Absolute GOP power in Frankfort leads to tsunami of bad ideas that will soon become law

On Thursday, a young doctor sat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain why a new abortion bill sponsored by Sen. Max Wise that would outlaw abortion after 15 weeks is “oozing with non-medical terminology and misinformation regarding the safety and truth of procedures we can treat patients with.”

The doctor, Brittany Myers, said she questioned whether she should even appear to speak against it because other trips to Frankfort had left her feeling “not heard.”

Just then, the KET camera panned to two committee members, Rep. John Schickel, R-Union and Senate President Robert Stivers looking studiously down at their desks.

Just one small symbolic indignity in a session of larger ones. But it shows exactly why statehouse Republicans have been so dismissive of worries over transparency, so ready to post shell bills that won’t be revealed until voting time, so quick to cut down on discussion. They know they’re going to do whatever they want, so public discussion, public opposition or the public good are concepts totally beside the point.

This is the problem of superdupermajorities of either party. It’s not that absolute power has corrupted absolutely; no one seems to be any more on the take than they used to be. It’s that absolute power gives the ruling party absolute confidence that agendas will be passed without compromise, no matter what. It gives impunity to things people only used to whisper about: bizarre flights of fancy about Jews and abortion, the long drawn out destruction of public schools, the ability to do everything in secret. Why bother listening to a young doctor on the subject of abortion access, a subject about which she knows quite a lot? In Kentucky, its fate is now preordained, as was Wise’s bill, which passed 8-2.

#Badbill Watch, part infinity

This absolute power has given birth to a plethora of bad bills, a deluge, a tsunami so intense that it’s hard to keep track — bankrupting public schools so more kids can go to charters, teacher gag bills, abortion etc. So far, it appears the only GOP bill truly turned in its tracks was a poorly thought out tax break for private jet owners, a bill that says the quiet part out loud so loudly that even the Republicans had to stop it. It will probably turn up in the last days of the budget negotiations where the optics are nonexistent because the meeting room doors are shut tight.

But really, why bother? This session brings forward the central truth of Republican rule: The issue of abortion has allowed them to hold onto voters who are going to be hurt by the rest of the GOP agenda. In particular, some high-priority ones, like House Bill 4, would curtail unemployment benefits. House Bill 7 cuts benefits and House Bill 8 will eventually phase out the income tax. This will greatly help rich people, and when the hole from losing that revenue stream stays open, it will greatly hurt people who depend on government services or still attend public schools.

That brings us to “The Cruelty Is The Point” bills. That line was once used about the Trump administration, but can easily double for Kentucky Republican agenda. That’s particularly true for House Bill 4, which is so egregiously dismissive of Kentucky’s poor and working class, characterizing them as worthless moochers, that some Republicans from Eastern Kentucky even had to vote against it.

Rep. John Blanton, a Republican who represents Knott, Magoffin and Pike counties, said his region doesn’t have enough jobs to go around. “For the people of my district, for the people of my region, let me beg of you not to do this,” Blanton said.

The people of his region will also be terribly hurt by House Bill 7, a bill that makes it harder to get and stay on benefit programs like SNAP and Medicaid, which help our most vulnerable children and families.

This all hearkens back to classic Republican ideology, such as of trickle down economics (disproven many times over), pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and local control.

The We Like Local Control Until We Don’t or Freedom! bills are always fun, they run the gamut from omnibus abortion bills that make sure nothing is ever just between a woman and her doctor to supplanting school councils. Most recently, however, House Bill 51 moved forward, prohibiting mask mandates at schools or universities. Of course, this is after the General Assembly took away the governor’s power to require masks in schools, citing, you guessed it, local control. Some brave Republicans, like Rep. Adam Koenig, pointed out in so many words that the party looks dumb when it does one thing with great fanfare, then turns around and reverses itself. But that naked emperor didn’t care and the bill moved on.

Then there’s the Look What We’re Doing While You’re Busy Being Horrified at Something Else bills. The winner here would be Senate Bill 167, sponsored by Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville. This would give county judge executives and fiscal courts sole authority to appoint library board members and even more insidiously, the power to use library funds to build educational buildings. (Lexington and Louisville are excluded.) I suppose this means that when a local college or school district needs more money for construction, the fiscal court can tap into library revenues? Currently, library board members are vetted by the state. Given recent politics over book banning, putting all power over libraries into the hands of a small group of politicians seems like, well, a terrible idea. But it, too, is moving right along.

As I run out of space and the will to go on, I should point out that those of us living in small blue bubbles understand we live in a Republican state. But now gerrymandered political districts mean that any hopes of compromise, the legislative roughing up that happens in a democracy when neither side gets everything it wants, is gone. It’s possible the GOP will redeem itself with the final version of the state budget and put emphasis on funding on public schools, public health and the public good. But so far, the signs are not looking hopeful.