Kentucky Government Pressing for Gambling Revenue

With the government of Kentucky, overall, refusing to make the tough decisions associated with
spending far more than it takes in, there is a growing move to make it legal for casinos to operate in the state.

Co-chairman of Kentucky Wins, a proponent of Kentucky gambling, Bill Robinson, says, “Statisticians, people that study these things, estimate over $500 million a year is leaving Kentucky going to surrounding states because of gambling in surrounding states. We need the money to stay home. We need the money to benefit Kentucky’s citizens.”

Concerns are the introduction of gambling would lead to government corruption, gambling addiction, and an increase in crime.

One bill has already been filed that would allow casino gambling to be placed on the November 2014 ballot. It would require a constitutional amendment to make gambling legal in Kentucky. This particular bill would require any casino to be operate in only counties bordering other states. There are plans for another bill to be introduced as well.

As usual, the major problem isn't addressed, which is out-of-control government spending, much of which is allocated to the pensions government workers who are paid benefits far above the private sector.

This is the real issue that must be addressed. With the government, if new revenues are found and spent, it will still do nothing to cut back on spending unless it's forced to.

Let's see cutbacks in outrageous government employee benefits so the rest of us don't have to continue to pay for them.

One Man Digitizing Millions of Newspaper Pages

To show how much more efficient the market is than the government, one-man operation Tom Tryniski has vastly outperformed and underspent the government attempt to digitize newspapers in America.

For example, while the government languishes in its effort to offer the Brooklyn Daily Eagle online, Tryniski already has the entire 115-year history digitized on his Fulton History website and ready to search.

Overall, Tryniski, who is working on digitizing New York state newspapers, gets 6 million page views on the 22 million pages offered on his website.

The excellent video of Tryniski and his efforts is shown below.

Think of how much the government wastes in comparison to Tryniski, who does it as a labor of love
for others.

Sequester, Hodgenville, Larue County, and Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site

The historic Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, right outside the city limits of Hodgenville, Kentucky, could be adversely affected by what is being called sequestration, as approximately $85 billion in spending cuts will automatically be put into motion if a deal isn't struck in a few short days.

Much of this is largely political posturing though, as the cut, as they're called, really aren't cuts, but are rather a decrease in the budget increases. In other words, the government increased its future budget, and what this is doing is lowering the actual increase, not cutting from prior or existing spending.

What would probably hurt Kentucky the worst is cuts related to the military, which could result in over 21,000 jobs lost in the Commonwealth.

Nonetheless, Washington must rein in spending, and the idea that these are devastating "cuts" isn't really telling the truth of the situation, as already mentioned.

That's not to say there won't be some pain by some Kentucky workers though, as it will have an impact of some sort.

At this time part of the problem in specifically identifying where the cuts could hurt is because there aren't really any targeted programs we know of for sure because many federal government agencies have yet to reveal their plans.

What Sequestration Would Cost Kentucky

The cuts mandated by the Obama Administration, called sequestration, will go into effect on March 1 if a budget deal isn't reached by Congress. If implemented, the mandatory cuts would remain in effect through September. Here's a look at how the cuts could affect Kentucky.

Kentucky Defense

Since Kentucky has a strong and large military presence in it, let's look at that first. Figures show that approximately 11,000 civilian U.S. Department of Defense employees would be furloughed in in Kentucky. That means a loss in overall pay of close to $54.4 million.

As for operations to run the Army bases, that funding would be slashed by $122 million. According to the Army, about 15,000 job in the state could be impacted by the cuts.

Kentucky Education 
 
Figures released show that education in Kentucky would be strained from the cuts, with close to $11.8 million in funding for primary and secondary education removed. Estimates are around 160 teacher and aide jobs could be put at risk.

As a result, approximately 21,000 students in Kentucky would no long be served, including children with disabilities and low income students.

Broken down, that would mean 1,710 low-income students would no longer receive aid for college, and close to 470 students would no long be able to use work-study jobs to help pay for their college educations.

Concerning disabilities, an estimated $7.7 million would be lost, resulting in about 90 teacher, teacher aid, and other staff losing funding.

