 billion on June 30, 2014. The 2015 CAFR is required to be released by the end of September, according to KRS 48.800(3), but is nowhere to be found.

A state finance official stated on background that the report would appear after the November elections.

"Even after blowing $3.7 billion in federal 'stimulus' funds and ignoring billions more in accumulated unfunded pension liabilities, Governor Beshear has obliterated $10 billion in state assets since he has been in office, while annual revenues steadily increased," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "The Beshear legacy is not just one of fiscal mismanagement, but also of lying, spinning and hiding information Kentuckians need to judge whether to grant continued power to his political party or his family."

Make Kentucky a free market mecca

A new Gallup poll suggests support among American adults for marijuana legalization is close to sixty percent. In Kentucky, it is probably higher. Kentucky still has a great opportunity to lead on this front by declining to join states attempting to enrich public coffers with marijuana revenue.

Marijuana is food and should be taxed as such. In Kentucky, that means no sales tax. Kentucky needs freedom and real economic growth far more than it needs another direct revenue stream for state government. Dismantling the black market for marijuana in Kentucky would improve public safety beyond that which has happened in other marijuana states by eliminating demand for black market dealers. This real price competition would create a magnet drawing in people from all over the country.

Marijuana legalization and the creation of a real free market for its distribution remains a great political issue for those who lead the way in making it happen.

Matt Bevin should weigh in on bullying

Gov. Steve Beshear wants to set up another expensive state agency to "prevent bullying" in state schools. Of course. That's what people like him do. Jack Conway will be all over it if he gets the chance.

My guess is Matt Bevin would handle it better. He should say so.

Kentucky doesn't need legislative hearings to debate how to define bullying and we certainly don't need to spend more money on some kind of ill-conceived "war on bullying," for Heaven's sake.

"Ridiculous 'zero-tolerance' policies which punish self-defense as well as coming to the aid of a bullied child serve only to embolden bullies and worsen the atmosphere in our schools," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Jack Conway would have us create a new touchy-feely bureaucracy when all we lack is a little common sense. Bullies don't need group therapy and sensitivity training nearly as much as they need adults who won't coddle them in their bad behaviors."

Hillary blames GOP for Obama Medicare mess

The ObamaCare law raised Medicare payroll taxes, booked "savings" by reducing payments to Medicare providers and has raised healthcare costs dramatically. Given that her claim to fame is trying unsuccessfully to do the same thing to us two decades ago, Hillary Clinton took the opportunity of ObamaCare wreaking further havoc on state budgets to blame Republicans.

"This is outrageous and senseless and Congress must act to fix the law," Clinton told Politico. "At a time when out-of-pocket medical costs are already rising, we cannot afford to let Republican obstructionism pile additional costs on our seniors. I urge the Republican candidates for president to call on their congressional majority to end the games and protect our seniors."

This Clintonian nonsense deserves a swift response.

"Obamacrats didn't need a single Republican vote to force us into ObamaCare and Hillary Clinton missed every chance she had to stop this before it happened," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Now she wants congressional Republicans to jump up and spend $10 billion this year we don't have to save her and her Washington D.C. friends from their latest embarrassment. No, throwing good money after bad to address damage that can only be fixed by repeal of ObamaCare is not why America elected Republican majorities in Congress. Go fish, Hillary."

Jack Conway channels Bernie Sanders, blames "market forces" for KY ObamaCare failure

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jack Conway took on the tone of his party's leading presidential candidate, avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, in blaming the failure of Kentucky Health Cooperative on "market forces," when the blame belongs completely to government.

"Federal law prevented health co-ops from hiring management with industry experience, so the Kentucky Cooperative was run by government hacks," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "When the Cooperative filed Kentucky's lowest health premiums for 2014, it was easy to predict they would get the sickest people who had no place else to go and that this would take them under. Insurance regulators could have prevented it, but like Jack Conway and the hacks running the co-op, they really thought the federal government would clean up all their messes. Blaming market forces for this is like Jack Conway blaming spoons for making him fat."

'Obamacrats R Us' opening in Lexington, Louisville

The dismal Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange's end of year spending binge launched today with news the state's medical insurance bureaucrats plan to open retail sales locations in Lexington and Louisville malls for three months beginning November 1, according to the Kynect web site.

Specific locations were not divulged, but expect to see "Obamacrats R Us" in the most expensive available retail space.

"Don't hold your breath waiting for fiscal restraint from these people," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Anyone who blows through a quarter billion dollars setting up an ObamaCare web site can't be expected to make it through Christmas without wasting tens of thousands more on posh suburban backdrops for photo-ops."

Tell Rand Paul to investigate Frankfort Obamacrats

The Kentucky Health Cooperative quietly went out of business over the weekend, but not before posting staggeringly bad results with American taxpayer dollars. The in-your-face waste, fraud and abuse deserves congressional hearings and prosecutions as a serious start to reversing ObamaCare's damage.

In 2014, the Cooperative, run by former state insurance bureaucrats, booked $173.2 million in premium payments and incurred $349.4 million in claims on capital including $123.8 million in loans from the federal government. That alone should indicate at least two things: the money to repay the American people does not exist and the millions in salaries and perks for Cooperative management was ill-spent and probably fraudulently so.

"The same people who have been regulating health insurance into the ground in Kentucky in recent years sucked up massive federal loans for the ill-fated Kentucky Health Cooperative debacle, creating a trail of victims along the way," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "They deserve open hearings in Congress and fair trials before being frog-marched off to prison."

Watch for a $100 million Frankfort Medicaid bomb

If a proposed $55 a month increase in Medicare premiums gains approval this month, Kentucky taxpayers will be hit with another $100 million a year Medicaid bill in 2016 no one in Frankfort is addressing publicly.

That's because some 200,000 Kentucky Medicare recipients are also on Medicaid, which means the state pays their premiums.

The executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors sounded an alarm to the New York Times about this issue, though he didn't mention Kentucky specifically.

"This is a huge issue for states," Executive Director Matt D. Salo said. "To finance Medicare, the federal government would shift billions of dollars in costs to state Medicaid programs."

Idaho, which has about one-fifth as many Medicare/Medicaid "dual eligibles" as Kentucky, projects an additional $20 million cost. California, with about six times as many dual eligibles, expects to pay an additional $550 million a year.

The Medicare premium increase should be made official later this month.

"The Beshear administration's rosy projections for Medicaid expansion in Kentucky very stupidly didn't consider the impact of the Medicare unfunded ticking time bomb," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "At the very moment logic dictates we should be running away from federal healthcare manipulation as fast as we can, Kentucky Democrats have us curling up with it on the floor and counting down to zero."

Run, don't walk, away from KY Health Cooperative

In the week since regulators ordered the nation's largest ObamaCare health cooperative to shut its doors, Kentucky politicos have been silent about our Kentucky Health Cooperative, which is in even worse shape and faces imminent collapse.

Matt Bevin should not let this one go another week.

"When the Kentucky Health Cooperative dissolves -- and no one seriously expects that to be an 'if' anymore -- real people are going to be hurt because of unpaid claims," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Jack Conway and Steve Beshear want to keep the truth hidden from their victims until after the election. The perpetrators of this sham rest easy at night expecting Matt Bevin to quietly let it go."

Latest federal ObamaCare statistics mean nothing

Kentucky's ObamaCare cheerleaders will soon be hyping new Census Bureau data claiming the rate of people without health insurance took another big drop in 2014, with the Bluegrass State leading the way. It is nonsense.

The data comes from a national survey of 68,000 households, performed by an agency of the federal government asking people if they are breaking the law or not by failing to keep health insurance during 2014. The decrease in the uninsured rate for 2014 is reported as 2.9% nationally and 5.8% for Kentucky.

"In America now you get hit with huge fines if you don't buy a larded up version of what used to be health insurance or take your chances with Medicaid," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "You can't expect meaningful data collection from a government entity asking people if they are doing something illegal or not. Besides, the number that matters isn't some statistically massaged estimate of how many people bought this coverage; it's the costs that matter and they are skyrocketing."

Jack Conway disappoints Kentucky consumers

A recurring banner ad on the Drudge Report web site paid for by Kentucky Obamacrats with your money screams "Great discounts, Better coverage!" but if you click on it, you are directed to the Kynect site for ObamaCare. If we had a functioning Attorney General who cared about consumer protection, our government would not do this.

