For $10 a car load, supporters can meet the Congressman and enjoy cider slushes, pies, ice cream, and caramel apples from Jackson’s Orchard, along with hayrides, a corn maze, a goat petting zoo, and giant slides. 

For directions please click here.

Speaking about the endorsement Billy Parson, President of ABC Kentuckiana said, “Brett Guthrie has proven that he deserves another term in office to continue his excellent representation of Kentucky’s 2^nd Congressional District. He has established a record of protecting the free enterprise system, and Representative Guthrie has shown that he is committed to fiscal responsibility within the Federal Government and getting our economy back on track.”

Representative Guthrie remarked, “I am honored to receive the endorsement of these men and women who do such a wonderful job in our community. This election is primarily about jobs and the economy. The Associated Builders and Contractors are on the front lines of these issues, creating good jobs and putting in place the infrastructure that is crucial to growing our economy in the years ahead. One of my top priorities in Congress is helping create an environment where small business owners and workers can flourish. I am committed to keeping taxes low so that entrepreneurs, job creators and business owners can hire new workers, get projects underway, and provide the economic opportunities we need all across Kentucky.”

For more information, please visit www.kyanaabc.com or contact Jenny Shulhafer, Director of Legislative Affairs for ABC Kentuckiana, at (502) 400-2036 or jshulhafer@kyanaabc.com.

About the Associated Builders and Contractors of Kentuckiana

Associated Builders and Contractors of Kentuckiana, Inc. is a construction trade association that promotes the principles of free enterprise, based on the belief that construction projects should be awarded on merit to the most qualified and responsible low bidders. ABC Kentuckiana also provides apprentice training in various trades, safety courses and continuing education for licensed contractors. 

ABC Kentuckiana is a full service “merit shop” construction trade association representing over 450 companies throughout Kentucky and 7 counties in southern Indiana. ABC Kentuckiana has 4 regional offices (Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Owensboro). The chapter was chartered in 1973 and is part of a federation of 77 chapters with over 25,000 member firms that comprise the national Associated Builders & Contractors, Inc. More information about the chapter is available at http://www.kyanaabc.com. Follow ABC Kentuckiana on Facebook and Twitter (http://twitter.com/ABCKentuckiana).

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I believe we need health care reform; we need to make health care more affordable and more accessible. However, I opposed the bill the majority pushed through Congress because it is just a massive spending bill costing $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years and does not address the No. 1 issue associated with health care reform – lowering costs for all Americans.

For the past year, I have heard from constituents all across the district about health care reform. An overwhelming majority were against this approach – against piling on large amounts of debt to future generations and against the huge expansion of government.

Seniors who are looking for help will be getting half-a-trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, including a $202.3 billion cut to the Medicare Advantage program. For those who live on a fixed income, the possibility of having to pay more or see their benefits reduced is very worrisome.

Beginning in 2014, Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

So, families who were hoping to lower their health care costs will see higher taxes and insurance premiums, including 46 percent of families making less than $66,150 who will be forced to pay the individual mandate penalty.

The bill includes a tax on health insurance providers which will cause costs to go up and subjects more income to the Medicare tax, taking even more money out of the pockets of middle class families.

Kentucky’s state legislators have been working tirelessly to balance the state budget while preserving vital education funding and infrastructure projects, and this bill saddles them with millions of dollars in unfunded Medicaid mandates.

There are $52 billion in new taxes and fines on employers who cannot afford to pay their employees’ health care or provide government approved plans, imposed at a time when unemployment is 9.7 percent.

Small businesses, who are already struggling in this economy, will now have a hard time hiring new employees, continuing to provide for the ones they currently have and an even more difficult time maintaining part-time staff, leaving those most in need of jobs with fewer options.

An estimated 16,500 new Internal Revenue Service auditors, agents and other employees may be needed to collect the hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes and penalties levied on the American people.

I supported an alternative to this bill that focused first on reducing the cost of health care for every American. Our solution showed that it is achievable to address many of the health care issues Americans are concerned about without such terrible consequences.

Our solution, which included coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions, allowed parents to keep their children on their health plans through age 25, tackled meaningful medical malpractice reform and allowed Americans to purchase insurance across state lines, did so without raising taxes, destroying jobs, cutting Medicare, or burdening our children and grandchildren with trillions in new debt.