Kentucky Health

Funds for emergency health threats would be cut to the tune of $414,000, which would include dealing with natural disasters, infectious diseases, and other similar events.

As for substance abuse aid, close to $1 million in grants would no longer be available to treat patients, which is estimated to cause about 1,200 less people being admitted into programs. That last figure is listed as admissions, so it may be less than 1,200 people, but may include the same people being admitted more than once.

Kentucky Law enforcement

For law enforcement, where Justice Assistance Grants are used for courts, corrections, education, crime prevention, and other services, about $171,000 would be cut. 

Kentucky Environment
 
Approximately $2.1 million in aid for cleaner water and air would be lost. Fish and wildlife protection may lose about $774,000.

Rand Paul Exposes Obama's Histrionics Over Sequester

Rand Paul laid into President Obama over his "histrionics" over the alleged consequences if the sequester kicks in.

Paul exposes the silly emotional theatrics of Obama, which he rightly notes concerning the sequester, is the idea of Obama himself. Is Obama this confused? Really?

“I mean, for goodness sakes, it was his proposal. He proposed the sequester, it was his idea. He signed it into law, now he’s going to tell us that, ‘Oh, it’s all our fault?’” Paul said on CNN. “I voted against the sequester because I didn’t think it was enough.”

The new idea of a budget cut in Washington is to spend as much as they can over the years, and then when that projected spending growth is lowered, it's called a budget cut. That's what Obama is doing here, pretending there are cuts that will be made, when in fact all they are are reductions in the rate of growth. Nothing more.

Paul concluded:

“I think the sequester happens and it will be in some ways a yawn because the histrionics that are coming from the president saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to shut down and get rid of meat inspectors’ — I mean, is anybody not going to stand up and call his bluff on that ridiculousness?”

In other words, in spite of Obama's childish rantings, there aren't going to be any budget cuts going forward, only a slowdown in increased spending that was already running too high.

Ky. Child Care Advocates Clueless on Economics

If you were to listen indiscriminately to so-called child advocates in Kentucky, you would think there's a conspiracy to keep funds away from child care for the poor. But like Greece, the reality is quickly setting in that when a government makes promises it can't sustainably keep, ultimately those that were socialized into government dependence are suddenly thrown out into the cold when the funds are no longer available. That's what has happened with the child care program in Kentucky, and there is no way to simply conjure up funds that don't exist.

It's not a matter of whether it's good or bad for the state to help with child care, that's a separate issue, the point is these programs and others like them will find out that there never was a chance for them to be sustained over the long term, which is why we must go back to lower taxes and smaller government so the free market can do the job of taking care of these things, rather than a state that can no longer tax people and businesses, as they can't support the unproductive any longer.

This is why there is a growing and gigantic shortfall in the pension plans of government employees. The same thing has happened. When you give away the farm with no way, over time, to pay for it, all you're left with are broken promises and a disillusioned people who unfortunately and unwisely made the state their healer and provider, rather than placing faith in God and their own productivity.

As to the child care program, starting in April, there will be no new applicants that will be allowed to receive subsidies for child care. In July, new restrictions will be put in place which will lower the income guidelines for recipients of the care.

At that time a family of four must be at or below $22,050 to receive the subsidy. It was formerly at$33,075. Estimates are approximately 8,700 families will lose the government stipend.

About $57.8 million will be saved because of the budget tightening. Even that won't be enough to close the entire amount of the projected shortfall of $86.6 million from the program in the coming fiscal year.

Kentucky, as well as other states, need to quickly face, understand, and respond to the fact that federal funding of many projects are going to dry up. There simply is not more money to go around, and there hasn't been for a long time. That's why we're running debts of trillions of dollars.

Funding for child care has come almost solely from the Federal government, and those funds have been depleted.

The usual parading out of the people that could be hurt by the cuts in an attempt to generate sympathy was made, but that is no longer a reasonable or viable strategy.