There are no discounts in ObamaCare. The federal law mandating a slew of unnecessary health coverages funded with tax increases and made worse with multiplying regulations necessitates widespread subsidization to cover over even a part of the massive cost hikes wrought by ObamaCare. And the idea ObamaCare has anything to do with better coverage would be hilarious, but it just isn't anymore.

"Jack Conway's complicity in the ObamaCare debacle when his job requires him to protect consumers disqualifies him from public office of any kind," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Consumers have much better coverage options at truly discounted prices from available health sharing ministries. For more than that, we need to elect politicians who understand ObamaCare must go. Jack Conway cannot be relied upon to make that connection."

Do illegal immigrants have the right to bear arms?

A Kentucky State Representative has pre-filed a bill to make it illegal for people not in the United States legally to possess firearms. This is a horrible idea.

State Rep. Diane St. Onge pre-filed HB 35 yesterday, which would nullify federal attempts to violate gun rights of Kentuckians, which sounds good. The bill also seeks, though, to prohibit illegal aliens and dishonorably discharged members of the military from arming themselves, which violates Second Amendment rights.

The ability of government to attempt to disarm anyone based on immigration status may be an issue in front of the U.S. Supreme Court soon, but think about it: The Second Amendment protects the rights of "the people" and the Kentucky Constitution protects the rights of "all men" to bear arms. St. Onge's bill may not be intended this way, but it looks like and could serve as a back door attempt to ban guns and harass people.

Are we going to force everyone with a gun to produce immigration papers on the spot? If we can ban guns for illegal aliens, why not ban guns for high school drop outs and then roll on to other out-of-favor groups?

The legislature simply doesn't have the right to do this. Amend the bill, Rep. St. Onge.

KY ObamaCare's negative impact, by their numbers

The Louisville Courier Journal's endless appetite for pro-ObamaCare "news" is well known, but today's episode was something special.

Debby Yetter's "More Kentuckians getting insurance under ACA" uses numbers that contradict her paper's headline and underscore the value of seeking alternative viewpoints to balance journalistic writing.

Yetter claims 9.8% of Kentuckians remain uninsured and "nearly 400,000" were added to Medicaid under its expansion. According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, that means 432,518 Kentuckians remain uninsured, even though doing so is against the law. Before ObamaCare, Gov. Beshear claimed repeatedly there were 640,000 uninsured Kentuckians and his own Department of Insurance confirmed 280,000 Kentuckians were forced out of their insurance policies and "transitioned" to new plans at double the cost.

So even if you assume all 280,000 "if you like it, you can keep it" victims got insurance for what it would have previously cost to insure 560,000 of us -- they didn't -- then by their own numbers we have gone through this whole mess of higher taxes, much higher insurance premiums and substantial illegal activity by elected officials just to force 207,482 more Kentuckians into absurdly expensive "health insurance" for which we could have insured 400,000 without ObamaCare.

The numbers simply don't add up to a success for anyone other than politicians hoping no one looks beyond the spin.

"These numbers make clear the biggest unanswered question in ObamaCare is shouldn't we remove ObamaCare from insurance and just buy policies for the poorest people since we know we could do that much cheaper," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Every day with these people makes the case for getting government out of healthcare that much stronger."

Did KY Health Cooperative lie to New York Times?

A weekend New York Times article about ObamaCare co-ops falling short of rosy federal projections shines an unwanted spotlight on the insolvent Kentucky Health Cooperative, but grossly understates the desperate condition of the non-profit "public option."

"The Kentucky plan lost $50 million last year, more than any other insurance co-op," the article states, "as it paid out $1.25 in claims for every dollar it collected in premiums."

As sloppy journalism seems to be the order of the day with regard to mainstream coverage of ObamaCare, no source for these data points is provided. While the $50.4 million loss of 2014 has been well-documented, the $1.25 claims/premiums ratio contradicts the co-op's own actuarial filing placed with federal authorities.

"The rate increase will positively impact the plan’s experience with the historical experience reflecting a ratio of earned premium of $173.2 million to total paid and incurred claims of $349.4 million for 2014," the co-op reported quietly to authorities in June.

Frankfort Obamacrats' may think nothing of underreporting a favorite spending entity's annual losses by more than $130 million and using the "newspaper of record" in their attempt to keep up appearances, but this is precisely the kind of behavior Kentuckians need to eradicate before it is too late.

Frankfort media dumbs down "budget surplus" to distract from explosive government growth

For the second time in two months, Frankfort reporters misled Kentuckians by abusing the term "surplus" is discussing state General Fund revenues. In July, a recorded increase in revenue was reported as a budget surplus and today, a predicted revenue increase for the current fiscal year was again referred to widely as a budget surplus.

If all Frankfort has to do to claim to have balanced budgets is to take more "revenue" from us, politicians become even less accountable to the people.

"The truth is Governor Beshear has piled two and half billion dollars more in revenue-supported debt on our heads since he took office in 2007, ran through $3.6 billion in federal 'stimulus' funds and increased public employee benefits' unfunded status by billions more while employing cynical tricks like this one to pretend to be fiscally responsible," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams.

"The ObamaCare mess is raising our fiscal debacle to a whole new level with its accounting smoke and mirrors and propaganda word games, so someone needs to document these activities to show where we went off the rails."

Time for Matt Bevin to get religion on marijuana

Matt Bevin is already at least half a step better than Jack Conway on marijuana legalization, but an Ohio ballot initiative certified for the November ballot yesterday may make this a more meaningful issue in our fall campaign.

On November 3, Ohio voters will decide if marijuana will be legalized for medical and recreational use. Polling suggests passage is likely. As a bordering state, Kentucky would then be faced with needing to either further expand our own failed drug war activity or not.

"Jack Conway is a lost cause -- a big government drug warrior -- who doesn't count costs of bad government schemes, but Matt Bevin has shown signs of being teachable on this," said Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams. "Kentucky farmers should lead the nation in marijuana production and Matt Bevin just needs to recognize the opportunity and pick it up and run with it."

Leading Frankfort Obamacrat gets defensive

The two greatest assets Frankfort administrators of ObamaCare have had in supporting their scheme are taxpayer money and unwillingness of news reporters to ask real questions. That may have started to change.

Former Courier Journal reporter Al Cross runs a site called Kentucky Health News which has picked up on the Kentucky Health Cooperative's dismal results. In a post published yesterday, Kentucky Health Cooperative Chairman Joseph E. Smith was asked why his organization is losing money faster than any other health co-op in the nation. His answers were revealing and should lead to more questions.

Smith cited three excuses, none of which hold water. Asked to explain KYHC's massive 2014 losses, Smith blamed reserve requirements, medical claims and grandfathered health plans. We already know health co-op reserve requirements have been grossly manipulated to benefit co-ops. And everyone should know that reserve requirements don't impact a profit-and-loss statement. Kudos to Al Cross and Kentucky Health News for exposing the fact the Kentucky Health Cooperative cannot withstand the slightest scrutiny.

And it gets worse.

Smith said Kentucky Health Cooperative got nearly all the sickest Kentuckians who had been kicked off their pre-ObamaCare coverage. This should come as no surprise to anyone, because KYHC underbid Anthem and Humana significantly on premiums. They did this intentionally to justify their paychecks and in hopes of attracting more federal funds. Whining about that now just because the congressional gravy train has stopped running for co-ops also does not explain why Kentucky's is the worst one.

And then Smith blames the existence of grandfathered health plans, which also has no bearing on annual earnings. Smith should be dragged around the circuit and forced to clarify his answers so all can see Frankfort Obamacrats have no real answers. Cross should let his nose for news overrule his heart for ObamaCare and stay on this story.

Please, Matt Bevin, take the lead on this.

How Matt Bevin can shut down the Kentucky Health Cooperative by himself by the end of 2015

Matt Bevin can and should immediately pledge to take a simple step to eliminate the insolvent Kentucky Health Cooperative before its failed business model hurts any more Kentuckians.

Among many disastrous provisions of ObamaCare was creation of "public option" non-profit cooperatives funded by enormous federal loans to compete with existing health insurance companies on an uneven playing field.

Federal regulation 45 CFR 156.520(a)(2) made clear that the intent of the "Affordable Care Act" was to work around state laws to rig up ways to help cooperatives avoid solvency requirements and show these federal loans as assets rather than what they obviously are -- liabilities. Kentucky's Insurance Code, long a porous mess for big-government activist regulators, gives an Insurance Commissioner extremely wide latitude in deeming an insurance company's liabilities as assets, consumers be damned.

