The reason why Mitch McConnell continues to serve himself rather than Kentuckians is that he’s actually got them snowed and fooled about what he is really about. He plays the conservative angle which makes him popular in the Commonwealth of Kentucky with about half of the people. The rest of them end up getting bought off because Kentucky largely lives off of largesse from the federal government. Kentuckians don’t realize that their state even though its 47th in the nation in just about every major category would be even worse off without welfare programs.
Mitch McConnell delivers the pork barrel spending and government largesse that keeps Kentucky economically somewhat afloat even though it ranks 47th in personal income, 47th in family income, 47th in median household income, worst ran state by Governing Magazine, worst place to retire, worst state for elders, worst state for child abuse, worst state for health outcomes, 41st in K-12 education, 43rd in universities and 47th in educational achievement.
What Mitch McConnell and Kentucky politicians over the years have been good at going back to Senator John Sherman Cooper, Wendell Ford, etc is getting the welfare bacon for Kentucky in the form of federal aid which props up the derelict Kentucky economy. We’re talking about food stamps, government handouts, farm subsidies, military spending at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, various other government programs that benefit Kentucky because the state is so broke economically that it pretty much go under without vast federal spending.
The truth about Kentucky is that in many ways its an economic basketcase despite having relatively higher state taxes and cities like Louisville that have very high taxes. Kentucky is so broke that it can’t properly fund its educators pension system along with all the rest of its public employees. Think it about this way, Mitch throws the red meat to his base in so called conservatism yet he can buy votes because Kentucky gets $1.51 for $1 in federal taxes unlike states in the more liberal areas of the country like New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Washington, Massachusetts.
What happens in those states is that they are taxed at their higher income levels in a way that it goes to the federal government and they are paying much more in taxes than what they receive in government handouts. So in essence the economic creators in those liberal states are funding Kentucky government and Kentucky society since they are paying $1 dollar in federal taxes yet only getting 65 or 70 cents of it back in government expenditures in their states. Plus they have a much higher income level of averaging much higher salaries so they end up paying very high tax amounts to the federal government which ends up benefiting Kentucky and its economically backwards state.
Not to mention a high percentage of Kentuckians are on Medicaid and Medicare and the state doesn’t have the funding to pay for all of that spending without the Feds giving them huge handouts. The same could be said for federal programs like HUD, Section 8, Rural Development, SNAP, etc. If the Feds cut that out then Kentucky would probably be if not the poorest state maybe 2nd poorest after Mississippi. Just like how Kentucky gets huge grants in money from the Feds every time there is some sort of calamity or the state government bungles its finances.
Kentucky has a road and infrastructure ranked as a “D” level by the American Society of Civil Engineers and billions would have to be spent to get the system up to just being average along the fact that Kentucky has been mismanaged for so long that the system is teetering and would collapse without vast amounts of welfare and federal aid. 900,000 Kentucky residents out of 4.5 million Kentuckians are also functionally illiterate which hinders them in being able to live, hold jobs, keep quality jobs and improve their education, training and livelihoods. So effectively about 20 percent of the people in Kentucky are functionally illiterate and can only do the very minimum which leads to poverty and less quality jobs.
So Kentucky gets the red meat from McConnell for the conservatives while he plays the other side of getting the most pork barrel welfare projects out of many of the states right there in Kentucky. I lived in Kentucky and its easier to qualify for some sort of disability or mental issue there than just about anywhere else because they have hundreds of thousands of Kentucky residents who get welfare assistance and government handouts. It’s easier to get a disability determination for being mentally disabled in Kentucky because a long known statute in Kentucky law allows for the state to pay for incompetents and known idiots and allows them the right to obtain a government check for such. This law has been in effect for the better part of 200 plus years in Kentucky.
This law was crafted early in Kentucky statehood in the late 1700s if not early 1800s I cannot recall the exact date but it allowed for a pauper idiot law where people considered to be stupid would be given an awarded check from the state for being morons going back to about 1792. This is why partially it is easier in Kentucky to get taken care of by the state by claiming mental status illnesses and being a moron.
That is the link to the whole story about that law that was printed some 80 years ago by University of Chicago Press.
So McConnell if though he is not well liked by many Kentuckians has a definite advantage of consolidating the Republican and conservative base as well as bringing home the bacon which is why he keeps getting re-elected by the fools of Kentucky. Furthermore, when a state is 47th in educational attainment they aren’t always going to be voting in their best interests.
