Education

Public education is losing credibility around the state. Increasing numbers of parents opt to put their children in private schools or home schools. Policy makers and educators would do well to look carefully at the reasons for this exodus. Parents are worried about the violence and lack of discipline they see in the schools. They want rigorous academic standards. They don’t want their children to be used as social engineering guinea pigs. Read more…

Economic Development and Taxation

Kentucky’s people are among the highest taxed in the country. During the Fletcher Administration, we were able to reduce the tax burden on most of the working poor, eliminating it entirely for some. Yet Governor Beshear, after earlier opposing any tax increases, reversed his position in the 2008 General Assembly by calling for a substantial increase on cigarettes, other tobacco products, and certain services. Read more…

Right to Life

Occasionally, people will ask me where I stand on the Right-to-Life issue. My response is that I am 100 percent pro-life, but I don’t consider my pro-life position an “issue.” Issues can be negotiated, compromised, and redefined, and sometimes they are. We consider dozens of issues in Frankfort every day. Sometimes I will deal with eight or ten separate issues in a single hour. But the right to live is a God-given right, one that government can neither grant nor deny the people. Read more…

Family Values

The family is under attack today more than at any other time that I can remember. Government intrusion into the private lives of families is at an all-time high. Pornographic magazines assault us in bookstores and grocery stores. Obscene videos are available in many video rental stores. And the Internet provides fresh challenges to the standards of decency almost daily. Read more…

Personal Freedom and Liberty

Legislating is – and should be – very serious business. We legislators have been given the awesome responsibility of preserving and protecting both the United States Constitution and our Kentucky Constitution. And never before has that call been more urgent. The U.S. Constitution is under attack, not by foreign powers, but rather from well-meaning but misguided powerful American policymakers. Indeed, if the threat to our Constitution were from foreign attackers, I’m confident that patriots from every town, county and state in the country would rise up to defend that precious document. Read more…