If elected Governor, Bevin gets to appoint an Insurance Commissioner. His appointee could then deem Kentucky Health Cooperative's loans as liabilities and order the insolvent insurer to shut down immediately to protect consumers. Continuing to prop up the law with illegitimate executive orders and regulations serves only to delay real reform.

This is a great election issue because it exposes another ObamaCare fraud and puts Jack Conway in the position of assisting his political pals in defrauding consumers or angering his left-wing base.

Audit: Kentucky Health Co-op worst in America

The Kentucky Health Cooperative lost more money -- $50.4 million -- in 2014 than any other ObamaCare-created "public-option" non-profit health insurer in the nation, according to a new federal audit.

"Frankfort's corruption and incompetence is on full display in the Kentucky Health Cooperative and it should be shut down immediately," said leading ObamaCare opponent David Adams. "It's as simple as making them understand the taxpayer money flow they have run on the last two years is all gone for this experiment in socialized medicine."

Don't believe Beshear's budget baloney

Gov. Steve Beshear announced today an $82.5 million budget surplus for the fiscal year ended June 30, but don't expect our bankers or credit rating agencies to show any signs of believing him. They have been down this road before.

"This announcement is for the benefit of the rubes at the Associated Press and anyone else who needs to believe Obamanomics is doing something other than bankrupting us," said tea party activist David Adams. "Frankfort will put out required financial documents to the state's creditors at Christmas time and it will show our annual budget situation hundreds of millions of dollars worse than today's announcement without, they hope, getting found out before the elections."

Beshear silence on military gun ban reflects administration's -- and son's -- "brain-free zone"

Kentucky should have been one of the first states to end the heinous practice of protecting soldiers on American military bases with little printed signs forbidding anyone to carry a firearm. Governor Steve Beshear's failure to take any such action in the wake of last Thursday's deadly terrorist attack on military personnel in Chattanooga speaks volumes about his allegiance to national Anti-Second Amendment zealots.

And it speaks volumes about his son, Andy Beshear, who wants to ride his father's coattails into office as Kentucky's next Attorney General. So far six states with Republican governors have taken steps to eliminate military "gun-free zones" in their states and many more are sure to follow, keeping the issue alive through the November election.

As the rest of the nation wakes up to the stupidity of pretending to care about safety by banning guns, this will be a great issue for showing definitively that Andy Beshear isn't one of us. And the time for changing course on this with any shred of credibility has passed.

CN2 misleads on Kentucky ObamaCare

Time Warner cable's news program CN2 reported on Kentucky's ObamaCare debacle Wednesday of this week in a fashion that is not entirely accurate and may leave their viewers with a false view of the legal status of federal healthcare reform in the Commonwealth.

In reporting on an interim committee hearing of Gov. Steve Beshear's fourth executive order in as many years attempting to create the "Kynect" ObamaCare exchange in Kentucky, CN2 claimed incorrectly and without attributing their conclusion to anyone that a party line committee vote gave Beshear's action some legal status.

"The debate preceded an 11-11 party-line vote to approve this year’s version of Gov. Steve Beshear’s executive order establishing kynect," reporter Kevin Wheatley wrote. "The tie vote allows the order to remain in effect."

In fact, the vote has no impact on the status of the order, which will certainly fail in the 2016 General Assembly just as the three prior orders have. According to KRS 12.028(4), an interim committee "shall review and report" on a temporary reorganization executive order but its power ends there. Indeed, the statute specifies "(i)f the committee does not report on a proposed plan within the time specified in this subsection, the plan shall be considered reviewed." That means Beshear's executive order would hold the exact same position in state law if no vote had been held at all.

The vote that matters comes before April 15 of next year, if at all. CN2 owes its readers and/or viewers an apology for its sloppy reporting. The legal effort bring a decisive halt to the illegitimate Beshear effort to usurp legislative authority in this way continues.

Associated Press fakes KY budget "surplus"

One week ago, when the Gov. Steve Beshear administration announced record state government tax and fee income "revenues," Budget Director Jane Driskell made clear that only half of the ledger had been revealed: "We have now closed the books on revenues and will close the books on the expenditure side later this month. The determination of the budget surplus will be made at that time."

But that didn't stop the overeager cheerleaders at the Associated Press from immediately gushing about a "surplus."

"Kentucky taxpayers got good news and bad news on Friday on the state's budget," the AP reported.

"The good news is the state finished the fiscal year with a $165.4 million surplus in the general fund. But the bad news is the state's road fund has a $20 million shortfall."

The Associated Press has gotten so comfortable carrying water for a failed Beshear administration they've even tossed aside the most basic accounting calculation without prompting. A surplus or deficit is determined by subtracting expenditures from revenues, not revenues from expected revenues. We should have a little more accurate picture of Frankfort's finances when the expenditure total is made public any day now and then far more accuracy in late December when the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is published.

Merge this: Kentucky Humana ObamaCare plans' 25.8% increase coming in January

Frankfort Obamacrats have approved another enormous health insurance rate increase for 2016, with Humana's rate hike topping out at 25.8%. That's on top of previous increases from Anthem (29.4%) and Kentucky Health Cooperative (30.9%), according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"Socialism and Fascism got us into this mess and only Capitalism will get us out," said ObamaCare opponent David Adams. "I'd gladly challenge any elected or appointed state official or newspaper columnist with a paid subscriber base of at least 20,000 to publicly debate this point, but we all know they are too afraid to do it."

More Kentucky ObamaCare failure confirmed

The Kentucky Health Cooperative's individual ObamaCare health plans have been approved this week for all the massive rate increases they requested earlier this year, according to the Kentucky Department of Insurance.

"This has been a bad week for victims of Kentucky ObamaCare hoping they wouldn't really get up to a 30 percent rate hike on their health insurance," said ObamaCare opponent David Adams. "Governor Beshear owes us all an apology for feeding us this garbage."

Frankfort Obamacrats quietly grant Anthem 29.4% rate increase for 2016 in Kentucky

The hits keep coming against Kentucky consumers with approval of Anthem ObamaCare health insurance 2016 premiums in the state topping out at 29.4% more than in 2015. The Kentucky Department of Insurance reported Anthem's rate increases were approved as requested late yesterday.

"This is the death spiral everyone has seen coming; it's Economics 101," said ObamaCare opponent David Adams. "The U.S. Supreme Court's mental backflips on the 'Affordable Care Act' have given aid and comfort only to people who make their living raping American consumers. They are making a pretty strong case for bringing back public flogging."

Obamacrat rubber-stamping yields a surprise

Kentucky's 2016 ObamaCare premiums are starting to get federal approval this week and while the big talk about regulators negotiating rates down for consumers has proven again and again to be hot air, the winds of change appear to have blown in something else: actual stealth tax increases.

An entry on Obama's "Healthcare.gov" site this morning approving a Kentucky Health Cooperative Platinum plan rate increase request of 19.99% includes the following shocking sentence under the heading "Insurer's Rate Increase Justification": "The increase in overall rates is based on higher than expected enrollment in plans, unexpectedly high claims experience, and an increase in administrative costs including increased federal and state taxes, GAP assessments and reinsurance." (emphasis added)

When, exactly, did we approve these increased taxes in 2015 to impact 2016 ObamaCare?

Humana, Aetna merger part of ObamaCare's new 'Forty acres and a mule' empty promise

Just as freed slaves languished post-Civil War expecting forty acres and a mule promised by federal authorities, healthcare consumers wait in vain for better service and lower prices while Obamacrats enrich themselves amid escalating costs and wait times. Today's announced merger between Humana and Aetna provides another high profile milestone in the federal takeover of healthcare in America.

Healthcare consumers are literally being rounded up into smaller pens by giant federally-shielded insurers, given fewer and fewer avenues for redress of grievances and nothing but lip service from state regulators. As if on cue, the ridiculous Kentucky Department of Insurance issued a statement promising "a thorough evaluation of the (merger) proposal" with "particular attention paid to the ... impact on policyholders."

"A henhouse guarded by foxes has better odds than insurance consumers hoping for protection from these government regulators," said ObamaCare opponent David Adams. "Matt Bevin's consumer-friendly proposal to end Kentucky's ruinous certificate of need racket stands even more in stark contrast with the Frankfort status quo perpetuated by these mindless bureaucrats."

New day in Kentucky close enough to taste

Most Kentuckians have yearned for a powerful news source to balance out the far left bias of our state-based news media for many years and the wait is now all but over.

