Blue Dot
Northern Kentucky’s premier Political Podcast.
This is your ultimate source for in-depth analysis, lively discussion, and comprehensive coverage of the political landscape in Northern Kentucky.
Brought to you by the Kenton County Democratic Executive Committee.
Blue Dot
Weekly Round Up-Billions, Bills, Bourbon Tax and Ballots
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this week’s Weekly Roundup, Natalie and Brian look at the growing squeeze on working families: rising costs tied to global conflict, a proposed alcohol tax increase in Kentucky, and the ongoing push to tighten voting requirements nationwide. We also spotlight policy efforts aimed at lowering costs—like childcare and prescription drugs—and wrap with what to watch in Kentucky’s local and statewide races.
Welcome to the Blue Dot, Northern Kentucky's premier political podcast, brought to you by the Kenton County Democratic Executive Committee. Welcome back to the Blue Dot Podcast for our weekly roundup, where the news is fast and the facts are free. I'm Natalie McDonnell. Thanks for joining.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Brian Cale. Hey, another whirlwind week, Natalie. Probably at the top of national and international news is that Trump's little excursion into Iran, commonly known as a war, continues at the cost to American taxpayers of over one billion dollars per day. And not to mention the related price increases in any product or service that depends upon petroleum, such as plastics, packaging, and transportation. So, in short, just about everything. Trump is the only guy I know who, when he goes on an excursion, he packs tomahawk missiles.
SPEAKER_02He sure does. And yes, it is increasing the cost of living everywhere. And one more thing we all really don't want or need is a tax on alcohol. But Republicans in Kentucky are close to doing just that. Republican Jason Petrie sponsored House Bill 9, which proposes a new 4% regulatory fee on alcohol sales as part of a restructuring of Kentucky's alcohol tax system. Now, mind you, this is on top of the 6% sales tax that already exists. So Kentuckians would effectively pay 10% on alcohol purchases and bonus in cities like Newport that already have a 2% regulatory fee, they'll be paying 12%. So not fun. Not fun for those who want to go have a happy hour.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Happy hour just got more expensive.
SPEAKER_02It sure did.
SPEAKER_00HB 9 was formerly known as House Bill 612-612, but the supermajority decided it was now a priority bill and moved it up to House Bill 9. It passed the House on March 10th by a vote of 63 to 31 and now just needs to pass the Senate. For obvious reasons, hospitality leaders have been pushing back against this bill, as well as bars, restaurants, breweries, distillers. You know, this will surely deal another blow to the bourbon industry and other related businesses that are struggling right now. In fact, restaurants across the state are closing at a fast pace, citing labor, food, and rent costs.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and this isn't the first time the GOP kind of snuck a sales tax increase onto us. Back in 2023, House Bill 8 dropped the state's income tax from 5 to 4.5%. But Republicans slipped in a 6% sales tax on over 30 industries that previously were not taxed, like Uber services, parking, recreational sports, weddings, and spa services. So they just kind of slipped that in on us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this is the party of tax relief, right?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00But uh hey, we're told affordability is a hoax, Natalie. You know, affordable housing is one issue that many Americans struggle with. But we learned this week that according to several news sources, Trump told Speaker Mike Jans Johnson that nobody gives an F about housing. Or let's just say Trump doesn't care about it because his priority instead is getting the Save America Act through Congress and signed into law. He and the Republicans call it a voter ID law, but the Save America Act is in actuality a proof of citizenship law. The GOP's goal is to force every American to show their papers in order to vote, and acceptable papers do not include a driver's license, not even if it is a real ID. No, only a birth certificate in which the name matches the prospective voter's current name. Hey, too bad if you're a woman who took her partner's name after marriage, or you must have a passport or military ID with a matching name.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Brian, and less than 50% of Americans have a passport. And it's expensive. It's also time consuming to get. It'll tax the system even more. And most Americans don't have ready access to their birth certificates. That's only helpful. Again, it's like you said, the birth name matches the per person's current legal name. So I'm really hopeful that the SAVE Act won't pass as a few Republicans are crossing the aisle to join the Democrats in voting no. However, I want to go back to that statement where you just said that Trump said that people don't really care about housing. I can say Kentuckians sure do care about affordable housing. And we're going to be talking to a housing expert next week about not only the crisis, but possible solutions. So we're looking forward to that conversation. But uh in good news, we do have good news. We do have some good news. Yay. While we do talk a lot about the bad bills, and we talk a lot about this bad bills in the supermajority in Kentucky, but people across the state and nationally are starting to understand that Democrats have a better plan for working families. And district districts all over the state are now considered competitive because of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's right. And to highlight how Democrats are focusing on improving the lives of Kentuckians, we can start by pointing out that Governor Andy Bashir vetoed House Bill 1 on Friday, blocking the use of tax dollars to fund private schools. And Democrats have introduced Senate bills 164 and 165 to establish universal pre-K for all four-year-olds. If successful, these bills will significantly expand early education access to young Kentuckians and support working families by alleviating child care demands and costs, enabling many parents to return to the workforce at a time when we are seeing widespread labor shortages.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and not to mention both of those actions are very popular in the state of Kentucky. And another win came from Kentucky Congressman Morgan McGarvey as he finally was able to give bipartisan support for the Cutting Copays Act by tucking it into an appropriations bill. The Cutting Copays Act aims to eliminate copies for generic prescription drugs from Medicare Part D recipients. So that's a good one, too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but uh unfortunately we're still gonna feel the pain of the$28 billion, the big bad behemoth of a bill cut from Kentucky. There's a lot of bees in there. To put that into perspective, the first week of Trump's war in Iran cost more than$11 billion, roughly the same amount Trump's ugly budget takes from our rural hospitals, many of which are now at risk of closure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and if you think that's bad, we were just given the receipts for the military's use it or lose it budget, which forces the Pentagon to forfeit its unused money and potentially see reduction of funding in the following year if they don't use it. But instead of using it on salaries for service members, upgrading military housing or scores of other expenses, HegSath went on a little shopping spree, and I just wanted to talk about a couple of those. Keep in mind, Brian, these are all for the month of September. So in September, we saw a 564% increase in furniture spending, mostly office furniture, but it came from premium manufacturers. And this is to go along with about$12,000 worth of three-tiered fruit basket stands. I guess just to have next to your office there.
