First, a note on the tragedy that unfolded yesterday in Minneapolis. The president has been deploying ICE, the National Guard, and troops to blue cities over the last year in an obvious effort to inflame the public and stoke violence so that he can — and here’s the point — invoke the Insurrection Act as a means of intimidating voters in the 2026 elections. We are living in a dangerous era of lies. Stay informed. Stay safe. Stay focused.
On Dec. 30, it was my morning to stock the Blessing Box (free groceries) outside my church on Main Street in Lawrenceburg, so I loaded my dogs into the truck and drove the ten miles to town. I arrived right at 9 a.m. but the doors were locked, so instead of using the church pantry to stock the box, I went to Save-A-Lot.
When I’ve done this in the past, the cost has been around $40 as we are limited to non-perishable items like canned and boxed goods, meaning no high-priced items like meat, eggs, dairy, etc.
The bill on Dec. 30 was $73.
Last month, Jason Bailey from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy reported, “Every poll tells us that affordability is the major concern facing hardworking Americans. Many are increasingly angry as they watch the cost of goods and services spike — from groceries to housing to medical care. At the same time, wages and incomes fail to keep up. What’s behind this cost-of-living crunch? And what will our leaders do about it?”
While the legislature does not have the power to directly lower grocery prices, they are not powerless to curtail the cost of living.
Here are a few ideas:
Some states mandate that all employers provide paid medical leave via payroll deductions. Why isn’t Kentucky one of them? Where is the GOP senate or house bill for that?
Food stamps are in peril as the federal government has shifted more of the program costs onto states. SNAP, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, “helps 595,200 Kentucky residents, which translates to 13% of the state’s population … more than 68% of SNAP participants are in families with children.” Where is the KYGOP bill to help?
Democrats filed Senate Bill 16 on day one to increase the minimum wage from the federal rate of $7.25 an hour to $10 an hour, including moving towards $15 in 2030. A wage increase would take some of the sting out of higher grocery prices, would it not? So why are there no Republican co-sponsors for this bill?
Instead, here are just a couple of this year’s Day One priorities.
Sen. Lindsey Tichenor filed Senate Bill 26 to continue her war on DEI — in K-12 this time — because when SNAP benefits are being cut and you’re working two or three jobs and still can’t afford groceries, a major legislative priority is making sure kids aren’t learning about heroes like John Lewis or Rosa Parks and that no one, no way no how, is getting hired after checking a box to indicate they’re not a white person.
To give just one example from page 31-32 of Tichenor’s 71-page bill, she asks to eliminate the portion in bold and brackets: “The School Curriculum, Assessment, and Accountability Council shall be 27 composed of seventeen (17) voting members appointed by the Governor. On making appointments to the council, the Governor shall assure broad geographical 2 representation and representation of elementary, middle, and secondary school 3 levels[; assure equal representation of the two (2) sexes, inasmuch as possible; and 4 assure that appointments reflect the minority racial composition of the 5 Commonwealth].”
In addition to Tichenor, eleven GOP senators signed onto SB 26 as co-sponsors: Stephen West, Gary Boswell, Donald Douglas, Shelley Funke Frommeyer, Rick Girdler, Scott Madon, Stephen Meredith, Steve Rawlings, Aaron Reed, Gex Williams, and Mike Wilson.
That’s a third of the Kentucky senate.
This is the same GOP-dominated legislature that has not been willing to do the bare-bone basics of being non-racist by passing the C.R.O.W.N. Act (Creating a Respectful World for Natural Hair), allowing black people to wear their natural hair at work — my God, the awfulness of having to write such a sentence — and so last year, Governor Beshear issued an executive order. “I’ve always believed that diversity is an asset and across Kentucky we’re building a brighter future for everyone,” Beshear said.
Fighting the alphabet wars — CRT, DEI, LGBTQ (especially the T part) — do nothing to alleviate heavy financial burdens, and yet this has been one of the top focuses of the Republican supermajority these last few years in the general assembly. Why? Because the hard work of affordability ain’t sexy enough to keep their hardcore voters’ attention, and remember class, what is their number one objective?
Getting re-elected.
Getting re-elected and keeping a GOP supermajority so they can come back and do it all again next year.
Lest you think I’m exaggerating about their culture war addiction, Sen. Steve Rawlings (joined by Tichenor) filed Senate Bill 31 on the first day of session to designate October 14 of each year as Charlie Kirk Day.
I was out of the country when Mr. Kirk was tragically assassinated on a Utah college campus, a school shooting that will also have devastating repercussions for the hundreds of students who were there and witnessed it. But being that Mr. Kirk did not live in Kentucky and was not from Kentucky, filing this bill on the first day of session is jejune and, like Tichenor’s anti-DEI bill, just more virtue signaling.
Meanwhile, “according to the latest consumer price index data, the average price of ground beef was $6.323 a pound in September. That’s up 14% since January and 26% from January 2024. If ground beef hits $10 a pound, the price would represent a 58% surge from September’s level.”
On Dec. 17, a week before Christmas, I went to the Lawrenceburg Kroger to stock up for gatherings we ended up cancelling because my husband got the terrible flu that’s circulating in a year when Republicans in Washington D.C. confused Americans, pharmacists and doctors’ offices about vaccine protocol.
Anyway, I thought I’d make a roast and potatoes for one of the dinners, but even the Kroger-label beef roast was $10 a pound.
Newsflash for the 2026 general assembly: Performative culture war bills might stir up your base but will not feed a hungry child, make minorities feel welcome, or reduce the financial stress weighing down hardworking Kentuckians.
So who, exactly, are you working for?
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