What will Rand be for halloween?

The Herald-Leader comments on Rand Paul's speech at right-wing Liberty University:

Liberty U. was a welcoming neighborhood for Paul, one where he could drop the I'm-really-rational guise of a presidential candidate and let loose.

That he did with an anti-abortion screed that equated abortion with genetic engineering to create a master race.

To illustrate this doomsday eugenics scenario, Paul recounted the storyline of a 1997 movie flop, Gattica, in which infants get thumbs up or down based on their genetic traits.

Where’d you get your speech, Rand?

Rachel Maddow catches Rand Paul plagiarizing Wikipedia. Check out the video below:

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul: Onward, Christian soldiers

From today's Courier-Journal:

In the Oct. 11 speech (at the Values Voter Summit in Washington), Dr. Paul, a Bowling Green tea party Republican and ophthalmologist, claimed that Muslims are waging a war on Christianity.

“Across the globe, Christians are under attack as if we lived in the Middle Ages,” he said, adding “Christians should be prepared for war!”

...Dr. Paul’s extreme comments have no place in reasoned discourse. Nor are they befitting a U.S. senator, let alone an aspiring presidential candidate.

A health care governor

Gov Beshear gets some well-deserved praise in today's Courier-Journal:

Two weeks after the launch of Kynect, Kentucky’s online health exchange where people can shop for health insurance, it’s off to a successful start.

It’s also attracting favorable national attention. And so is Gov. Steve Beshear, who launched Kentucky’s site and accepted the federal expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act despite opposition of some Republicans in the General Assembly.

...Beshear, whose legacy may well become that of expanding care and improving health statewide, said political debate over the law wasn’t a factor for him.

“This is about our people,” he said. “This is what they need.”

McConnell seeks unlimited donations

Another good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

The latest chapter in Democracy Devolves: Selling Government to the Highest Bidders unfolded in arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court this week. As usual, Kentucky's Sen. Mitch McConnell played a starring role.

At issue in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission is the limit on total contributions by an individual. The limit for the current two-year period is $123,200 — that's $48,600 to federal candidates and $74,600 to political party committees, far more than all but the richest Americans could afford.

The McCutcheon plaintiffs, including the Republican National Committee, are not asking the court to strike down the $5,200 limit on how much an individual can contribute to any one candidate in an election cycle.

But McConnell is. The Supreme Court granted the Republican Senate leader special status to seek an end to all limits on contributions to candidates and parties.

Put budget issues to vote in House

A good editorial about the government shutdown from the Herald-Leader:

Largely lost in the commotion, the Democratic Senate has approved temporarily extending the sequester cuts, a concession Republicans could have claimed as a victory.

Meanwhile, (Rand) Paul has joined the GOP's magical-thinking caucus, suddenly insisting that failure to raise the debt ceiling wouldn't really be a default or even that big of a deal.

Paul's view, we should stress, is not shared by economists, credit rating agencies or foreign governments, all of whom see failure to raise the debt ceiling as a precursor to global depression.

The longer shutdown is, the worse it'll be

Even the right-wing Enquirer thinks John Boehner should allow a vote on a clean continuing resolution to fund the government. This editorial appeared in today's paper:

Raising the debt limit is not a bargaining chip. The country has already racked up the debt, and it needs to be paid. Not doing so would be like ringing up thousands of dollars on a credit card and then refusing to pay it. That will ruin your credit rating.

Reopening the government is not a bargaining chip. We are beginning to see all the ways a functioning government affects our lives. One of the largest employers in Covington, the Internal Revenue Service, is shut down, affecting many of the surrounding businesses that rely on its 3,000 workers, says Northern Kentucky Chamber President Steve Stevens. Home sales are being held up just as the market is returning because some required documents are not being processed.

Obamacare is not a bargaining chip. The health care law was passed more than three years ago. It has a long timetable for full implementation, but it has already started. It was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and has withstood more than 40 votes by the U.S. House to gut it. It is the law of the land and if the Congress wants to change it, its members can do that. But do it the right way, by amending the legislation, not by holding the country hostage.

So, there is demand for health care

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

As Republicans shut down the U.S. government last week because they couldn't block the Affordable Care Act, Americans in droves were voting with their feet.

Or, more precisely, with their fingertips on computer keyboards as visitors swamped the online health insurance marketplaces that opened Oct. 1.

Millions of people couldn't wait to shop for affordable health insurance. Who'd have thought it?

Not the Republican detractors, including our own Sen. Mitch McConnell, who saw the overwhelmed websites as a sign of failure — like a "trip to the DMV," McConnell sniffed — rather than a sign of pent-up demand.

Health care a hit, shutdown is not

Today's Courier-Journal included this editorial on Mitch McConnell's and Rand Paul's constant bashing of Obamacare:

Early returns are in and it appears people are voting overwhelmingly in favor of the (Affordable Care Act) that will allow them to get decent, affordable health coverage.

And all this began on the first full day of the federal government shutdown, forced by a band of Republican House extremists trying to dismantle the health care law, loudly proclaiming the people don’t want it.

Perhaps they should stop listening to each other and the tea party opponents of the law and listen to the people in their districts who are desperate for health care and willing to pay what they can afford.