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Gov. Beshear Signs Accountability Bills |
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Saturday, 10 April 2010 14:57 |
FRANKFORT, KY (April 7, 2010) – Gov. Steve Beshear today signed into law two Senate bills that will ensure that public entities and affiliated organizations such as the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo) and the Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) conduct their business operations under the light of public scrutiny.
“Kentuckians demand that any agency receiving taxpayer dollars be open and accountable for its use of public funds,” said Gov. Beshear. “I am very pleased that the General Assembly took the necessary steps to reassure every taxpayer that honest and ethical stewardship of tax dollars is a priority for this administration.”
Senate Bill 88 specifically sets conditions for open meetings and records and directs that a Web site be established to include a database containing information relating to the entities' expenditures. The legislation also sets forth auditing requirements for these organizations. SB 88 also requires the entities to adopt procurement, ethics, personnel and compensation, and complaints policies and requires training of local officials in related responsibilities.
Senate Bill 77 strengthens the Kentucky Department of Insurance’s oversight of liability self-insured groups and clarifies some areas that had been disputed, including placing these entities firmly under the statute prohibiting illegal inducements in any insurance transaction. This law allows for closer scrutiny of these groups, expands the establishment of a formal conflict of interest policy, provides for more transparency and offers greater protections for the policyholders and injured workers who rely on these funds.
“At the conclusion of our audits, we knew it was important to formalize our key recommendations through legislation,” said State Auditor Crit Luallen. “It is a positive step for taxpayers that lawmakers showed unanimous support for a measure that will ensure greater accountability and transparency for two organizations that provide important services to local governments. We thank those legislators who worked closely with this office to make the legislation a reality.” |
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Reid, In Letter To McConnell, Outlines The Path Forward On Health Reform |
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 21:23 |
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Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell explaining the path forward on health insurance reform. In the letter, Senator Reid details the steps that Senate Democrats have taken to secure bipartisan support for health reform despite the lack of cooperation from Senate Republicans. Reid said he will seek an democratic, up-or-down simple majority vote to revise the health reform bill already passed by a supermajority of 60 Senators last December. Reid also reiterated the commitment of Senate Democrats to deliver meaningful health reform that will ensure access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.
Excerpts of Reid’s letter to Senator McConnell:
“While Republicans were distorting the facts in the health care debate and inflicting delay after needless delay, millions of Americans have continued to suffer as they struggle to afford to stay healthy, stay out of bankruptcy and stay in their homes. Thousands of Americans lose their health care every day, and tens of thousands of the uninsured have lost their lives since this debate began.”
“Many Republicans now are demanding that we simply ignore the progress we’ve made, the extensive debate and negotiations we’ve held, the amendments we’ve added (including more than 100 from Republicans) and the votes of a supermajority in favor of a bill whose contents the American people unambiguously support. We will not. We will finish the job.”
“As you know, the vast majority of bills developed through reconciliation were passed by Republican Congresses and signed into law by Republican Presidents – including President Bush’s massive, budget-busting tax breaks for multi-millionaires. Given this history, one might conclude that Republicans believe a majority vote is sufficient to increase the deficit and benefit the super-rich, but not to reduce the deficit and benefit the middle class. Alternatively, perhaps Republicans believe a majority vote is appropriate only when Republicans are in the majority. Either way, we disagree.”
“At the end of the process, the bill can pass only if it wins a democratic, up-or-down majority vote. If Republicans want to vote against a bill that reduces health care costs, fills the prescription drug ‘donut hole’ for seniors and reduces the deficit, you will have every right to do so.”
Read the entire letter here. |
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Unemployment Benefits Running Out? "TOUGH *BLEEP*" says Bunning |
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Friday, 26 February 2010 22:09 |
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From The Huffington Post:
Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month.
As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along.
And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough s***."
Read the entire story here. |
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Senator Bunning’s Universe |
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Saturday, 06 March 2010 18:33 |
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By Paul Krugman, The New York Times
So the Bunning blockade is over. For days, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky exploited Senate rules to block a one-month extension of unemployment benefits. In the end, he gave in, although not soon enough to prevent an interruption of payments to around 100,000 workers.
But while the blockade is over, its lessons remain. Some of those lessons involve the spectacular dysfunctionality of the Senate. What I want to focus on right now, however, is the incredible gap that has opened up between the parties. Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.
Take the question of helping the unemployed in the middle of a deep slump. What Democrats believe is what textbook economics says: that when the economy is deeply depressed, extending unemployment benefits not only helps those in need, it also reduces unemployment. That’s because the economy’s problem right now is lack of sufficient demand, and cash-strapped unemployed workers are likely to spend their benefits. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office says that aid to the unemployed is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus, as measured by jobs created per dollar of outlay.
But that’s not how Republicans see it. Here’s what Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, had to say when defending Mr. Bunning’s position (although not joining his blockade): unemployment relief “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”
In Mr. Kyl’s view, then, what we really need to worry about right now — with more than five unemployed workers for every job opening, and long-term unemployment at its highest level since the Great Depression — is whether we’re reducing the incentive of the unemployed to find jobs. To me, that’s a bizarre point of view — but then, I don’t live in Mr. Kyl’s universe.
And the difference between the two universes isn’t just intellectual, it’s also moral.
Read the entire column here.
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The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged |
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Sunday, 28 February 2010 12:41 |
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By Frank Rich, The New York Times
No one knows what history will make of the present — least of all journalists, who can at best write history’s sloppy first draft. But if I were to place an incautious bet on which political event will prove the most significant of February 2010, I wouldn’t choose the kabuki health care summit that generated all the ink and 24/7 cable chatter in Washington. I’d put my money instead on the murder-suicide of Andrew Joseph Stack III, the tax protester who flew a plane into an office building housing Internal Revenue Service employees in Austin, Tex., on Feb. 18. It was a flare with the dark afterlife of an omen.
What made that kamikaze mission eventful was less the deranged act itself than the curious reaction of politicians on the right who gave it a pass — or, worse, flirted with condoning it. Stack was a lone madman, and it would be both glib and inaccurate to call him a card-carrying Tea Partier or a “Tea Party terrorist.” But he did leave behind a manifesto whose frothing anti-government, anti-tax rage overlaps with some of those marching under the Tea Party banner. That rant inspired like-minded Americans to create instant Facebook shrines to his martyrdom. Soon enough, some cowed politicians, including the newly minted Tea Party hero Scott Brown, were publicly empathizing with Stack’s credo — rather than risk crossing the most unforgiving brigade in their base.
Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, even rationalized Stack’s crime. “It’s sad the incident in Texas happened,” he said, “but by the same token, it’s an agency that is unnecessary. And when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the I.R.S., it’s going to be a happy day for America.” No one in King’s caucus condemned these remarks. Then again, what King euphemized as “the incident” took out just 1 of the 200 workers in the Austin building: Vernon Hunter, a 68-year-old Vietnam veteran nearing his I.R.S. retirement. Had Stack the devastating weaponry and timing to match the death toll of 168 inflicted by Timothy McVeigh on a federal building in Oklahoma in 1995, maybe a few of the congressman’s peers would have cried foul.
Read the entire column here. |
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Paid for by the Shelby County Democratic Party, PO Box 1266, Shelbyville, KY 40065.
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