The Right Wing Radical Repugnican State Legislature Just Reduced Medicaid Reimbursements By 4% More

The political cartoon above is from a time when the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill was still being debated in congress and largely ignored by the general population of our country. TRAITOR Trump, the Criminal Syndicate which supports him by posing as "cabinet", and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party lied unceasingly to the American public in order to get the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill passed. There was total disregard on the part of millions of Americans to the obvious widespread damage the bill was intended to do to the entire country and to the overall American economy. The Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill was passed by the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in congress and signed by TRAITOR Trump on July 4, 2025. I am proud to say that on July 4, 2025, I was present at Rosenberg Square in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, that day as Ned Pillersdorf officially announced his candidacy for the US House in Kentucky District 5. Where were you? A key provision, literally a legislative time bomb, of the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill was that most of the damage it was planned to do was delayed until 2026 after the midterm elections. It was literally a legislative wolf in sheep's clothing and that was very intentional because the Right Wing Radical Repugnicans and TRAITOR Trump knew if they made it effective immediately upon ratification and signature it would guarantee the electoral defeat of most of its supporters. Now, the cat is out of the bag, the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill is rapidly becoming effective and the horrible damage it was intended to do to most of America and Americans has begun. But to make matters worse in Kentucky, the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in the state legislature has just passed, over Governor Beshear's veto, another 4% cut in Medicaid reimbursements which will make the effects of the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill far worse on Kentucky hospitals, clinics, and medical providers. Below is a map of hospitals in Kentucky which were initially placed in danger of permanent closure by the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill. What is interesting is that if we look at the point where the borders of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana meet on the Ohio River just west of Cincinatti and draw a line straight south from that point to the Tennessee border we find that 23 o the 35 endangered hospitals are east of that line. The effects of the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill were always intended to do more damage in Kentucky east of that line than to west of the line. Congressman Hal Rogers and every other Right Wing Radical Repugnican member of the Kentucky legislative office holders at the federal level voted in support of that bill. Now every member of the Right Wing Radical Repugnican state legislature has voted to remove another 4% from Kentucky Medicaid reimbursements to medicaid providers. They did that over the veto of Governor Andy Beshear. That extra 4% of income to hospitals and providers will increase the damage of the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill to a point where the number of hospitals in Kentucky which will be in even more grave danger of closure will be greater. Will it rise from 35 hospitals to 40, to 45, or even 50? We won't know until the closures start happening and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican legislators nationwide start denying their support for the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill, and those elected at the state level start denying their support of the additional 4% cut in Kentucky Medicaid reimbursements. Very few businesses, where they are country stores, beauty shops, and family restaurants can survive a loss of 4% of their income for an extended period. It is the dream of TRAITOR Trump and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party that those effects will be permanent. It is the dream of the Kentucky legislature in Frankfort that those horrible effects of both the Big,Vicious, Ugly Bill and their own 4% cut in Medicaid reimbursements will be permanent. None of them give a tinker's damn what you think or how their actions might affect you, your family, your family business, your aged parents and grandparents, your child with multiple medical issues,or your neighbor next door who is battling cancer or heart disease. They are happy now! They were happy the day they passed each of these highly damaging pieces of legislation! They will still be happy when your local hospital closes, or your local general practitioner decides to move to a state with a state legislauture and federal elected representatives who give a damn about their constituents, hospitals, medical providers, and citizens! Get used to it! Or get up off your ass and fight to remove every one of those Right Wing Radical Repugnicans from office for life! You have to learn to Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out! You have to learn to defend yourself, your family, your neighbors, your state, and your nation. No matter how much you are hurt they will not come to your aid. The sources of their incomes and their happiness are not the same as yours. They have protected themselves and abandoned you! What are you going to do about it? Your only option is to vote, not just to vote, you have to vote the way you should have been voting all along, STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, Every Election, Every Race!

The Most Unjustifiably Ambitious State Legislature In America!

 The Kentucky state legislature convened on January 2, 2024, to begin the 2024 regular session which will last until April 15, 2024, which will be a sine die day, or the date of adjournment.  They have set aside 10 days from March 29, 2024, to April 9, 2024, as days to deal with any vetoes which Governor Andy Beshear might sign.  However, sadly, very sadly, the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party has a veto proof majority in both houses and any vetoes which the governor will sign are likely to be only on bills which are so abhorrent to both the governor and common sense that he feels that it is necessary to take a public position against them.  At two links below, I will post the individual links to both the legislature's schedule and the link to the link to the page labeled 2024 Regular Session Record. That page is operated by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission and is updated every day if necessary.  It will contain every bill being considered by the legislature, every bill passed into law, and a great deal of other information. The schedule page will tell you every day the legislature is in session and, for those of you who are willing to travel to Frankfort, it will let you plan to be there on a day when you have a possible opportunity to publicly express your opinions to the legislature by either seeking to contact a legislator, leave a message face to face with a legislative employee, or engage in public protest by exercising your right to free speech. I urge all of my readers who live in Kentucky or have a vested interest in what happens in the state to spend time on both links to learn what is being considered by the legislature and to familiarize yourself with the legislative process.  This is going to be a very destructive legislative session and will do a great deal to destroy individual constitutional rights in the state; destroy a multitude of programs intended to provide health care, education, free speech, environmental protections, and virtually any program intended to assist the lower echelons of society. 

At this time, it is too complicated a process to attempt to address every legislative bill in the session. But I will speak out here for the first time about a bill which I just learned about yesterday, February 9, 2024, which is intended to take away the right of Kentucky teachers to keep unused sick days throughout their careers and add them to their time for retirement purposes which has been a standing perk for all full time state employees for many years. This bill is labeled as Senate Bill 4.  This bill will pass the state legislature, will go to the governor's desk, and, I suspect, will be vetoed as a public moral, ethical, and political statement by the governor who is deeply committed to education in the state but, incredibly sadly, unable to prevent this attempt to further incentivize every good educator to consider either never applying for a job in Kentucky or leaving the state early in their careers to seek better jobs in states with a genuine commitment to high quality education.  I repeat, the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in the legislature has a veto proof majority in both houses of the legislature and all Andy  Beshear, the best governor can do is speak out and take a rational public position by refusing to sign such damaging laws into the state code.  We must support the governor and lieutenant governor, who is a former educator, in their effort to save public education in Kentucky.    

As I have time to read, research, and understand other bills being proposed in this legislative session, I will post other blog posts to this blog, may modify this particular post, and will do my best to keep my regular readers in Kentucky informed about the most dangerous bills being proposed by the legislature as they continue their effort to become the worst state legislature in the nation.