Do you live in Kentucky? You must know about vehicles.
First of all, congratulations to Toyota on expanding their production. That is great news.
I am struggling to understand who this “we” is that Gov. Beshear is referring to, though. Toyota knows how to build vehicles, yes. No one can take credit for those 1 million vehicles other than the private companies that manufactured them. Government does not create anything.
Dr. John Cannell, MD discovered school systems across the nation were cheating on tests well before KERA and No Child Left Behind came along.
He says current excuses for cheating don’t make sense.
Cheating incidents have been grabbing attention across the nation, with a big scandal now unfolding in Atlanta where criminal indictments were recently handed out.
Here in Kentucky, several staff members in Perry County schools had actions taken against their professional certificates for failing to maintain adequate security over ACT tests that had illegal alterations, as well.
Furthermore, there is another report from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission that indicates there might have been cheating on the state’s Kentucky Core Content Tests, too.
No matter your personal affinity for redbirds or feral felines, after two straight years of national championship victories there’s no denying that the Bluegrass State is capable of producing one heckuva competitive force on the basketball court.
But regardless of the last two years’ inspiring efforts from Kentucky’s competitive young athletes and the ensuing celebrations in the streets of Louisville and Lexington, in the streets of Frankfort – the one city in the commonwealth where a competitive spirit ought to overflow for the sake of each and every one of Kentucky’s 4.4 million residents – there’s little cause for celebration.
That’s because yet another legislative session has come and gone with little to show for it. Whether we’re talking education, public pensions or standing up to federal czars gung-ho on taking over our energy and health care sectors, what meaningful steps were taken toward effective and lasting reform?
Debt and deficits: How much is too much?
By D. Eric Schansberg, Ph.D., and member of the Bluegrass Institute Board of Scholars
Judging from my recent appearance on KET’s “Kentucky Tonight,” macroeconomics is still a hot topic in the commonwealth.
During the depths of the Great Recession, Kentuckians focused on unemployment and the ineffectiveness of fiscal “stimulus” policies. But now, as the economy has limped forward, the dominant topic is the federal budget: annual deficits, the overall debt and how much is too much.
Across the world, including in Kentucky, trouble with deficits and debt is commonplace as governments too often succumb to the political temptations of using debt (or inflation) to cover their bills.
But until recently, federal budget deficits have rarely been an important topic in the U.S.
In wartime, debt has been used as a temporary emergency measure with relatively little long-term impact. In the 1980s, the growth of domestic and military spending increased deficits to then-alarming levels. Still, deficits faded in the 1990s with the end of the Cold War and strong economic growth.
It’s only been since 2001 that tax cuts and increases in all types of spending brought big deficits back. After the financial crisis in 2007, the deficit ballooned to historic levels.
So, just how much is “too much?”
There are three ways to answer this question.
During a recent interview with cn|2 Pure Politics, state Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon made a couple of bold claims. I have some questions about those claims.
Question 1: Does the single act of moving newly enrolled employees to a hybrid defined contribution plan “stop the digging?” It certainly does not. To truly “stop the digging” we need to repeal HB 299 and remove private organizations from the public pension plan. Maybe then we can begin a discussion about the digging being stopped.
Question 2: Sen. Higdon readily admits that Indiana and Tennessee are more competitive than Kentucky when it comes to attracting new businesses. He goes a step further to say that Kentucky doesn’t “have the stomach” for the types of changes needed to be that competitive. So there’s no hope then? I guess if our lawmakers don’t see it as a possibility it really has no chance.
Do any questions come to mind when you see this interview?
These comments from Jamie Gass are from the Anderson Tea Party’s Common Core State Standards forum, April 12, 2013.