Yes, I know I said the same thing six months ago, but the website for Kentucky Today is currently up. It's in soft launch mode, but a full-blown "progressive" freak out is in order. The site should be fully functioning in less than two weeks.

Kentucky Today's focus may be a little heavy on the social issues for some, but demand for simple, honest general news reporting from journalists has created an enormous opportunity in the marketplace. Editor Roger Alford is well aware of that opportunity and is committed to serving the huge segment of Kentuckians disappointed and left behind by the mainstream media.

I expect the Kentucky Today model to change the way Frankfort operates pretty quickly and it will if we add our voices to it right away and keep it going. The site is set up for comments and the staff is intensely interested in gaining more readers than the other state papers right away. Being part of that process should be exciting. Jump in!

ObamaCare fight continues and we're winning

Lost in all the gloom surrounding another terrible U.S. Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare is the narrowing focus on federal health reform to whether or not it is working. And it isn't.

Data on uninsured Americans has always been highly suspect and that has only gotten worse as the left shifted from manufacturing a crisis to attempting to show they have fixed the problem.

Government intervention in healthcare has been the main driver of increasing costs and declining customer service quality in recent decades and this failure was barely camouflaged by an unprecedented technological boom in the industry before ObamaCare made it worse. The bad financial news surrounding ObamaCare will only increase in volume and frequency in the days ahead and that argument is not one Obamacrats can bluster their way out of.

Political case for ObamaCare repeal just got stronger

The U.S. Supreme Court just put a big smile on Barack Obama's face with some crazy mental contortions claiming there is no difference between federal and state governments so ObamaCare can continue even in the three dozen states who don't want it. What to watch for next is an overwhelming and sustained Tea Party response.

The Court's ruling is indeed 'absurd,' as Justice Scalia wrote ine his dissent. We are destroying America by pretending the rule is law is a goalpost on wheels. In Kentucky, the only reason to keep Kynect now is to waste state money the federal government will spend without substantial change to ObamaCare here. The real news going forward is the Court can't repeal economic reality, which continues to hit Kentuckians hard with a deteriorating healthcare system under federal control and the Kentucky Health Cooperative about to go out of business.

Frankfort media fiddles while Kynect burns

The largest newspaper in America just today scooped Kentucky's mainstream media on an aging story about the dire financial condition of the state's top ObamaCare health insurer.

"Until recently, the Kentucky Health Cooperative had been considered one of the more successful co-ops, with 75% of enrollees in the state's health exchange," the Wall Street Journal reported on its Opinion page. "Yet there are disturbing similarities between this cooperative and the one that failed in Iowa. Kentucky Health Cooperative's $147 million in taxpayer loans has been exhausted. To maintain a semblance of solvency, it is applying for a big premium increase ... and banking on so-called risk-protection payments from other insurers."

The abysmal job Kentucky journalists have done so far telling people about the disaster of ObamaCare and the state's ObamaCare exchange "Kynect" is in itself a major news story. The good news is that a new major newspaper will begin operating in Kentucky in a matter of days. Not a moment too soon.

NPR upset GOP hasn't caved on ObamaCare

The only reason ObamaCare is still standing at all is because President Obama has violated the law dozens of times rather than allow natural consequences to take effect. A particularly galling example of that could be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as Friday.

And if the Court rules the Obama IRS can't ignore the law and dole out subsidies in states without their own ObamaCare "exchange," Democrats and their friends at NPR are aghast at the possibility that the ensuing chaos might happen under the watch of Congressional Republicans.

Of course, that's the same chaos written into the bill by Congressional Democrats which observers have been predicting would end badly for years now. And the best is yet to come for Kentucky after the Court rules and Jack Conway gets to explain over and over why he continues to support Obama's "reform."

Jack Conway: I'll be the Bruce Jenner of corporate welfare if you make me your Governor

A key point in Jack Conway's jobs plan issued today might upset Gov. Steve Beshear by proposing to surgically remove some of Beshear's corporate welfare deals, the incessant creation of which Beshear has used as his primary form of administration activity these last eight years.

"As Governor," Conway promised, "Iʼll conduct a top-to-bottom review of every tax incentive we have in the Economic Development Cabinet. This will allow us to make certain that we have the right tools in the toolbox to bring good-paying jobs here."

Cutting off Beshear's empty corporate giveaway gestures only to replace them with whatever might be in Conway's "toolbox" sounds like trans-cronyism, crossing the boundary between Beshear's failed economic policy to Conway's. We would be far better served by shutting down the "Economic Development Cabinet" and ending the game of trying to pick winners and losers with special tax deals.

Aetna and UnitedHealthCare want to do WHAT to Kentucky health insurance consumers in 2016?!

Without federal subsidies, ObamaCare has been a disaster for health insurers and their customers. With federal subsidies, ObamaCare has been a disaster so far only for consumers. This explains why insurers Aetna and UnitedHealthCare want to expand their offerings for individual health insurance in Kentucky in 2016.

But if you expect any more details than that, forget it.

It's amazing, really, to look at the actuarial reports they have filed with the Obamacrats. A new feature, brought to you by the most transparent administration in history, provides massively redacted filings which would otherwise shed light on how these companies intend to "serve" consumers in the Commonwealth. (See Aetna and UnitedHealthCare filings.)

These rate filing documents take absurdity in redacting to a new level. One example: in the UnitedHealthCare filing, in addition to the pages of charts with literally everything blacked out, there is the following sentence about premium projections on Page 2: "Annual trend is expected to (REDACTED) in the state of Kentucky."

Precisely.

Kentucky ObamaCare health plans rival state pension plans for shockingly bad numbers

Frankfort Obamacrats have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into providing their long-promised transparency and today we got a much clearer understanding of their hesitation. All three of the private health insurers in Kentucky's "exchange" last year had 2014 claims far in excess of the premium dollars they collected.

Anthem actually led the way in terms of attempting to collect enough in premium dollars. Their claims totaled a mere 129.30% of premiums. Humana came in second with claims 158.56% of premiums. The dreadful Kentucky Health Cooperative is on the hook for an astounding 201.73% in claims divided by premiums.

This is why the 2016 rate increase requests keep getting bigger.

"Frankfort Obamacrats have sold themselves on the idea that we can afford to turn healthcare into an all-you-can-eat buffet for sumo wrestlers and we just can't do it," said David Adams, leading critic of ObamaCare in Kentucky. "This and Kentucky's pension mess are the fattest public policy malfeasance stories of the last century. All you have to do is look."

Top Frankfort Obamacrat embarrassed in committee

The pressure of being Kentucky's top appointed Obamacrat seems to be getting to Audrey Tayse Haynes.

As Secretary of Health and Family Services, she was invited to testify to the legislature's Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Committee this morning in Frankfort. It didn't go well.

Haynes bristled under criticism that Gov. Beshear's hand-picked Medicaid management companies (MCOs) are not paying doctors and hospitals properly to treat Kentucky's fast-growing ObamaCare Medicaid population. Fixing the problem, she demanded, means giving her more money.

"If in the new biennium budget you want to increase hospital rates," Haynes practically screamed,"give us some more money!"

By insisting the problem is lack of money available for spending, Haynes clearly did not realize she set herself up for what came next.

"How much money have the MCOs been paid this year?" Senator Ralph Alvarado (R-Winchester) asked.

"Off the top of my head, I can not tell you...," Haynes mumbled into her microphone. Then without taking a breath, she quickly rediscovered her haughty tone, claiming absurdly that not divulging spending totals was somehow related to limits on MCO profitability.

"... because they are only allowed to make a certain amount of profit," she said.

Another point of contention on which Haynes fared poorly was the issue of MCO nonpayment of medical claims. Haynes showed an overhead projector slide claiming fewer than 1% unpaid claims. When called on this, Haynes pivoted to accuse doctors of attempting to collect illegal cash payments. Several committee members mentioned being inundated with complaints of non-payment from doctors, including those who have brought a class-action lawsuit against the MCOs.

The low point of the hearing for Haynes had to be when pro-ObamaCare legislators Sen. Morgan McGarvey (D-Louisville) and Rep. David Watkins (D-Henderson) joined in the criticism of her attempt to paint an inaccurately positive picture of Medicaid expansion in Kentucky.

What Steve Beshear has been hiding for eleven months

Every month since the start of Kentucky's fiscal year, legislators and citizens have asked Frankfort Obamacrats how much we are spending on Medicaid and every time the answer has been the same.

They say they don't know.

