FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — As Governor Andy Beshear is now halfway through his second term in office, he sat down with LEX 18's Larry Smith to share his view of the future of the Commonwealth as well as his own.
The two discussed multiple topics, including Beshear's recent praise for FEMA's action on the ground during this year's catastrophic weather events.
See that interview below.
Andy Beshear: "So, I’ve been critical of a lot of things in the Trump administration, but I have given them credit from the beginning for their disaster response with the exception of not getting that public assistance for a period of time. Even in the February flooding, I was saying out loud that their FEMA response on the ground was some of the best I’ve ever seen. Their dealing with our families better than we saw in the past. And if I’m going to have credibility in disagreeing with the president over the big ugly bill and the gutting of Medicaid or his tariff policy, I’ve gotta give them credit when they’re doing something good. And that’s the irony in some of these comments about pulling back on FEMA or lessening FEMA responses; it’s one of the things this administration does best."
Larry Smith: We’ve talked about the lack of housing here, not just now – but the projection that it could get worse, possibly even as much as 300,000 housing units needed by the end of the decade. What can be done here – by the state, out of your office – to try to fill that gap?
AB: "Well, there’s a lot of different options. One of the simplest is we have an affordable housing trust fund and it leverages I think nine dollars of private investment for every one dollar in the fund. So, in my last budget, I tried to add ten million dollars to it. In a 17 billion dollar budget, not a huge add, but it would add 90 extra million from the private sector and suddenly we have 100 million more going to affordable housing. I’m not caught up in the politics of it. If they will choose a route that will work, we’ll put it into action and we’ll make sure we get more housing built."
LS: You mentioned Trump’s bill and Kentucky congressmen have said the Big Beautiful Bill will benefit Kentuckians in so many ways. You have been against that. Why and how?
AB: "Well, because every study by every economist or every hospital association says it’s going to devastate us. Not just impact us, but hurt us more than any other state. So these Kentucky congressmen or senators voting for it put their party and their allegiance to a president in front of their people because this is going to hurt Democrats, Republicans, and independents.
The first thing is does is it guts Medicaid and the president promised he wouldn’t do that. In Kentucky, we’re looking at losing 200,000 people who will lose their health care coverage. 20,000 health care workers – those are 20,000 of our neighbors – who are going to lose their jobs. And 35 rural hospitals may close. I was even talking to an urban hospital system that thinks they may have to ultimately lay off one-third of their workforce. But just look at our Kentucky Hospital Association. They’re not a whole bunch of liberals. They’re actually a pretty conservative organization and they’re using the exact same numbers that I am because they’re real. This thing is going to hit us and hurt us badly."
LS: If these things come to pass, what can you – what can the state, what can anybody – do to mitigate these losses?
AB: "I think that word – mitigate – is going to be the best that we can try to do. Listen, I’m going to do everything I can to protect people’s health care and that’s includes working to rescind this bill. But no state has a budget big enough to make up for the trillions of dollars that they are cutting out of health care."
LS: You’ve admitted you’re considering running for office in 2028. You’re two years away from making that kind of decision. What has to happen in these next two years that would push you in that direction?
AB: "Well, my goal right now is to be a common-sense, common ground, get-things-done type of voice that hopefully can push back against this us-vs.-them that’s going on out there, cause not everything is Democrat or Republican, not everything’s right or left; you know, good job, being able to see your doctor, safe roads and bridges, good public schools and public safety – those aren’t political and they are things everybody needs.
Next year, I’m head of the Democratic Governors Association and I’m gonna try to make sure that the American people know who stood up against this big ugly bill that’s going to close down your hospital and who stayed silent.
And then after that, when I sit down and look at this, it’s going to be whether I think I’m somebody who can heal this country, because I don’t want to leave a broken country to my kids or their kids, that can finally bring people together, turn down the temperature, and get us past this constant back and forth we’re in or if it’s somebody else. If it’s somebody else, I’ll be fully behind them."
