Government

It’s not the kind of reform favored by the Obama Administration, but, Kentucky’s junior Senator Rand Paul says health care reform should continue. If the US Supreme Court overturns health care laws enacted a few years ago, Paul says Congress gets a re-do. And he says with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives, the country would get a better set of reforms. 

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear three days of arguments challenging the constitutionality of President Obama’s healthcare law Monday.

Justices will hear several different legal arguments against the Affordable Care Act, but their first question will be whether it is too soon for the high court to review the law.

Illinois lawmakers looking for ways to cut expenses in the state’s Medicaid program may consider the big-ticket cost of prescription drugs as a tempting target. Prescriptions cost the Illinois Medicaid program more than $1 billion a year. Medicaid covers drugs for a wide variety of illnesses, from asthma to schizophrenia, for the poor and disabled. Legislators are looking at other states for ideas. Tennessee, for example, limits adults to five prescriptions each month.

As the 2012 legislative session winds down, lawmakers aren’t touting a long list of accomplishments.  They say that’s not due to a lack of work, but mainly a lack of extra money to fund new programs or expand others.  Instead, House Speaker Greg Stumbo says the main highlights will be a three-bill attack on Kentucky’s drug abuse problems and passing general and road budgets before the end of the session.  In recent years, lawmakers haven’t even been able to pass budgets on time. So Stumbo says this year is a return to normal.

Earlier this month, Republican National Committee co-chair Sharon Day spoke in Murray at the Purchase and Lakes Area Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner.  She rallied the party in advance of Kentucky’s May 22nd GOP primary.  Before Day arrived, Chad Lampe spoke with her by phone about her message for Commonwealth Republicans and about the rise in profile of smaller GOP primaries, like Kentucky, in light of a bruising presidential nominating contest.

You hear Kenny’s reports daily on WKMS Newscasts. This week, Kentucky’s Senate passed their budget proposals for state government, approved a measure supporting Paducah’s Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and decisively put an end to pensions for Confederate veterans.  Kentucky Public Radio Capitol Bureau Chief Kenny Colston speaks with Rick Howlett about what else happened this past week in Frankfort.