The truth is, of course, that they do know but don't want to say. June is the end of the fiscal year and they will have to report something, which should be interesting. Health and Family Services Secretary Audrey Tayse Haynes will face this question tomorrow at 10 am in Frankfort and she knows it. She also knows Kentucky's media watchdogs will let her get away, again, with pleading ignorance.

Secretary Haynes testifies Wednesday morning in room 131 of the Capitol Annex in Frankfort in front of the Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Committee.

"Steve Beshear is a lame duck and Jack Conway is the new top Obamacrat in Frankfort," said leading ObamaCare opponent David Adams. "Jack is doing everything he can to deflect attention from his party's Medicaid dishonesty, but Kentuckians need to know how bad the damage is. The time for Jack's silly political games is over."

Bevin, Conway should publicly debate healthcare on Wednesday in Frankfort

Gubernatorial combatants Matt Bevin and Jack Conway already raised eyebrows by holding their first joint appearance of the fall campaign at a private coal meeting in Virginia. They have a great opportunity this week for a public, second encounter at a Frankfort hearing on the all-important healthcare issue.

There are sure to be fireworks at Wednesday's Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Committee meeting at 10 am in room 131 in the Capitol Annex in the committee's last monthly meeting before the end of the fiscal year. The Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare has been a fiscal disaster fraught with service failures putting providers and patients at greater risk unecessarily. Conway says he supports it. Bevin says he opposes it.

Audrey Tayse Haynes, Cabinet Secretary of Health and Family Services, is sure to play her usual game of pretending not to know the answers to any difficult questions, such as how much we have spent on Medicaid in the current fiscal year ending this month. Senator Ralph Alvarado is loaded for bear and is likely to turn much-deserved heat on Haynes, but citizens will be poorly served by Haynes' continued dissembling.

Kentuckians of all differing opinions should challenge Conway and Bevin to both bring their opposing viewpoints and help shine a light on this key issue.

How many days till Jack Conway discloses his positions on real Kentucky issues?

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway's response to all the Democrats fleeing from his campaign and getting to know Matt Bevin has been pretty standard for failing left-wing candidates: he is freaking out about wanting to see Matt Bevin's tax returns.

Normal Kentuckians have much bigger concerns than whether Democratic operatives will be allowed to legally pore over a Republican gubernatorial candidate's tax records. They want to know where the candidates stand on the issues that matter to their lives. Will Jack Conway raise their taxes? If not, how will he pay for the ObamaCare disaster he supports? Will Jack Conway turn on the pension crooks robbing our coffers while funding his campaigns? If so, when? What will Jack Conway do to fix our broken prevailing wage system that has soaked Kentucky taxpayers for decades while enriching his union boss contributors? Will Jack Conway follow the law when the General Assembly declines to ratify his executive orders or does he think Kentucky Constitution Section 69 means the law doesn't apply to a Democratic Governor? Does he think the "right to life" applies to unborn babies?

None of these questions have been answered on Jack Conway's campaign web site. Changing that should be his focus before he makes any more silly demands of Matt Bevin.

Panic: Kentucky Health Cooperative requests 30% rate increase for cheapest ObamaCare plan

The Kentucky Health Cooperative, an ObamaCare-created "public option" run rather unsuccessfully by Frankfort Obamacrats has informed federal regulators they need a thirty percent premium increase on their Bronze plans to continue to survive.

"The rate increase will positively impact the plan’s experience with the historical experience reflecting a ratio of earned premium of $173.2 million to total paid and incurred claims of $349.4 million for 2014," the Cooperative said in its Insurer's Rate Increase Justification filed with federal officials but scrubbed from the Kentucky Department of Insurance web site.

The Kentucky Department of Insurance responded that critics were "talking about rate changes in a vacuum" and added that most Kentuckians on ObamaCare are getting federal subsidies and therefore shouldn't be concerned about real costs.

"It's another embarrassing episode in one of the most bizarre displays of nonsense the world has ever seen," said ObamaCare opponent David Adams. "I wouldn't trust these people to run to the gas station for a Slurpee and we are throwing billions of dollars at them. It has to stop."

Minimum wage hike is a Frankfort tax increase

Frankfort Obamacrats are jumping in with both feet for Gov. Steve Beshear's unilateral move yesterday to raise executive branch state employee minimum wage to $10.10 and hour.

"The wage increases will cost about $1.6 million," the Lexington Herald Leader reported, "and less than $800,000 of that cost will come from the General Fund, Beshear said. Other sources of money, he said, include federal dollars, the state Road Fund and various state agency accounts."

Bottom line is all the cost of the increase will be paid by taxpayers. But this is far from the last word on the matter.

Beshear created the tax increase with another one of his executive orders citing as authority KRS 12, which grants him temporary powers when the legislature is out of session. The Herald Leader mentions this wrinkle but misses the point of it.

"The General Assembly can review Beshear’s order when legislators return to session in early January, but it would be difficult for them to lower state workers’ wages. The next governor also could roll back Beshear’s order, but Beshear said Monday he doubts that will happen."

The point they miss is that only the legislature can make Beshear's executive action permanent and if they do not it legally goes away. The 800 state workers affected by the minimum wage tax increase might be upset by such a wage cut, but by law if the legislature does not confirm the order then the initial hike no longer exists. They can't sue anyone for failing to execute a law which does not exist.

The interesting political part of this is if Jack Conway is elected Governor, he will probably try to play out the same executive order scam Beshear has in cramming ObamaCare down Kentuckians' throats. If Matt Bevin is elected Governor, the executive order will expire with the next General Assembly and he will not attempt to execute a law which does not exist.

Literally no one benefits in the long run if we continue Beshear's nasty habit of ignoring the failure of temporary executive orders. If we perpetuate the practice, we will literally need a separate Governor's Journal for keeping track of statutes the government no longer chooses to follow until we decide to just go ahead and let politicians ignore all laws. Frankfort Dems are trying to make hay with this issue and we should let them. It's a discussion whose time has come.

GOP can do better for Matt Bevin

Jack Conway's Kentucky Democratic Party is literally running circles around the Republican Party of Kentucky on the governor's race, but only because RPK is standing still.

The Dems put out an attack today lobbing five bombs at Matt Bevin. RPK responded with an email mentioning the attack but responding only that you should send money to Matt.

A real response from RPK would mean contradicting Mitch McConnell 2014, but there's no reason to be squeamish about that since Mitch has already publicly changed his tune about Matt with an unequivocal endorsement of the only conservative in the fall gubernatorial election.

It's really not that hard at all. Let's take them in order.

Dems claim: "Matt Bevin didn't tell the truth about attending MIT." This is absurdly false and would only be perpetuated by someone lacking scruples or brains or -- in this case, at least -- both. Matt attended and completed an invitation-only program for successful entrepreneurs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and described it precisely as such on his LinkedIn page. The fact Jack Conway and his Frankfort pals can't recognize an honor like this or distinguish it from undergraduate matriculation, again, doesn't speak well for their cognitive abilities. The fact they are parroting an oft-told McConnell lie is a discredit to McConnell and Conway. They should both be made to separate themselves from their lies immediately. McConnell should go first.

Dems claim: "Matt Bevin mislead (sic) Kentuckians about his support for cockfighting." It was a rookie mistake for Matt to campaign at a rally in support of cockfighting in Corbin last year and he compounded the error by claiming confusion about the purpose of the rally. Bottom line, if he didn't know what the event was, he should have known. To his credit, Matt actually apologized for confusion caused by his attendance. But Matt never made cockfighting part of his campaign or claimed "support" for it, unlike Jack Conway who has made multiple appearances with the likes of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry and Eric Holder without explanation or apology. Most Kentuckians could stomach sporting fowl more easily than they could endure the stench of those associations.

Dems claim: "Bailout Bevin." This is another debunked charge from McConnell 2014. A lightning strike destroyed equipment in Bevin's bell factory that was literally too old to insure. He was ready to shutter the business when offered state tax credits encouraged him to keep it open. Same goes for an old charge that Matt supported the bank bailouts, which doesn't square with the facts at all. Neither Conway nor McConnell are about to come out in opposition to performance-based tax credits which save jobs and both unequivocally support the TARP bailouts. Again, two apologies are appropriate and McConnell shouldn't wait to go first.

Dems claim: "Bevin failed to pay his taxes." This one has also been debunked. The taxing authorities in both cases absolved Matt of any kind of failure. Again, two apologies are appropriate. Mitch, you're up.

Dems claim: "Even Republicans don't trust him." This one is all on Mitch. Conway and friends quote McConnell and McConnell staffers launching ridiculous attacks against Matt. Do the right thing, Senator McConnell, and clear the air on this old nonsense.

