Governor Beshear's 2010 End of Year Message

Sen. Jim Bunning's example

There's a must-read editorial in today's Courier-Journal. Here's an excerpt:

Stoutly conservative politicians can be engaged in fruitful government action. Even Dan Quayle cooperated with Ted Kennedy to produce a landmark job training and partnership act, and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah worked with Mr. Kennedy on national service legislation and on providing funds for health care coverage for uninsured children.

Sen. Bunning, however, leaves office with little in the way of substantive legislation to his credit. His contempt for those with differing perspectives left him unable to form constructive alliances, and his selective approach to government spending — trying to choke off money to help the uninsured, but willing to back two unfunded wars and budget-busting tax breaks for millionaires — failed for obvious reasons to command widespread respect.

His replacement, Rand Paul, will soon face a similar choice. Dr. Paul can continue providing red meat to the government-hating crowd, or he can seek to play a role in actually governing. It's a decision that will determine how relevant he will be.

President Obama's weekly address

In this week’s address, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wished families across the country a “Merry Christmas” and encouraged everyone to support the troops and their families this holiday season. Anyone can visit www.serve.gov to find ideas for what they can do to help our servicemen and women and their families.

Governor Beshear's weekly address

Shame on Geoff Davis

Conor Williams at the Washington Post has the story:

In case you missed it, S. 987 (The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act) failed to pass [on December 16]. Despite unanimously passing the Senate, it only garnered a 241-166 majority in the House. Since House rules were in suspension, the bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

...In the hours before the vote, Republicans circulated a memo to pro-life members of Congress alleging that the bill could fund abortions and use child marriage "to overturn pro-life laws." It also reiterated concerns over the bill's cost. When it came time for a vote, a number of the bill's pro-life supporters in both parties abandoned ship. Even co-sponsors of the corresponding House bill (H.R. 2103), like Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.), voted against it.

Time for the facts. First of all, S. 987 is short -- the body of the bill is around ten pages long -- and does not mention abortion ("family planning" isn't in there either). A quick read suffices to show that the bill is not dealing with abortion.

Sadly, our own Geoff Davis was among those who decided to play politics with the lives of millions of women and girls around the world. He should be ashamed of himself.

Editorial comic roundup

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President Obama's weekly address

In this week’s address, President Obama called on members of Congress to come together to ratify the new START treaty just as they were able to come together to pass the essential economic package he signed into law on Friday. Ratifying a treaty like START is not about winning a victory for an administration or a political party, it is about the safety and security of the country. This is why it has been endorsed by both Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, every living Republican Secretary of State, our NATO allies, and the leadership of the military.

Biden to appear on 'Meet the Press' tomorrow

Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to appear on NBC's Meet the Press tomorrow, December 19. Locally, the show can be seen on Channel 5 at 10:00 am. Please tune in!

Geoff Davis and PolitiFact's Lie of the Year

The nonpartisan fact-checkers at PolitiFact have announced their 2010 Lie of the Year:

PolitiFact editors and reporters have chosen "government takeover of health care" as the 2010 Lie of the Year. Uttered by dozens of politicians and pundits, it played an important role in shaping public opinion about the health care plan and was a significant factor in the Democrats' shellacking in the November elections.

How many times was the lie repeated? And how did Republicans respond when challenged?

PolitiFact sought to count how often the phrase was used in 2010 but found an accurate tally was unfeasible because it had been repeated so frequently in so many places. It was used hundreds of times during the debate over the bill and then revived during the fall campaign.

...The phrase proliferated in the media even after Democrats dropped the public option. In 2010 alone, "government takeover” was mentioned 28 times in the Washington Post, 77 times in Politico and 79 times on CNN. A review of TV transcripts showed "government takeover" was primarily used as a catchy sound bite, not for discussions of policy details.

In most transcripts we examined, Republican leaders used the phrase without being challenged by interviewers. For example, during Boehner's Jan. 31 appearance on Meet the Press, Boehner said it five times. But not once was he challenged about it.

Our own Congressman Geoff Davis has used the phrase himself on numerous occasions. Here are a dozen examples:

• "Congressman Davis Rejects Democrats' Trillion-Dollar Government Takeover of Healthcare" (Press release, 11/07/09 and also 3/21/10)


• "House Passes Massive Government Takeover of Healthcare" (Weekly column, 11/10/09)


• "Senate Democrats Press Forward with Government Takeover of Healthcare" (Press release, 12/21/09)


• "Kentuckians Speak Out Against Washington Takeover of Healthcare and Ask for Action" (Weekly column, 8/31/10)


• "Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid... have now enacted a government takeover of health care." (Weekly column, 4/6/10)


• "The government takeover of our health care system will lead to... ultimately, I believe, the rationing of care." (Weekly column, 3/23/10)


• "The Pledge to America offers a new way forward with solutions heard directly from Americans across the country to... repeal and replace the government takeover of health care." (Weekly column, 9/28/10)


• "Take for example the Democrats’ government takeover of health care." (Weekly column, 6/28/10)


• "President Barack Obama and the Democrat [sic] Majority in Congress have spent nearly a year entirely focused on one goal: a costly government takeover of health care." (Weekly column, 1/12/10)


• "Thousands of Americans gathered today to voice their opposition to a government takeover of health care." (Press release, 11/05/09)


• "Using (reconciliation) to execute a government takeover of health care against the will of the American people would be a travesty." (Weekly column, 3/02/10)


• "Senate Democrats gave us the gift that no one wants for Christmas – a government takeover of health care." (Press release, 12/24/09)

(This is just a small sample. A quick Google search finds over 200 examples of the phrase "government takeover" on Geoff's website.)

