Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters joined a panel discussion about how much progress was really made toward public pension reform during the 2013 Kentucky General Assembly.
(click on the image below to view the video)
Read more about solutions to Kentucky’s public pension crisis.
On the eve of Gov. Steve Beshear’s announcement about his intention to expand Medicaid in Kentucky, Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters had the opportunity to chime in on the debate. In a story by Joe Arnold of WHAS:
Under the law, the federal government would pick up the full tab of the increase for three years, but after that, Kentucky would have to fund ten percent of the added cost.
“We’re going to make a broken program bigger, not better,” argued Jim Waters, President of the Bluegrass Institute, a free-market think tank.
Expanding medicaid would inflict a one size fits all approach to Kentucky’s unique health care needs, Waters continued, ultimately reducing access for the people for whom Medicaid was created.
“And that is the truly poor and the truly disabled. They need the care. We need to find other ways to provide the other people better care as well,” Waters contended.
What does this mean for Kentucky? Well, you can read about that here.
During recent stops in Pikeville and Hazard, Sen. Mitch McConnell took aim at the Environmental Protection Agency’s rope-a-dope policy that Kentucky’s senior senator rightly describes as an “illegitimate” and “back-door means” to permanently destroy eastern Kentucky’s economic lifeline, which – like 93 percent of the commonwealth’s electricity – is powered by coal.
The EPA’s policies have resulted in more than 40 applications for new coal mines – and thousands of jobs they would create – lingering in 
regulatory purgatory.
McConnell warned miners, operators, owners and suppliers at Whayne Supply in Pikeville that the EPA is “trivializing your livelihood and our economy to pursue their radical agenda.”
It’s time to push back, he said, while announcing legislation that gives the EPA 270 days to either approve or deny applications for permits that deal with potential runoff from proposed mines, and 90 days to begin the approval process for permits that allow clearing of soil in order to reach coal in the ground. It also gives the feds up to a year to assess environmental impacts of proposed mines.
Applications not acted upon by the deadline would be automatically approved.
McConnell acknowledged that while the reasonable, but expedited, permitting process created by his bill might result in some permits being denied, it’s better than remaining in limbo. [Read more...]
Orbit spun to victory in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, but can Kentuckians succeed in regaining the lead from self-serving politicians and bureaucrats in the race for our commonwealth’s — and country’s — future?
Join Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters for a post-Derby edition of Bluegrass Mondays tomorrow on The Mandy Connell Show from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Louisville’s 84WHAS.
Mandy says “it’s the fastest hour in radio.” We think you’ll agree.
Listen live online here.
And please support the Bluegrass Institute so we can continue promoting free markets, individual liberty and limited — and transparent — government over the airwaves! Please go to www.kentucky1792.com and help support the message of liberty across the commonwealth!
Join me from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday for another Bluegrass Monday segment on The Mandy Connell Show on Louisville’s 84WHAS. Mandy says it’s “the fastest hour in radio.” Tune in and you will understand why!
Listen live online here.
And please support the Bluegrass Institute so we can continue promoting free markets, individual liberty and limited — and transparent — government over the airwaves! Please go to www.kentucky1792.com and help support the message of liberty across the commonwealth!
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? [Read more...]
Tune in Monday to Louisville’s 84WHAS for the newest edition of Bluegrass Mondays with host Mandy Connell and Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters at 10:15 a.m. (eastern). Listen live online here.
A topic of discussion will be a new Bluegrass Institute report. “Future Shock Solutions: 16 steps to treat Kentucky’s public pension ailment” stands in stark contrast to the few, and minor, steps taken during the just-completed session of the Kentucky General Assembly to address the public retirement systems’ $34 billion unfunded liability. 
Tune in Monday to Louisville’s 84WHAS for the newest edition of Bluegrass Mondays with host Mandy Connell and Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. (eastern) Listen live online here.
“Woe unto you, lawyers,” Jesus Christ himself once said.
Fast forward 20 centuries and Christ could have had the personal-injury, ambulance-chasing kind of lawyer in mind.
You’ve seen these law-benders’ brand of advertising: targeting doctors doing their best to alleviate patients’ pain through joint replacements or soliciting victims of diseases you’ve never heard of.
It matters not whether the physicians give it their God’s-honest best shot after conferring the risks with their patients. They still tote a bulls-eye in Kentucky’s target-rich, litigious environment – compliments of the ambulance chasers.
Plaintiffs are reassured they won’t pay if they lose. Of course if they win, they usually fork over up to a third of their awards to these legal leeches.
So it’s no surprise that “the lawyers” and their enablers during the current Kentucky General Assembly session are the ones railing against common-sense proposals to bring some sanity to reckless lawsuits designed to take out the caretakers of the elderly.
But some reasonable legislators, including Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, don’t like the fact that Kentucky’s nursing homes are sued more often than those in any other state, according to Aon, a top risk-assessment firm. [Read more...]
What began as a simple, straightforward question on Wednesday concerning the White House’s secret drone program eventually turned into the boldest stance taken by any lawmaker – whether from Washington or Frankfort – in a long time.
After failing to get clear assurances from the Obama administration that it would not use drones to target Americans on U.S. soil without due process or a trial, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took to the floor of the United States Senate at 11:47 a.m. and did not yield it back until after midnight.
In doing so, he brought Obama’s nomination of John Brennan as the nation’s next CIA director to a screeching halt. C-SPAN has never been so exciting.
During his filibuster, the senator from Bowling Green said he wants to know whether Brennan and the administration thinks it has the power to use a drone in the sky to kill an accused Kentuckian sitting in a café in Paducah, attending religious services in Danville or going about daily life anywhere else across this commonwealth or country. [Read more...]
