Has panicked Beshear shifted legal strategy again?

When Gov. Steve Beshear filed his executive order creating the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange last July, he claimed without credibility the "Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and KRS 12.028" gave him the authority to unilaterally establish the key portion of ObamaCare.

It is extremely clear that neither our foundational document nor the statute he cited provide Beshear with the power to permanently reorganize government and create a new bureaucracy, appropriate funds, raise taxes (or fees) or write new laws without legislative approval.

Then on May 2, 2013, Beshear claimed in a court filing that mere taxpayers could not question his actions because the taxes he created to meet the state's financial obligations in the exchange "plainly do not impose a tax." This claim was obviously plainly false, which he was forced to admit today:

Then Gov. Beshear spoke to CNHI reporter Ronnie Ellis, who asked him again about his authority to create the exchange. Beshear told him a Kentucky law allows him to "maximize" federal funds.

Assuming that in this latest move Gov. Beshear is referring to KRS 205.520(3), he is saying the Secretary of Health and Family Services is using her own authority and not his "to take advantage of all federal funds that may be available for medical assistance."

This would be an interesting move, essentially conceding the main point of the lawsuit but still trying to take an end run around the legislature to create the exchange. That would drop Gov. Beshear from the suit and make Secretary Audrey Haynes the focus as well as powers delegated to her which are unconstitutional and stupid.

I'd love to argue the merits of that point in court.

The state-run health benefit exchange is the mother of all unfunded mandates. To justify setting it up as a means to maximizing the receipt of federal funds is not only wrong-headed in this case, the authority wasn't the General Assembly's to give away. That authority belongs to the people and is protected by Section 230 of the Kentucky Constitution. If that is to be the new focus of the lawsuit, so be it.

Beshear launches "Get Over It" tour Wednesday

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, fresh off stirring up ObamaCare opponents by telling them to "get over it" when asked about the upcoming government created trainwreck in healthcare, has called another press conference for tomorrow Wednesday May 15, 2013 to rub your noses in it further.

Governor Beshear says he will be in the State Capitol room 110 tomorrow at 11:00 to continue telling worried healthcare consumers how stupid they are not to believe that the federal takeover of healthcare will magically work out for everyone despite all the mounting evidence to the contrary.

Hope to see you there.

Looks a lot like a Kentucky death panel

Kentucky's Medicaid program is in a state of chaos and Governor Beshear has called a Thursday press conference to announce he intends to make it much worse in a big hurry.

If you think this doesn't matter to you, you are wrong.

First, you may be forced into Medicaid despite drastic shortages of willing providers, horrific mismanagement of the program in Kentucky and despite your better judgment.

If your income is below 138% of the federal poverty level and you have health insurance through your employer, your days may literally be numbered.

Under ObamaCare and with the Medicaid expansion Beshear craves, state General Fund losses will swell. That impacts all of us.

And if you qualify for Medicaid, you can expect to be forced to join it, even if you have been working your tail off at a job offering low wages but decent health coverage. That's because the "health insurance exchange" many will be forced into will refuse to sell you health insurance under any circumstances.

This video comes from a Chamber of Commerce speech given Wednesday by Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange Deputy Director William Nold:

And one key fact they really don't want you to know is that anyone previously eligible for Medicaid but on private coverage now does not get the temporary 100% match from the federal government. Bad coverage and unaffordable is not exactly a winning combination. Thanks again, Governor.

Judge slaps down Lexington Police, Prosecutor

Fayette Circuit Judge Pamela Goodwine struck a blow for the rule of law Tuesday by ruling against local law enforcement thugs in their nine month torment of a Lexington business.

Goodwine dismissed bizarre claims of the Fayette County Attorney that police can simply barge into a local business and illegally confiscate a quarter of a million dollars of property.

Goodwine ordered police to return the property stolen last August from Ginny Saville, owner of Botany Bay on Winchester Rd. Much of it was destroyed in the summertime smash and grab operation by police and the rest probably hasn't fared well stuffed in a warehouse all this time.

Lexington taxpayers will be held responsible for these illegal actions of Lexington Police in an upcoming civil lawsuit. Local politicians have made this worse by resisting to take necessary actions to ensure police operate within the confines of the law, mostly because local media doesn't call any of them on their nonsense.

Sadly, no one thinks he will be a victim of extreme official misconduct such as this until it happens. This is a perfect example of why we must protect the Liberty of all people, all the time. Spend even an hour in a local courtroom and you are fairly likely to see how the system feeds on victims who never thought it could happen to them either.

Summing up Adams v. Beshear so far

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear wants to win his fight for assuming the ObamaCare unfunded mandate without addressing funding or mandates.

We should not let him do it.

In open court next Monday, Beshear's lawyers will claim mere taxpayers can't stop his recklessness because no one can demonstrate "prejudice to their rights as taxpayers or a loss to the Commonwealth." But that just isn't true.

The Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange will be funded "from revenues generated by the Exchange" according to Beshear's executive order creating said exchange. That means starting October 1, 2013 Kentuckians will start paying money to buy health insurance that they haven't had to pay before. This change was created without legislative action of any kind. That violates Sections 27, 28 and 230 of the Kentucky Constitution.

By itself, this action violates the rights of taxpayers to not have their pockets picked without legislation first being properly enacted. If that isn't prejudicial to their rights, what is?

Worse, the Exchange executive director told the Associated Press in January that tobacco settlement funds currently set to go elsewhere would be re-directed toward Exchange expenses. These funds could theoretically be appropriated in the next budget when federal funds run out, but one would have to expect ObamaCare to suddenly not be politically poisonous for that to happen. Fat chance.

Further, "losses to the Commonwealth" have already begun with the accrual of pension benefits for Exchange employees in one of the worst funded state retirement systems in the nation. Those losses are not speculative, nor are the inevitable cost overruns in the exchange that will fall in the next budget biennium, but can only be prevented by stopping the Governor in this one.

The issue of timing is also critical to the Governor's motion to dismiss to be heard on May 13. If all the harm is only potential harm in the next budget cycle, then he might have a point. But that is not the case. Despite his insistence that there are no new taxes in the Exchange, the truth is that new insurance taxes will be charged to consumers starting this October 1. The Exchange executive director has said at different times that operational costs would be met solely through a redirected existing insurance tax or through a combination of a new exchange tax and redirected tobacco settlement funds or no taxes whatsoever -- his current, not at all believable story.

Governor Beshear has much more work to do to make the case for the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. The legislature must hold him accountable, as must the courts and taxpayers. The Constitution already has.

Beshear contradicts Obama in clumsy court filing

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear doubled-back on President Barack Obama's admission that ObamaCare is a tax today in a filing with Franklin Circuit Court asking for dismissal of the case against him for illegally implementing federal reforms in the state.

"Since the Executive Order at issue herein plainly does not impose a tax," Beshear claimed in his motion, the case must rest on a finding of unconstitutional "official acts" which he says citizens aren't allowed to question in court.

The Governor goes on to call the expenditure of state funds to run the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange "speculative" although by agreeing to set up the exchange, Beshear has made a firm commitment to the federal government to make those expenditures.

There will be a hearing at the Franklin County Courthouse 669 Chamberlain Avenue Frankfort at 9 am ET on Monday May 13.

What it feels like to be lost at sea

If you haven't dealt directly with a health insurance company in recent years, you may soon be in for a rude awakening. Through repeated attempts the last few months to glean fairly straightforward information about health coverage from the five companies licensed to sell in Kentucky, I've found that they appear to be hiding  any employees capable of doing much more than writing your name down and saying "I don't know."

After another trip through the fabulous five just now, I found the ignorance has taken on a distinct arrogance as well. I've heard others suggest health insurers under complete government control would be like the DMV, but I've never been treated nearly as disdainfully in all my years chasing down answers to drivers license issues.

Gilligan was never so lost on the abandoned island as these people seem to be. And wrapped in the protective arms of federal and state government control, there is no reason to expect consumers to have any kind of weight to throw around with "health insurance companies" under ObamaCare.

Yesterday was the deadline for insurance companies to apply to state health benefit exchanges to sell insurance through them beginning January 1, 2014. Earlier today, I asked all five companies in Kentucky (Anthem, Humana, Assurant, Golden Rule and John Alden) if they even applied and couldn't even get a single answer to that. I asked the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange which companies met the deadline and, of course, got no aswer from them either.

They can't keep it a secret for long. But that deer in the headlights look? Unfortunately, you may need to get used to that.

Kentucky "health" liberals offer you a free lunch

You know the old saying about a free lunch. Everyone knows it. The left-wing zealots at Kentucky Voices for Health hope enough of us are willing to blindly set aside the "there's no such thing as" part of this truism just one more time for the sake of ObamaCare.

If anyone you know has been holding back waiting for something to give a damn about in politics, now is their time.

Governor Steve Beshear says he will announce his decision to accept the optional Medicaid expansion part of ObamaCare and "Kentucky Voices for Health" is pushing for a yes with this online advertisement.

The idea that Gov. Beshear can provide health coverage for 400,000 Kentuckians "with a signature" should be so transparently absurd in a modern society as not to merit a response. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in.

These people should be forced to identify 600,000 uninsured Kentuckians. Further, they should be forced to identify even 150,000 uninsured Kentuckians (probably more like it) who would benefit from being forced into an already overburdened, unaffordable and inefficient Medicaid system.

The truth is most of the new Medicaid recipients under ObamaCare will come from the ranks of the already privately insured.

And the costs will not be at all easy to ignore for anyone when they hit.