Even if Mitch proves "too busy" to take care of his responsibilities here, RPK can't let lingering fear of McConnell prevent them from doing the bare minimum to defend their nominee from this garbage so we can keep the focus on real 2015 Kentucky issues like getting multiple Frankfort overspending and mismanagement issues under control and better positioning Kentucky for private sector growth rather than shoring up our position as one of the most corrupt and poorly managed state governments in America.

More Frankfort Obamacrat skulduggery

Looks like the Kentucky Department of Insurance has grown tired of answering questions about hiding evidence of ObamaCare failures, hiding it some more, violating federal law to keep it hidden, falsifying data to continue to keep Kentuckians in the dark and then having no answers for when people start to learn the truth.

That's the only possible explanation for the fact they have removed any trace of the true ObamaCare rate increase figures which lasted on the site for about a day. The Kentucky Department of Insurance web site has been scrubbed of its link to rate increase information which can still be found at www.ratereview.healthcare.gov.

"Their health reform policy does not work, has not worked and cannot work, but Frankfort Obamacrats have frankly done a great job of spinning the ObamaCare disaster around in circles so many times the media doesn't even try to call them on garbage like this," said leading ObamaCare critic David Adams. "Kentuckians should look forward to getting a Republican governor in November if for no other reason than to see our press corps to start showing a little fortitude again."

Frankfort Obamacrats understate ObamaCare premium increases for 2016

The Kentucky Department of Insurance released a partial list of "average rate increases" for 2016 ObamaCare health plans in the state yesterday which conflict with the rates they sent to the Obama Administration.

The DOI's release yesterday claimed Anthem had requested an average increase of 14.6%, but reported to Obama four different rate increases for four different Anthem plans: 13.18%, 14.31%, 17.00% and 21.46%. The average of those numbers is 16.49%. The DOI's release yesterday claimed Humana had requested an average increase of 5.2%, but reported to Obama six different rate increases for six different Humana plans: 13.74%, 11.63%, 25.88%, 11.28%, 11.78%, and 10.98%. The average of those numbers is 14.22%.

This is exactly the kind of dishonesty and confusion we have come to expect from these people.

Kentucky Death Spiral: Biggest ObamaCare insurer seeks 25% rate hike

The Kentucky Health Cooperative was created with tax dollars under ObamaCare and kept afloat with subsequent grants of millions more. Now they want a twenty five percent average premium increase for 2016, according to Ronda Sloan of the Kentucky Department of Insurance.

This information came after repeated requests made to the Department of Insurance to divulge premium information the Obama Administration appears to be sitting on.

"I'm still waiting to see their official filing because this 'average' rate increase language looks a little fishy," said David Adams, leading opponent of ObamaCare in Kentucky. "Obamacrats have been consistently untrustworthy and slow to tell the whole truth since the beginning of their health reform debacle, so I won't be surprised at all if it is even worse than we are being told."

Six states ducking required ObamaCare transparency; one blames Obama

When yesterday's deadline for states to post 2016 ObamaCare health premiums passed, all but California, Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York and Rhode Island had complied. But only Kentucky was blaming President Obama for the failure.

Kentucky Department of Insurance spokeswoman Ronda Sloan insists the Obama Administration has Kentucky's rates and is choosing not to make them available to the public.

"We are waiting to hear when Kentucky's submitted information will be posted to the federal site," Sloan said, while refusing repeated requests to make the rates available herself.

So far only the Louisville Courier Journal has expressed even minimal interest in the controversy among the mainstream media types and Sloan has stopped responding to emails. Those hidden rates can't stay hidden forever.

Kentucky misses June 1 ObamaCare transparency deadline; blames Obama

Kentucky Department of Insurance spokeswoman Ronda Sloan said state officials sent 2016 ObamaCare health insurance premium information to federal authorities for posting on the healthcare.gov web site, but the rates were not published yesterday.

"We are waiting to hear when Kentucky's submitted information will be posted to the federal site," she said.

While appearing to throw the President of the United States under the bus for missing the required transparency deadline, Sloan also refused repeated attempts to merely divulge the information so it could be published here.

"The complete filings are available through open records," she said.

The apparent disdain for the public's right to know and even federal law drew a swift rebuke from Kentucky's most vocal critic of state and federal health reform shenanigans.

"Obama and Beshear have treated the law like toilet paper so many times in turning our doctor's offices into police state outposts we have become numb to the shock," said David Adams, plaintiff in a legal effort to curtail Kentucky's participation in ObamaCare. "But there is only one reason they would not want us to see the upcoming health insurance premiums in a timely fashion. If we are paying attention at all, the politician who should get hit hard on this right away is Jack Conway."

Trouble in ObamaCare's Bluegrass paradise?

Barack Obama and Steve Beshear aren't ready for you to see how much ObamaCare is going up in Kentucky.

Recent data on Kentucky's skyrocketing ObamaCare health premiums has been scrubbed from the state's Department of Insurance web site for weeks, but full disclosure of proposed rate increases was supposed to be posted today, according to Ronda Sloan of the Kentucky Department of Insurance.

"We are waiting to hear when Kentucky’s submitted information will be posted on the federal site. We were told earlier that the states’ information would be going online gradually throughout the day. If I hear anything later this evening, I will send you an email," Sloan said.

It is common sense that if the rate increase information were good, Beshear and Jack Conway would have been choking back tears at a press conference earlier today.

Obamacrats forcing Kentucky court officers to break state law for health "reform"

Kentucky probation and parole officers have been instructed this afternoon to sign their clients up for ObamaCare, Kim Murphy, Kynect Program Coordinator, said.

"We have been informed that all of the Probation and Parole officers statewide were going to be instructed to make sure everyone they see gets signed up (for ObamaCare)," she said. Murphy added that judges around the state have already been making ObamaCare enrollment a condition of release from prison.

Newly released ex-offenders are already eligible to sign up for ObamaCare, but the idea of forcing them to sign up or face being sent back to jail is new -- and problematic.

KRS 439.500(1)(a) prohibits probation and parole officers from using their office to influence the political action of any person. In the NFIB case, the United States Supreme Court explained "(n)either the Act nor any other law attaches negative legal consequences to not buying health insurance, beyond requiring payment to the IRS. The Government agrees with that reading, confirming that if someone chooses to pay rather than obtain health insurance, they have fully complied with the law."

So if not purchasing ObamaCare is not a matter of breaking the law, then forcing someone to become an ObamaCare statistic is clearly a political act. Probation and parole officers in Kentucky can't do that, so forcing them to violates state law.

ObamaCare Kynect hell breaks loose Monday

The Kentucky Department of Insurance is required by federal law to post ObamaCare rate increase requests on Monday and they are widely expected to demonstrate more health reform failure, just as the fall campaign for Governor gets started.

"This weekend it will be official that Kentucky Republicans have nominated in Matt Bevin a candidate who has not wavered or played word games with real opposition to ObamaCare to run against a Democrat who has hid under his bed during the whole controversy," said David Adams, plaintiff in the legal effort to shut down Kentucky's state-run ObamaCare "exchange."

"Kentucky's ObamaCare 'public option' is insolvent and the expected death spiral is underway," Adams said. "It's going to be a very bumpy ride for Kentuckians still expecting ObamaCare to work."

Will T. Scott responds to newspaper endorsing someone else in GOP primary for Governor

Asking the Herald-Leader editorial board to pick the best Republican for governor is like taking a skunk on a coon hunt. Nevertheless, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the fact they did not endorse me.

Kentucky is in bad shape. The next governor will find Frankfort's cupboards bare and hungry people beating on the doors of the Capitol calling on resources we don't have. This is not a time for trusting state government to someone seeking to make a statement or build a resume.

We need a problem-solver and that's what I am.

We need to fix a $34 billion hole in our public pension system. The longer we wait, the worse it gets and the more Kentuckians will suffer.

We can prevent that by amending our state constitution to allow limited casino gambling and requiring that revenue from this activity pay this huge debt. Kentuckians are already gambling in casinos, but the money is going to other states to help them pay their bills.

We need to stop throwing away the lives of young Kentuckians afflicted with drug addictions when they are willing to be saved. Tossing nonviolent drug addicts in prison with hardened criminals is an enormous waste of life and must be corrected for our state to reach its potential. I have a detailed plan to fix this.

And unlike my opponents, I will close Obamacare Kynect my first day in office.