This has nothing to do with whether or not people should or should not be helped, it's entirely an economic issue, one where the promises made by the government are not able to be met. This is the cruelty of government promises, liberal agendas, and faulty economics.

For advocates to think this is an advocacy problem rather than an economic one, means there is going to be a lot of pain going forward for those who believe it's business as usual in Washington. Those days are now behind us, and we must look to ourselves and our communities outside of government to find answers.

Those who don't will find themselves continually surprised and caught off guard by the fact that the U.S. government is bankrupt. The only reason money is available is because the Federal Reserve continues to print money, and foreign governments buy it.

The ability for Americans to support the lavish promises and promises by the government are long gone.

Kentucky House Democrats Looking to Sin Tax to Fund Government Pensions

Kentucky lawmakers continue to ignore the real issue surrounding the unsustainable pensions being paid out to government workers, which is taxpayers can't afford the "generosity" given to them at our expense, and which the private sector doesn't come close to receiving.

So instead of making government workers pay more for their own pensions, House Democrats are going the "sin" tax route, starting with taxing cigarettes to raise retirement contributions.

While most of us don't like cigarettes, why should smokers be forced to pay for government workers? They're already paying more for them than they should have to already.

At this time the proposed tax would be a 40-cent increase over the already high tax imposed on cigarettes. That would raise about $110 million in the first year, although over time, the weakness of the proposal is it would be a short-term fix because expectations are there will be less cigarette sales going forward, which would lower the revenue stream in the years ahead.

Over the next 20 years or so, the tax would generate about $100 million annually before dropping in revenue.

None of this will matter or will work until the over-compensated government workers are made to pay more into their own plan. The refusal to do this is cowardly and irresponsible, but has been shown to work by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Kentucky taxpayers shouldn't and won't put up with this outrage, where the government extracts from their wages in order to pay extravagant benefits to its own.

Rand Paul's Response to Obama's SOTU

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul's response to Obama's State of the Union address.



I speak to you tonight from Washington, D.C. The state of our economy is tenuous but our people remain the greatest example of freedom and prosperity the world has ever known.

People say America is exceptional. I agree, but it’s not the complexion of our skin or the twists in our DNA that make us unique. America is exceptional because we were founded upon the notion that everyone should be free to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.

For the first time in history, men and women were guaranteed a chance to succeed based NOT on who your parents were but on your own initiative and desire to work.

We are in danger, though, of forgetting what made us great. The President seems to think the country can continue to borrow $50,000 per second. The President believes that we should just squeeze more money out of those who are working.

The path we are on is not sustainable, but few in Congress or in this Administration seem to recognize that their actions are endangering the prosperity of this great nation.

Ronald Reagan said, government is not the answer to the problem, government is the problem.

Tonight, the President told the nation he disagrees. President Obama believes government is the solution: More government, more taxes, more debt.

What the President fails to grasp is that the American system that rewards hard work is what made America so prosperous.

What America needs is not Robin Hood but Adam Smith. In the year we won our independence, Adam Smith described what creates the Wealth of Nations.

He described a limited government that largely did not interfere with individuals and their pursuit of happiness.

All that we are, all that we wish to be is now threatened by the notion that you can have something for nothing, that you can have your cake and eat it too, that you can spend a trillion dollars every year that you don’t have.

I was elected to the Senate in 2010 by people worried about our country, worried about our kids and their future. I thought I knew how bad it was in Washington. But it is worse than I ever imagined.
Congress is debating the wrong things.

Every debate in Washington is about how much to increase spending – a little or a lot.

About how much to increase taxes – a little or a lot.

The President does a big “woe is me” over the $1.2 trillion sequester that he endorsed and signed into law. Some Republicans are joining him. Few people understand that the sequester doesn’t even cut any spending. It just slows the rate of growth. Even with the sequester, government will grow over $7 trillion over the next decade.

Only in Washington could an increase of $7 trillion in spending over a decade be called a cut.

So, what is the President’s answer? Over the past four years he has added over $6 trillion in new debt and may well do the same in a second term. What solutions does he offer? He takes entitlement reform off the table and seeks to squeeze more money out of the private sector.