However, the liberal majority in Congress was not willing to work in a bipartisan way or listen to the will of the American people. The only bipartisan thing about this bill was the vote against it.

And the reconciliation bill, which was called the “fix-it” bill, promising to repair all of the issues in the health care bill, only made matters worse.

The reconciliation bill increased the cuts to Medicare, raised taxes even more, cut critical payments to community hospitals, and included a government takeover of student loans.

So the federal government will now be taking the money students pay in interest and fees on their student loan debt and using it to fund this bill, instead of taking the lower interest rate the government is given and passing those savings onto the students to help make college more affordable.

I believe we need health care reform. However, we also need to help foster an environment where businesses can succeed, our economy can grow and more jobs can be created.

Our efforts are not over. This is not the end and we will continue to work to repeal the terrible provisions included in the health care and reconciliation bills and replace them with a plan that focuses on reducing the cost of health care for American families.

Among Kentuckians, Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, who voted “yes” on the legislation, said the bill “is the most important piece of legislation Congress has passed at least since Medicare 45 years ago.”

The benefits will be enormous, he said.

“In terms of its impact and its breadth, it’s going to affect virtually every American,” Yarmuth said in an interview before the vote.

The Senate-passed health care bill passed 219-212 on a largely party-line vote in the biggest overhaul of the nation’s health care system in more than four decades. A bill of fixes to the Senate measure passed on a 220-211 vote.

Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-2nd District, Kentucky, an opponent of the bill, said it would raise taxes and insurance premiums, cut Medicare benefits and cost the states millions in unpaid-for mandates.

“My constituents are looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and Washington is sending them a freight train,” Guthrie said in a statement.

Guthrie and other area Republicans voted against the bill.

Besides Yarmuth, Rep. Baron Hill, D-9th District, Indiana, and Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-8th District, supported the reform measure.

Another Kentucky Democrat, Rep. Ben Chandler of the 6th District, said he could not back the health care overhaul, saying it imposed too many hardships on his constituents.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had urged defeat of the bill and warned the House he was ready to make a parliamentary challenge to the legislation should it get to the Senate.

McConnell sees violation

Through spokesman Don Stewart, McConnell contended the bill affected Social Security revenues, a violation of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 that could doom the measure.

“The entire reconciliation bill is subject to a point of order and rejection in the Senate should it pass the House,” Stewart said in a statement.

The Senate parliamentarian would decide whether the bill was a budget act violation.

McConnell also released a statement after the House action, charging that Democrats were forcing their will on the nation against public wishes.

“A bill that had a simple goal — to lower the cost of health care — became instead a monstrosity held together by special deals, a rejection of the clear will of the voters, and presidential appeals to put party first,” McConnell said. “That’s not reform.”

Hill said in a statement he was voting for the public and fiscal welfare of his district.

He pointed out that the Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would reduce the deficit by $143billion in the first decade and by more than $1trillion in the second.

“This has been a long, deliberative and passionate process that has rendered a fiscally responsible, inclusive and effective final product,” Hill said.

But Chandler said he could not alter his opposition to the bill, which he first voted against in November.

He said in a statement the measure does provide needed reforms like expanding coverage and ending the denial of insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions.

But after talking to constituents and the medical community in Central Kentucky, Chandler said the measure “still does not address the concerns I had about its effect on our seniors, rural hospitals and the overall cost to taxpayers.”

Chandler’s arguments were similar to those offered by Kentucky Republicans in the House.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District, said during House debate that the bill would hurt seniors and penalize hospitals, nursing homes and small businesses. The reforms are not paid for, he added. “Health reform may be necessary, but this bill is the wrong bill,” he said.

Rep. Hal Rogers, R-5th District, called the bill a “socialistic, experimental takeover of health care” that he would try to repeal.

Rogers added in a statement: “Though much has been made of the complexities of the bill, and the dishonest way it was brought to the floor for debate, the facts are simple: trillions more in government debt for our country; debilitating higher taxes and new government mandates on individuals; more economic woes for our small businesses; rationing of vital health services by government bureaucrats; longer lines at the doctor for our seniors; and the loss of millions more innocent unborn children to abortion.”Earlier Sunday, the White House and anti-abortion Democrats reached an agreement on an executive order to be issued by President Barack Obama stating that federal funds could not be used for abortion.

