Ted Smith is a well known republican party stalwart in Northern Kentucky who regularly shares his ideas with his neighbors through his letters to the editor and email blasts. In this letter he sent me yesterday he tells McConnell challenger Matt Bevin how wrong he is about Mitch.
"At a recent Republican meeting in Northern Kentucky, US Senate Tea Party candidate Matt Bevin emphatically stated that US Senator Mitch McConnell had not done anything for Kentucky. Again, he was echoing the Democrat’s party line.
That got me to thinking and to do a little research. I remembered the tobacco settlement and buyout program and wondered what if anything, Senator McConnell had to do with them. Here’s what I found.
Carl Hulse wrote an article in The New York Times on 7/16/2004 entitled, “Senate Approves Tobacco Buyout and New Curbs.” In his article he said, “After years of resistance by lawmakers from tobacco states and the cigarette industry, the Senate overwhelmingly approved new federal regulation of tobacco products and advertising on Thursday as part of a deal to buy out the nation’s tobacco growers and end price supports that date from the Depression… Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky [was] a chief author of the measure adopted on a 78-to-15 vote…”
On 1/8/2009, Sam Moore, Associated Press, and former President of Kentucky Farm Bureau wrote an article on McConnell’s role in tobacco buyout. Sam Moore said, “I don’t think there’s anybody that could have gotten that done except him… I think he used every bit of knowledge he had in the way the system worked to accomplish that. He ran into several roadblocks, but stayed with it until he got it done.”
The Tobacco Transition Payment Program (aka the "Tobacco Buyout") was passed in 2004 and signed by President George W. Bush. Kentuckians were estimated to get $2.35 billion of the total buyout valued at $10.04 billion to be paid over 10 years. The buyout went to 436,719 recipients nationwide. Kentucky and North Carolina combined received 60% of the money. North Carolina got more because most of its tobacco goes into cigarettes while Kentucky farmers grow mostly burley tobacco for chewing and cigars.
The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, authorized in KRS 248.707, distributes funds received by Kentucky from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (Phase I money) in two parts. The first goes to “innovative proposals that increase net farm income and assists tobacco farmers and tobacco-impacted communities” and the second goes to “the Agricultural Development Fund which divides the money between a counties account, which receives 35 percent of the funds, and a state account that receives the remaining 65 percent.”
To sum it up and as a spokesman for the Senator said, “Senator Mitch McConnell was responsible for the historic tobacco buyout – worth $2.5 billion to Kentucky.” The tobacco buyout is just one example of how good Senator McConnell has been for Kentucky.
Candidate Bevin was sadly wrong.
Spread the word.
Edward L. Smith Jr.
So Ted Smith came up with one thing in 30 years! Whoa, CAFTA, NAFTA, TARP, CISPA, NDAA PATRIOT ACT, 19 debt ceiling increases under Bush, 2000 debt $5.674 Billion 2008 $10.025 billion! Whoa looks like the bad outweighs the good, loss of liberty priceless! Approve this Marcus?
Posted by: John T. Kemper, III | November 15, 2013 at 11:12 PM