SPEAKER_00They gotta give me one of those, I guess. Didn't know how important they were. And I also saw a$100,000 Steinway grand piano for the Air Force Chief of Staff's home. Well, okay. I mean, maybe the chief of staff is a fledgling liberace, you know. We don't want to discourage that. And uh maybe the Department of Warmongers leadership needed furniture, but here's where it gets really crazy. Again, in September, the department spent$2 million on Alaskan King Crab. It's the fifth time the Pentagon under Donald Trump has spent two million dollars or more on King Crab in a single month. I I mean twice during Trump's first term and three times in 2025. It's only happened one other month in history in February 2021 prior to Trump.
SPEAKER_01How does a government agency do that? Not to be outdone though. They consumed$6.9 million in lobster tail.
SPEAKER_02I mean, million dollars,$15 million for ribeye steak, and I think, hey, if you're gonna spend that much money, it should have been a fillet, you know. Yeah, no kidding. But and then there's other things like$124,000 worth of ice cream machines, and then we have soup sushi preparation tables, just it just goes on and on. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00I'm sure it's hard to relate to the average American struggle with affordability when you have nearly unlimited taxpayer dollars to live like royalty. I mean, this just proves once again why it is so important for Democrats to get out and vote this November and flip seats in Kentucky. This year, Democrats will be running for all three county commissioners' seats in Kenton County, and two Democratic candidates, John Bussey and Jordan Baldridge, running for commissioner in District 3, participated in a forum hosted by the Kenton County South Citizens Group.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, both Jordan and John did an amazing job addressing a key concern to Southern Kenton communities, which is the county's Site Readiness Initiative, or the SRI, which calls for the industrial development of 5,400 acres across southern Kenton County. It is proven to be very unpopular, and we're gonna actually have Ben Bach, candidate for Commissioner District 2, on the podcast in a couple weeks to really dive into the facts uh surrounding the SRI.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Spectrum News One hosted the uh Democratic candidates for a U.S. Senate uh debate on Tuesday, March 17th. Twenty, count them, twenty candidates filed to run for this seat, seven of which are Democrats, but only four of these Democrats were invited to be in the debate. Uh Amy McGrath, Charles Booker, Pamela Stevenson, and Dale Romans.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and we got the hear from all four of them, and they were the four that met Spectrum's candidate criteria, and that required candidates to have raised at least$100,000 in total individual contributions, according to the most recent verified filings with the FEC, when that was quarter four of last year. Um, or they must have previously appeared on the ballot in the same district that they're running for or the state and received at least 10% of the general election vote.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh unfortunately, this funding criteria left popular candidate Logan Forsyth, who we've had on the podcast, off the stage because while he met the funding criteria, it was after the last filing date. I mean, this really shines a light on how difficult it is for the average Jane or Joe to mount a competitive campaign, especially when we have people like Elon Musk, who probably has never even stepped foot in Kentucky, funneling$10 million to people he knows he will be able to manipulate if they get elected. So I don't know, if that doesn't have you fired up to vote, I don't know what will. If you haven't registered, you must do so by April 20th at 4 p.m. And if you don't know how to register or have any questions, call us. Call the Kenton County Democrats. We'll be happy to help you out.
SPEAKER_02We sure would, and we would talk about it now, but we do not have time because our 10 minutes are up for the weekly round up when the news is fast and the facts are free. Till next time, stay curious, keep the facts in focus, and never stop fighting for what matters. Peace out, everyone.