Will of the people

Rep. Geoff Davis, R-4th District, Kentucky, said in the House debate that the “Democrats are thwarting the will of the American people, taking them on a headlong rush towards socialism.”

He called the bill the largest transfer of legislative power to the executive branch in the nation’s history.

“This bill,” Davis said, “will define the America we’ll have in the future: massive tax burdens, rationed care and intrusive bureaucracy.”

Yarmuth said the bill not only cuts the deficit but ends uncompensated care, which costs Louisville doctors and hospitals an estimated $130million annually.

Yarmuth said that Republicans who run in November on repealing the health care bill will be “making a huge miscalculation.”

“The American people by then will understand how many different ways in which they benefit, what it means to small businesses,” Yarmuth said. “At that point, people will have a much better sense of what a positive it is.”

House members are expected to vote on the historic measure today.

President Barack Obama and other supporters of the bill have been trying to win over fence-sitters and Democrats who have said they’re against the proposal.

House Democratic leaders expect to have a straight up-or-down vote on the health-care overhaul. Members of that party say they’ve dropped plans for an indirect vote that would have relied on a legislative maneuver to give their OK to the Senate’s version of the legislation.

The battle tilted in Obama’s direction Friday as more Democrats disclosed how they would vote.

Victory within reach, the president decided to make a final personal appeal with a Saturday afternoon visit to the Capitol.

Democrats have been wrangling among themselves over contentious abortion funding in the bill, but it doesn’t appear that leadership will strike a deal with Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, an abortion foe.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the House would vote on the fix-it companion bill and then the Senate bill. Hoyer said the latter would go to Obama for his signature while the companion bill heads to the Senate.

The legislation, affecting virtually every American and more than a year in the making, would extend coverage to an estimated 32 million uninsured, bar insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, cut federal deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade.

For the first time, most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, and they would face penalties if they refuse. Billions of dollars would be set aside for subsidies to help families with incomes of up to $88,000 a year afford the cost. The legislation also provides for an expansion of Medicaid that would give government-paid health care to millions of the poor.

Congressional analysts estimate the cost of reform would be $940 billion over a decade.

Republicans, unanimous in opposition to the bill, complained anew about its cost and reach.

Guthrie in a telephone interview said health-care reform expenses have been underestimated. Plus, the bill would raise taxes by $500 billion, cut Medicaid by the same amount and increase the premiums of the 85 percent of people who now have health insurance, according to the congressman, who represents Hardin County.

As for the Medicaid mandate, Guthrie said it will “affect college affordability in Kentucky; it will affect schools in Kentucky. So this just isn’t about health care. It’s about what it is going to do to all the other policies.”

Citing a figure from the fiscally conservative Heritage Foundation, the Republican said the state would have to pay $303 million from 2014 to 2019.

Guthrie also said letters and e-mails he’s received about the reform have been overwhelmingly against it.

On Friday, Guthrie did not know what the odds were of the measure passing.

“It’s down to a handful of people,” he said.

“Everyone wants to make health care more affordable and more accessible,” Guthrie said Tuesday on the House floor. “Now is the time to work on incremental reforms that will lower the cost of health care, without spending trillions and bankrupting future generations.”

 Imagine a bill that dramatically increases the power of the federal government in Americans’ lives. It expands the federal bureaucracy to administer a vital service. Democrats argue it will save money over time because the federal government is more efficient than the private sector — yet the American people are suspicious of these claims.

This legislation will require the federal Treasury to increase its borrowing from China and our other foreign creditors by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years. Terms like “public option” have been used to describe a government-run alternative to the private sector, but the ultimate — and obvious — goal all along has been a complete government takeover.

If you think we’re talking about health care, you’re right — sort of. But you’re also wrong. The bill we’re describing is a government takeover of student loans. And it has the potential to pass Congress this week by way of a vote on health care.

If you’re confused, you’re not alone.

For months, the American people have been bogged down in the intricacies of a divisive health care debate. They have cried out for Congress to hit the reset button and start over on commonsense, bipartisan solutions that will bring down health care costs without upending one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Democrats have steadily and stubbornly refused, moving ahead with a legislative gambit the likes of which could never have been envisioned by the framers of our Constitution.