Will the so-called "liberal media" hold Geoff Davis accountable for repeating this blatant lie over and over again? Click here to send a letter to the editors of the Enquirer, and let them know that you disapprove of Geoff's dishonest talking points.

Governor Beshear's weekly address

Republican Earmark Hypocrisy

Senate Republicans took a lot of heat for stuffing a bill with millions of their own earmarks, then trying to claim they oppose earmarks. But Republicans' earmark hypocrisy is even starker when you compare what they are saying in Washington, DC to what they are saying to their constituents back home.

Will McConnell withdraw his earmarks?

Today the DSCC issued this press release:

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, would like Kentucky voters to believe that he hates earmarks. Last month, McConnell endorsed an earmark moratorium despite the fact that he’s been a prolific proponent of earmarks for years. Now, CNN is reporting that McConnell helped to put $86 million in earmarks in the 2011 Omnibus bill.

If McConnell is truly against earmarks as he would have Kentucky voters believe, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is challenging McConnell to withdraw all his earmarks from the budget bill. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah has already done just this, and asked Senate appropriators to strip his earmarks from the bill.

“Senator McConnell is trying to pull a fast one on Kentucky voters. If Senator McConnell is truly against earmarks as he would have Kentucky voters believe, he should follow the lead of his Republican colleague Senator Hatch and ask for his earmarks to be stripped from the budget bill,” said DSCC National Press Secretary Deirdre Murphy.

President Obama's weekly address

In this week’s address, President Obama strongly urged both houses of Congress to pass the framework agreement on middle class tax cuts. This is a good deal for the American people, and they are counting on Washington to get this done. A failure to do so would not only result in tax hikes on middle class families and a loss of unemployment insurance for those hardest hit by this recession, but it would also risk weakening our economic recovery.

Governor Beshear's weekly address

Republicans play games with jobless benefits

Today's column by DeWayne Wickham highlights one example of Republican nonsense:

Shortly before the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate rose from 9.6% in October to 9.8% in November, MSNBC commentator Mike Barnicle asked [Republican John] Shadegg, a leading member of the right-wing Republican Study Committee, whether extending the unemployment payments that were about to expire would produce a more immediate benefit to the economy than extending a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans?

..."The truth is the unemployed will spend as little of (their jobless checks) as they possibly can," he said. That's right, Shadegg, who comes from a state that pays the second-lowest unemployment benefits in the nation, said that. He thinks the nearly 2 million jobless Americans who will lose their benefits by Christmas if Congress doesn't extend those payments are more likely to squirrel away that money than spend it.

I think that's nonsense. Marc Morial thinks it's "hocus pocus" economics. "The marginal propensity for the unemployed to spend their unemployment compensation is very high," the National Urban League president told me. "It's pre-K economics that people will spend unemployment compensation payments on the necessities of life."

Mitch gets fact-checked

The nonpartisan fact-checkers at FactCheck.org are calling Mitch McConnell out for his "small-business bunk":

On "Meet the Press," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated a claim about the expiring tax cuts and small businesses that we’ve seen, and shot holes in, before.

McConnell: Over 700,000 small businesses pay taxes as individuals. They would be hit by raising the top rate above $250,000; 700,000 of our most productive and effective small businesses. That’s 50 percent of small business income and 25 percent of the work force in the middle of a recession.

...[The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation] says that not all of these taxpayers are entities that would be considered "small" businesses. The committee doesn’t know how many fall under that rubric; neither does McConnell.

Editorial comic roundup

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The White House's weekly address

With President Obama visiting troops in Afghanistan, Vice President Biden delivered this week’s address, in which he said Congress must extend both the middle class tax cuts and unemployment insurance this year. The combined economic blow of raising taxes on the middle class and cutting two million Americans off of unemployment insurance would wind up costing the country hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Governor Beshear's weekly address

Richie Farmer's employees get raises

The Herald-Leader has the story:

Eleven Department of Agriculture employees have received merit-based pay raises this fiscal year, a time when most of the state’s nearly 34,000 employees will receive no cost-of-living pay increase and must take six unpaid days off from work.

A review of state personnel records by the Herald-Leader showed that no other agency in state government has given merit-based pay raises in fiscal year 2011, which began July 1. In the previous fiscal year, only nine employees from across state government received such awards.

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