Governor Andy Beshear
speaker
115 appearances
4 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2025
last heard 6 May
Governor Andy Beshear’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
who had never instituted one of these programs, which we had. So instead of sending the money and then auditing what we did, watching what we did, overseeing what we did, we had to plan and double plan and triple plan. And because of that, there's not one inch of fiber from the BEAD program that's out there yet. So we as Democrats, we've gotta be honest with the American people about our failings.
I think that the BEAD legislation was amazing. and transformational, but we've got to be practical and say our first job is to get things done, and we've got to set up a way of administering a program that does that.
Well, sometimes you need some legislation, but most of the time it's your effectiveness. When people are looking at locating a huge investment, you gotta have the site, you gotta have the power, you gotta have the water, you gotta have the infrastructure, but then you've gotta be able to convince them and give them comfort.
that you can get it done. On our major projects, every single cabinet that has a part reports to me every two weeks because my job is to get those built as fast as we can. And we sell speed to market to all these companies that if you come to Kentucky, We'll get you up and running faster than anywhere. So we brought everybody in as a team.
The environmental permitters sit down with companies ahead of time because these companies want to do right by the environment. And we work together to see how fast we can do it and where the best placement of this or that would be to meet the goals and to protect the environment. Our building inspectors are ready ahead of time and are there. It's just about making things work.
and understanding that when we make it easier for people to build that facility, then the jobs come to our people that much faster.
We don't end up having that specific conversation because even with all the laws the legislature's passed, union membership has gone up in Kentucky each of the last three years. They're booming, especially in the construction, in the building trades, and they're building all these facilities, getting them done on time and on budget.
What we end up talking about the most is both getting their facility constructed on time, but then also workforce. While other states looked down on manufacturing for a long time, we never did. We believe in work. We believe that we need to make in the United States what the United States needs. And so we were reshoring manufacturing before the second Trump administration.
And the ironic thing is it has slowed down the pace of reshoring. That these tariffs that are supposed to encourage companies to build in the United States, those companies were already planning. on building in the United States. They'd done too much with China. They were trying to hedge in the United States. Our growth was bigger than just about any other country.
But it takes three to five years and the tariffs will hit them right now. And even when they build their facility, they will need to import certain materials or parts for a long time. And so so these tariffs are actually stopping the the aim that the Trump administration claims that it has. And everybody's seeing it. Everybody's seeing pause projects, cancel projects.
And now we're even seeing layoffs. This is the single most damaging economic policy I've seen from a president in my lifetime. And the fascinating thing to me is more than anything I've ever seen in politics, it's attributable to one person and one person alone.
It does. And making batteries in the United States right now takes foreign direct investment. So this is a joint venture between Ford that has a huge Kentucky presence and SK, which is a South Korean company. Okay.
And so when you look at these tariffs, it not only makes the operations and the cost of operations that much more difficult because we do have to import right now materials, and we're going to have to until we build out this industry, which is going to take time. But what's happening before this tariff policy, but you also are insulting and or attacking the countries where these companies are in.
I mean, I never thought a president could push Japan and South Korea towards China. That's bad for foreign direct investment. That's bad for global security. I'll give you another example. The biggest Toyota plant in the world is in Kentucky. It's in Georgetown.
In the world. Yeah. We make the Camry. We also make some Lexuses. Right. But when you push away countries that invest and their companies invest so much in us, it creates some significant concerns. I mean, you look at what's going on in Canada right now, where they rightfully feel attacked by this administration. Sure.
Or it's that guy that has walked with you everywhere you've gone, has tried to protect you, and then you turn on him.
Well, thankfully, we've got a really good pipeline of projects, and I think our economy will continue to be hot, but we're seeing a slowdown all over the country. In fact, this Derby week, Churchill Downs just canceled a $900 million project, or at least paused it. that would have added hundreds, if not thousands of construction jobs over the next year.
And their president talked about it being because of tariffs, the uncertainty of what things will cost. And as you know, John, it's not just the current tariff policy. It's that it changes every day. It's the uncertainty of it. Right. Or two or three times a day. And what it also suggests is they just don't know what they're doing.
It permeates. It permeates with that small business owner that was expanding and is now looking at laying people off. Small businesses are the first to hire, the last to fire, because when they fire someone, they know them. They might go to church with them. They'll see them in the grocery store and know the impact on their lives. And so, sadly, people are feeling pain.
pain in paying their bills, pain in running their company, and so that certainly permeates. But I tell you what I hear about just as much, and it's the potential cuts to Medicaid. Really? What it would do, first of all, for healthcare generally, I mean, Medicaid covers the people we love the most, our parents and our kids. 50% of Kentucky's kids have some Medicaid coverage.
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