Please learn more about my background and plans at www.willtscott.com.

Will T. Scott

Will T. Scott for Kentucky Governor 2015

Kentucky Downs already a casino, but won't help state's $34 billion pension problem until we act

Kentucky Downs racetrack in Franklin, Kentucky is running a casino with gambling currently prohibited by state law, said Republican gubernatorial candidate Will T. Scott.

"I've been there to see it and there is nothing about historical horse racing or parimutuel betting about it," Scott said. "They have slot machines all over the place just like you would see in Reno."

Scott has made solving Kentucky's massive $34 billion pension underfunding problem with limited casino gambling at horse tracks a key part of his platform this year.

"The way to do it is to require in the Constitution revenues from the expanded gambling go to pay our biggest unpaid bill first and that's pensions," Scott said.

Kentucky's ObamaCare "Cooperative" is insolvent

A Standard and Poor's research report issued this week finds the Kentucky Health Cooperative, an ObamaCare creation funded initially by federal dollars and then bailed out with tens of millions of dollars more last year, is insolvent.

The report analyzed health insurers' requests for risk corridor receivables. Those are funds supposed to be taken from profitable insurers and given to unprofitable ones under ObamaCare. Kentucky Health Cooperative booked more "receivables" expected to be coming from the risk corridor program than the company has in capital, which includes mostly federal loan and bailout funds.

According to the report, the Kentucky insurer booked an amount of risk corridor receivables equal to 117% of capital, more than every other insurer in the nation except one. The bad news for them and their customers is S&P estimates the risk corridor program is less than ten percent funded and there is no likelihood of Congress acting to make up the difference. That means the Kentucky Health Cooperative is toast.

Cooperative officials appear to be refusing all requests for comment and the Kentucky Department of Insurance has pulled down their web page that used to allow consumers to view rate increase requests.

Hal Heiner's ObamaCare meltdown

Hal Heiner is either confused about the difference between the ObamaCare exchange and the Medicaid expansion or he has swallowed the left-wing KoolAid about what happens on the way to ending ObamaCare.

On a Kentucky Sports Radio debate today, Heiner said: "I am not willing to kick 330,000 people to the curb and destroy the healthcare system that's available..." That was in response to a question about Heiner's continued squishiness on ObamaCare.

The point is that since the very early days of the campaign, no one is talking about the impossible task of reversing the Medicaid expansion from the Governor's office. The question was about shutting down the state-run ObamaCare exchange, which will have no impact on the Medicaid expansion. Defaulting to the federal exchange involves no innocent victims, much less Heiner's imaginary 330,000 being "kicked to the curb."

My favorite part from Heiner was the bit about destroying the healthcare system. I'm guessing he just started his post-primary pivot to the left earlier than a more disciplined establishment politician would.

Jamie Comer wrong on freedom of speech

It's no secret gubernatorial candidate James Comer has been talking to lawyers about people talking to bloggers. Looks like he may need some better advice or something.

Comer claimed in a radio debate today in Louisville that Hal Heiner's campaign violated the law by speaking to a Lexington blogger.

Speaking to Heiner, Comer said "if you see an email that was sent from your running mate to this blogger, encouraging this blogger to contact all the Republican Party chairs and vice-chairs of the state and spreading lies about me, coordinating -- which is illegal on its own -- with this blogger, how would you react to that as the leader of your ticket with your running mate and your campaign staff?"

I would love to challenge Comer to show us the statute forbidding conversation, interaction or -- if you must -- coordination between a blogger and a candidate or a member of a campaign staff. He can't do it, of course, because no such prohibition exists anywhere.

This is really getting embarrassing. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for someone speeding in a school zone. That should go ten times more for someone who claims he wants to be Governor. The state government's chief executive officer is charged with faithfully executing state law. How can he be expected to do that if he doesn't even understand citizens' rights regarding our ability to speak to each other?

Heiner, again: I will do NOTHING on ObamaCare

The Bowling Green Daily News has posted answers to questions asked of Republican gubernatorial candidate Hal Heiner. One exchange in particular shows clearly why he cannot be trusted to represent the GOP this fall:

What are your plans for the Kentucky health care exchange and how do you plan on putting them into effect?

Heiner: "I have called for a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act and stand with (Kentucky GOP) Sens. (Mitch) McConnell and (Rand) Paul in doing so. In the meantime, we are left with an expanded Medicaid system that must be reformed – both to protect the survival of our rural hospitals but also to fit within our budget constraints as a commonwealth. As governor, I'll work to bring accountability and personal responsibility into our health care system by introducing programs that are working in other states – health savings accounts, deductibles and health incentives that can bring down costs for the entire system. As a Frankfort outsider, I plan to bring this type of thoughtful, conservative leadership to the governor's office on day one."

Choosing only to cheer for repeal of ObamaCare is the role of a powerless bystander, not a Governor with explicit powers spelled out in the language of the "Affordable Care Act," as well as the Constitution. Only Will T. Scott has promised to shut down Kynect, the state-run ObamaCare exchange, on his first day in office. Heiner's only response to Scott's decisive action on this front is to complain vaguely about taking "healthcare" away from Kentuckians. With Republicans like this, who needs Democrats?

James Comer's six figure gift from taxpayers to Democrat politician begs further explanation

A question from the audience at Saturday's gubernatorial debate in Nicholasville surprised some audience members when all four candidates said they had made campaign contributions to Democrats in past elections, but the rest of the story is more interesting and requires more damage control from James Comer's faltering campaign.

Comer said he had given to one Democrat -- former State Representative Richard Henderson, who lost his seat last November after getting caught up in a cockfighting scandal. But there was a Comer beneficiary who got quite a bit more than a $100 check from Commissioner Comer.

Former State Representative Fred Nesler (D) received a $100,000 taxpayer-provided boost to his state pension in June 2012 when Comer appointed him to an executive position in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. This huge gift was made possible by Comer's vote for HB 299 from 2005, which he has had a horrible time trying to explain. (Click here for an amazing video of Comer falling all over himself and trying to blame others for his absurd vote.)

Given Comer's incoherent and painful non-explanations of his vote to pad his pocket some $500,000 at your expense, getting him to talk about why he spread your wealth on to his Democratic friend should provide him further embarrassment.

Will T. Scott urges drug policy overhaul

We can fix Kentucky's failing approach to drug addiction starting with an innovative state program to guarantee safety of potential employees with past felony drug problems, said Republican gubernatorial candidate Will T. Scott.

"Our prisons are not doing their job, protecting you," Scott said. Without a different approach, a never-ending cycle of theft, robberies and worse make victims of innocent Kentuckians. "Of the people in prison due to addiction-related criminal activity, at least sixty percent will commit new crimes within three years of their release from prison," Scott said.

Scott proposes a Kentucky Certified Worker program funded with fees charged to inmates to insure employers against losses caused by rehabilitated felons. The program will provide an opportunity for rehabilitated Kentuckians to build productive lives as opposed to a life sentence in the shadows or worse.

"That means a decent job and, as Merle Haggard sang, 'having pride in who I am.'"

Part of the solution to Kentucky's worsening drug problems is more comprehensive use of drug courts with an emphasis on rehabilitation outside of prisons and in minimum security facilities for less money than we currently spend.

"This new path will work and it will make our homes, garages, highways and businesses much safer at a much lower cost," Scott said.

Justice Scott also proposes a tougher law enforcement approach against the distribution of heroin.

"Heroin transport, sales and use will be under attack like never before," Scott said, referencing a plan to deter importation of heroin from other states.

Scott refers often to the hope of recovery and a strong desire to help rescue Kentuckians from the ravages of addiction and restoration to full productivity, including expungement of criminal records in some cases, including restoration of all rights of citizenship.

"What I'm really telling you is to the extent we can truly rebuild a justice system that really rehabilitates our addicted prisoners and helps them rebuild their lives, pride and confidence in themselves, then we can and will be safe again in our homes, businesses and garages."

Kentucky GOP delegation pounces on Comer, Heiner

A letter signed by nearly all Kentucky's entire Republican congressional delegation and delivered today took aim directly at gubernatorial candidates Hal Heiner and James Comer. The letter also invited all gubernatorial candidates to a post-election "Unity Rally" May 30 in Frankfort at GOP Headquarters.

"It is absolutely essential that we challenge a government-run healthcare system that is limiting choices and driving up costs for so many of our fellow citizens," the letter explained.

