Over in the eastern part of the state, the Clinton campaign released details of a $30 billion plan to help Coal Country, but short of shutting down the EPA entirely, voters here simply do not care for national Democrats anymore.
The state's eastern coalfield is suffering through a sharp downturn in the coal industry that long underpinned the economy. Coal jobs have dropped by half since 2011.
There are a number of reasons for that, including competition from cheap natural gas and cheaper coal from other regions; the depletion of large seams that were less expensive to mine; and tougher environmental rules aimed at protecting air and water quality.
However, many people in the region blame the downturn mostly — or entirely — on environmental rules.
Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley, a Democrat, said it appears Clinton's proposal includes some good initiatives that could help his home region, and that Clinton deserves credit for paying attention to problems in coal country.
But what many people want is regulatory relief for the coal industry. That would be the quickest way to put miners back to work, Mosley said.
"Anybody's plan that doesn't address that is not going to be well received in my area," he said Thursday.
Clinton's plan certainly didn't mention backing away from environmental rules.
And Clinton's campaign said she supports what the Obama Administration calls the Clean Power Plan, which would mandate significant cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants.
The plan itself is a good one, designed to get jobs to eastern Kentucky to replace coal jobs that aren't coming back. It includes infrastructure projects and using an existing $2.5 billion environmental fund paid by coal companies to reclaim land, fund schools, and to get federal money to these areas for job training and business grants.
Republicans don't care, the only answer for them is to magically create coal jobs here that don't exist by throwing out environmental regs.
Republicans quickly blasted Clinton's proposal. A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said Clinton would continue Obama's failed environmental policies that are killing jobs, and Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short said "if Hillary Clinton were truly on the side of coal country, she would stand up to extreme anti-energy environmentalists that run the Democrat Party instead of embracing their agenda that is killing jobs and driving up costs."
We've already proven that Kentuckians will literally vote against their own health care to stick it to the ni-CLANG! president, so why would we embrace Hillary Clinton for any reason?
It's a nice plan, and it's what Coal Country needs. Who knows, we may even get the help here someday, but no matter who wins the Democratic nomination in 2016, they're losing the Bluegrass State by 20-25 points next November.
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