This week, the health care debate is barreling toward its inevitable conclusion — a defining vote that will tell Americans whether their elected officials put people first, or government. Yet with the public’s attention firmly focused on what this vote means for their medical care and coverage, far too few realize that it will also have major consequences for how they pay for college.

For the past several weeks, Democrats have been shuffling elements of their health care plan like pieces on a chess board, gaming out various moves to eke out a victory in the face of overwhelming public opposition. Yet unbeknownst to many, the latest game piece in the Democrats’ plan is a government takeover of student lending that will eliminate the private-sector choice and competition enjoyed by students and schools for more than four decades.

Since 1965, the federal government has ensured that students have the means to pay for college by offering a federal guarantee on privately financed student loans. Known as the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, this public-private partnership guarantees access to billions in financial aid for college students each year while keeping the bulk of the long-term debt off the government’s books.

The benefits of this partnership are obvious: Innovation and competition in the private sector produce better benefits, lower costs and superior customer service for students and schools. For these reasons, the FFEL program has consistently been the choice of colleges and universities.

The alternative to the FFEL program is a government-run student lending model known as the Direct Loan program. Direct Loans are financed with borrowing from — and by — the U.S. Treasury. With annual borrowing in the federal student loan programs reaching $100 billion, the program has the potential to significantly increase our national debt as borrowers pay back their loans decades after taking them out. And if borrowers don’t pay, taxpayers will be left holding 100 percent of the liability.

Perhaps it’s fitting that Democrats would attempt to overthrow private sector-based student lending by tucking it into a plan that has been widely panned as a government takeover of health care. Both proposals vest untold power with federal bureaucrats. Both proposals are built on the shaky assumption that private-sector choice and competition can be eliminated with no cost to consumers. And both proposals began with the promise of a “public option” that ultimately would transform into complete government control.

As Congress careens toward a vote on health care, the parallels between these two policies cannot be ignored. It would be tempting to refer to this bill as two government takeovers for the price of one, but unfortunately, the cost for students, patients and taxpayers will be much, much higher.

Reps. John Kline, R-Minn., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., serve on the House Education and Labor Committee.To submit an op-ed to AOL News, write to opinion@aolnews.com.

“But for the past year, the majority has been working on the pieces of a puzzle they call health care reform; and now that their puzzle is complete, the picture doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

 “Their final image includes billions of dollars in new taxes, over a trillion dollars in new government spending, increases the premiums of the 85 percent of those who have health insurance now and cuts Medicare by half-a-trillion-dollars,” Guthrie said.

 “And I continue to hear from Kentuckians from home who remain concerned over the possible passage of this bill and who are frustrated with this process,” he said of health care legislation.

 “We need to start over,” Guthrie said. “We need to piece together better solutions in an open and honest system. Now is the time to work on incremental reforms that will lower the cost of health care, without spending trillions and bankrupting future generations.”

(Elizabethtown, KY) U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie and U.S. Senate candidate Bill Johnson discussed their qualifications for their respective seats at a meeting of Tea Party Patriots at Nolin RECC.

Guthrie focused on accomplishments in his first term in office. He spoke about the federal health care bill that has recently been threatened by the election of Scott Brown to a Massachusetts Senate seat. Guthrie was not a supporter of the bill, and he said he was worried about its passage. But he said Brown’s election showed where many voters stood on the issue.

“And guess what, the American people took over,” he said. Guthrie thanked the approximately 100 people who attended Tuesday’s event for making a difference on issues such as health care.

Guthrie also discussed his opposition to the $787 billion stimulus package that was passed a year ago. Opposing the stimulus bill is a major tenet of the Central Kentucky Tea Party’s platform.

Newcomer Johnson introduced the crowd to himself and his background, which includes service in the Navy and a career in the energy industry.

Johnson discussed his position on several issues. He supports business deregulation, all forms of coal removal and dissolving the Department of Education and Internal Revenue Service by moving education decisions to the states and instituting a consumption-based tax, respectively.

He also expressed his support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We cannot show weakness, we cannot show surrender,” Johnson said.

Event attendees were able to question both men after they spoke.

Bobby Alexander, local Tea Party chairman, was pleased with the turnout on a snowy Tuesday evening as well as audience participation.

Alexander said the organization is still getting a feel for how their events will be received.

“We never know what to expect because it’s kind of a new thing,” he said.