Comer and Heiner have been inconsistent at best in challenging the ObamaCare government-run healthcare system beginning last summer when they both told the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce they would take no action against the Kynect health insurance "exchange" which inspired another candidate to join the race. Both then reiterated their ambivalence in February in a national publication.

Heiner, Comer: Republicans made us do it

Gubernatorial candidates James Comer and Hal Heiner told the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce last summer they would do nothing to shut down ObamaCare's Kynect program in Kentucky. This February, they both told National Journal the same thing. They've both bristled at criticism received for going squishy on this key topic, but at least until now they haven't blamed other Republicans for their bad decisions.

Enter April and the issues of pensions and guns.

Last week, Comer shocked and awed primary election voters when he was asked by the Courier Journal's Joe Gerth why he voted himself a half million dollar pension gift from taxpayers when he was a legislator:

When asked why he voted for the bill to begin with, Comer hesitated for eight seconds. “Well, you know, there’s, it’s, the a, that was a, clearly a bad vote,” he said, before noting that Senate President Robert Stivers and current U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie voted for it.

When asked what he saw in the bill that made him like it in 2005, Comer said, “You know, ... I can’t remember that far back.”

That was last week. Then today, Heiner's campaign blamed a bad vote he made on banning guns on "ten other Republicans" who did the same.

Comer: send Heiner to jail for five years

Republican gubernatorial candidate James Comer has figured out one way to beat Hal Heiner. He wants to send him to jail.

When a 501(c)(4) group called Citizens for Sound Government started running an ad attacking Comer for padding his pension in the legislature and for collecting federal farm subsidies, Comer responded as if the attacks came directly from Heiner himself. If true, that's a big problem.

"It's very discouraging Heiner would break his pledge to run a positive campaign," Comer told CN2 Politics. "I have a theory of who that donor may be (to Citizens for Sound Government.) It may be the same donor in his campaign."

Comer's clear suggestion that the 501(c)(4) ad was made in coordination with Heiner, would be an in-kind contribution under KRS 121.015 and subject to a $1000 limit under KRS 121.150. Under KRS 121.990(3), such a violation of contribution limits by Heiner would be a Class D Felony which could, under KRS 121.990(4), result in the Republican Party of Kentucky not having a nominee on the general election ballot if Heiner were nominated and removed after a successful complaint by the Democratic nominee.

Comer and Heiner should talk about this nonsense a lot more between now and May 19.

Anthem doubles 2015 small group ObamaCare rate hike

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield small group health plans increased their customers' premiums 7.1% this past January 1, presumably for all of 2015. But it won't stay that way.

Anthem has requested an additional six percent from the Kentucky Department of Insurance, which routinely rubber-stamps such applications. The increase is set to take effect July 1.

If you are keeping score at home, that's a 13.1% increase for the largest small group health insurer in Kentucky in 2015 amid repeated claims from Obamacrats of the health law's great success.

Will T. Scott parachutes into lead

Gubernatorial candidate and former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott will perform a 3500 foot parachute jump to honor Kentucky's veterans on Monday, March 16 at 11 am ET in Elizabethtown, KY. The jump will take place at Skydive Kentucky, Elizabethtown Airport, 1824 Kitty Hawk Drive in Elizabethtown.

The jump will take place promptly at 11 am ET (weather permitting -- may have to wait briefly for 3500 foot ceiling). After the jump, Justice Scott and his running mate Sheriff Rodney Coffey will lay out their Kentucky Veterans Platform, including the following: 

The Scott-Coffey Administration's veteran-friendly focus will provide enhanced job preferences for veterans. Scott will continue his efforts and support for Kentucky Supreme Court Veterans treatment courts he helped build for veterans' "unseen" wounds. Scott and Coffey will work to enact a charitable property tax exemption for veterans' non-profit lodges like those in Ohio. Scott and Coffey will build veterans cemeteries in far western Kentucky and far south-eastern Kentucky. 

Scott and Coffey will announce and discuss their Kentucky Korean and Vietnam veterans "Coming Home March" for the afternoon of December 8, 2015 immediately following the swearing in of our next Governor and Lieutenant Governor. All Kentucky Korean and Vietnam war veterans will be encouraged to assemble at the Old Transportation Building Plaza in Frankfort and thereafter walk, march or ride (with or without assistance) up through Capitol Avenue to the Capitol steps, to there be received and welcomed home by a respected national figure and finally thanked for their service and dismissed. 

"After 61 years and 45 years, we are finally coming home," Scott said.

They will also announce and discuss Sheriff Coffey's charitable Wounded Warriors bicycle ride across Kentucky from Ashland to Paducah in April to raise money locally for Wounded Warriors projects.

Will T. Scott: reduce state healthcare regulation

In this time of great upheaval over ObamaCare, Kentucky should repeal state laws limiting the supply of medical services, specifically the "certificate of need" program, former Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott said.

Repealing certificate of need laws would allow medical providers to expand services without first seeking state government approval. 

"If more government control could make healthcare less expensive, Kentucky would have the cheapest care in the world," Scott said. "Instead, we have regulated ourselves into an expensive mess."

"The federal government gave up on certificate of need in 1987 because they found it did not protect consumers. Our people are my highest priority and I encourage my opponents to speak up on this issue."

Obama attorney: taxing power for me, but not for thee

In U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments today, ObamaCare attorney Donald Verrilli argued the IRS has the power to mandate ObamaCare taxes and subsidies even when the law does not authorize such action. This power, of course, is found nowhere in the U.S. Constitution or in federal statute.

It simply does not exist, except in the minds of Obamacrats. So, Verrilli maintains, if President Obama wants his IRS to violate the letter and the spirit of the social contract between government and the people in order to tax and subsidize where no such authority exists, that's just fine.

But apparently that's either just a one way street or a power belonging only to Obama.

When Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts asked Verrilli today if a future administration hostile to ObamaCare could decide to revoke the taxes and subsidies he wants them to impose unilaterally now, he said they could not.

If the U.S. Supreme Court rules the IRS needs congressional approval to enforce ObamaCare mandates, taxes and subsidies, the law will effectively collapse right away in most states.

Anthem joins the mid-year rate increase parade

With ObamaCare beneficiaries Kentucky Health Cooperative and Time Insurance Company gaining quiet premium increases in recent weeks, the largest health insurer in the state wants its piece of the pie too.

Anthem Health Plans has requested a "base rate change" effective July 1, but the Department of Insurance's public web site does not specify yet the amount of increase sought. The "Consumer Protection" people at DOI said they would divulge the amount of the increase on Monday.

This is a tax increase like the other ObamaCare tax increases. What's worse, consumers locked into ObamaCare plans no longer have the freedom to drop out their health plans when faced with one of these mid-year increases without becoming subject to the ever-increasing mandated coverage tax.  Frankfort Obamacrats will claim the state Insurance Code gives DOI the right to levy such a tax on Kentuckians whenever they wish, but that only makes it more infuriating.

Will Kentucky ObamaCare melt further after temperatures thaw?

A minor health insurance player in Kentucky just received quiet approval from state insurance bureaucrats to further gouge consumers just as Gov. Beshear triggered a state law designed to prohibit price gouging for other consumer goods. The timing of this price increase suggests other health insurers may soon follow suit.

Time Insurance Company health coverage premiums will increase nine percent in Kentucky on May 1. This comes after Time's fifteen percent increase took effect January 1. And this comes immediately on the heels of Kentucky's largest ObamaCare health insurer receiving multiple rate increases in quick succession.

Late last year, just as the Kentucky Health Cooperative was making headlines for sucking down tens of millions more in federal bailout funds and sacking consumer advocates, it requested a 9.9% rate increase in June and got a fifteen percent increase in September. They came back in October and increased that to twenty percent with a quick assist from the Kentucky Department of Insurance.

We'll be on the lookout for more rate increases in the weeks ahead.

Matt Bevin fell for ObamaCare's next big lie

We all know by now that President Barack Obama was lying when he said if you like your health insurance you can keep it, but Kentucky gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin apparently didn't get the memo about another lie.

There is no provision in the so-called "Affordable Care Act" for states dumb enough to accept the Medicaid expansion to later rescind their acceptance despite presidential claims to the contrary designed to suck in the unsuspecting. Bevin should have known this. His claim that he would cancel out the Medicaid expansion if he is elected governor holds no water.

Former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott made headlines last month when he became the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to announce that he would take action to cancel Kynect, the state's ObamaCare health benefit "exchange." Fellow candidates James Comer and Hal Heiner subsequently flip-flopped from their prior positions that they would leave the exchange intact.