My greatest frustration is talking to people who don't believe a single word coming out of President Obama's mouth but have somehow swallowed whole the  outrageous lie that ObamaCare and all its provisions are inevitable and that we should just stop fighting because we can't win.

The truth is we can win and as Democratic Senators who championed ObamaCare four years ago drop like flies, we are winning. These "free lunch" politicians deserve to have their heads handed to them and we can do it in a big way if just a few of us stand up now.

Please call your State Representative and Senator and tell them you do not support Gov. Beshear in his desire to accept the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion "free lunch." Ask them to relay your sentiments to the Governor. Then please call the Governor himself at 502-564-2611 and tell him the same thing.

And then please directly ask ten friends to do the same. Thank you...

Emailing Frankfort's "health" bureaucrats

The Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange "ObamaCare" website helpfully solicits citizen comments and questions on their web site. They don't, however, appear to be too keen about answering them.

Take, for example, an email I sent to them on April 24 at 2:25 pm. My question was fairly simple: "How many navigators will Kentucky hire and at what cost?" One week later, no response.

So just now, I sent another asking "Exactly how will KHBE fund the Affordable Care Act Navigator program and how many navigators will there be in Kentucky? How much longer do you expect to be able to keep this quiet?"

I've also been copying certain members of the Kentucky media with my questions. The first mainstreamer who breaks this story out will have a good one.

Frankfort faltering on ObamaCare navigator program

The ObamaCare state "exchange" web site created to make health insurance buying easier is also required to come with an army of people called navigators whose function it is to walk people through the newly created maze. Kentucky, by multiple accounts, is falling way behind in the creation of it's navigator program and I think I know why.

Beshear administration officials have been telling worried exchange employees that no new funds will be appropriated to operate the exchange and so the lawsuit to stop the exchange is baseless. While this misses the point that Beshear also violated the Constitution by creating an exchange in which he reorganizes government and spends unappropriated funds in addition to raising new taxes, it paints Beshear into corner in which he will either have to admit to the new taxes or claim he is going to pull money from another source to fund his ObamaCare scheme.

Federal law states he must make clear which way he is going.

So the statute requires an exchange to be "self-sustaining" and allows funds for its operations to come from either "assessments or user fees" which would be unconstitutional or from other sources, which would just be politically difficult. Exchange Executive Director Carrie Banahan has claimed both that illegal fees and existing funds will be used.

Administration officials are counting on this "gray area" in the funding source issue to keep the legal struggle in Adams v. Beshear quiet.

One little problem with that.

The law also requires exchanges to have a "navigator" program. And the navigator program must be funded directly by operational funds, which means revenue derived from business activity of the exchange. And that can't legally be collected or spent under Kentucky law.

So maybe Governor Beshear wants to claim the federal law allows him to pull money for the exchange from other parts of government to avoid creating a new tax. That's fine, but if even that works (and that's a big if) it all falls apart in the creation of a funding mechanism for the required navigator program.

Any questions?

We can shut Obama/Beshear down on Medicaid expansion, too

Governor Steve Beshear said he plans to announce soon whether Kentucky will expand Medicaid eligibility, an option under ObamaCare. He does not even need to file an executive order for this like he has tried to do with the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange.

The Medicaid expansion is still unconstitutional, though. Demonstrating that merely involves a somewhat different legal strategy.

While the failure of the executive order setting up the ObamaCare "exchange" revolves around neither Kentucky law nor the Constitution allowing any governor to write law, reorganize government, levy taxes and fees and spend money without legislative approval, there is a statute that appears to allow him to expand Medicaid.

The trick is that law is unconstitutional.

KRS 205.520 (3) states "it is the policy of the Commonwealth to take advantage of all federal funds 

that may be available for medical assistance. To qualify for federal funds the secretary for health and family services may by regulation comply with any requirement that may be imposed or opportunity that may be presented by federal law."

First, this is incredibly stupid law. Federal money comes with strings attached, usually, and always with Obama. We are opening ourselves up to enormous unfunded mandates in brain-dead fashion with this provision on the books. It simply shouldn't be there.

With regard to the Constitution, though, KRS 205.520 (3) opens up a very interesting can of worms by creating practically limitless current and future appropriations with no legislative approval or oversight. The legal argument from the Governor would likely be that Medicaid expansion is an "essential function" of state government. Debating the efficacy of an expanded Medicaid in open court is long overdue and would be a fight well worth taking on.

John Stossel kicking butt in Kentucky in June

Watch out for a Fox Business Network special report in June on bad government regulations with John Stossel. Of course, they are reporting on Kentucky. (Did you even have to wonder?)

This time, John is looking at the stupid law requiring new moving companies to get the permission of all existing moving companies in order to exist and compete.

RJ Bruner of Lexington's Wildcat Moving has already taped his part of the show. Hope Mr. Stossel comes back when our battle against ObamaCare gets heated up this summer.