Gutless in Frankfort

Let’s start with a few of truths.

1. Cigarettes are bad for you. This product kills people.
2. The majority of Kentuckians would support a tax increase on tobacco.
3. Due to the fact that our elected leaders are generally gutless, they have been unable to come up with a true tax reform package that will pay of state government services.
4. Raising the tobacco tax would reduce the number of smokers and raise revenue for state government.

So today’s story in the Herald-Leader clearly shows that we have a group of wimps pretending to be public servants.

Let’s start at the top and work our way down.

Governor Steve Beshear:

Beshear favors raising revenue with casino gambling over higher taxes.

Now I’m sure that Steve Beshear would not mind an increase in the cigarette tax as long has he doesn’t have to do any of the heavy lifting. Beshear will take the money as long as he can still claim he never raised taxes, the evil legislature raised the taxes. Steve remembers Louis Nunn and Nunn’s Nickel and he sure as hell isn’t about to put his neck on the line to raise a tax.

Speaker of the House Jody Richards:

But legislators are finding increased cigarette taxes more palatable as polls show widespread support for some level of increase…….Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, expressed reluctance to join that list.

Jody has repeatedly shown that the only thing he truly cares about is being the Speaker of the House. God forbid Jody actually takes a stand for the people of Kentucky.

House Democratic Caucus Chair Charlie Hoffman:

Kentucky's cigarette taxes would more than triple, to $1 a pack, under a proposal likely to be filed Friday……Rep. Charlie Hoffman of Georgetown, House Democratic caucus chair, said a 30-cent hike is "about as high as we could attain at this time."

Good Ole Charlie is following Jody’s lead.

Senate President David Williams:

David Williams is passing the buck back to the Governor. We couldn’t have a Republican take a stand for the people.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said he doesn't know what kind of support a $1-a-pack cigarette tax would have.

"The governor obviously is the person who is running the train on all tax increases down there," Williams said. "The governor will give the speaker (Jody Richards) and Sen. Worley the marching orders on tax increases and will be the phantom operator of that operation."

But of all of these self serving political hypocrites that claim to be leaders the saddest example is House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover. Here is a guy that knows in gut and in his heart he should do the right thing, but is so politically screwed up he can’t bring himself to do what he should.

But Hoover said the issue has become a very difficult and very personal one for him since his 70-year-old mother, Mae, was diagnosed with recurring lung cancer. "She was given three to six months to live at the end of October. She's been smoking since she was 14," Hoover said.

"I'm not inclined to support a tax increase but, to be honest, it's hard to see somebody who's a victim of 55 years of smoking ... and not think about what this might mean down the road," he said.

Collectively if these guys were in a paper bag they would never get out. Because even when they found the open end of the bag, none of them would have guts enough to step through first.