Bobby Jindal, glorious dipshit, poised to turn down billions of "liberal" federal stimulus dollars allocated for his nearly bankrupt state
You know, nothing regarding Louisiana and its politicians should surprise me anymore, but alas, just when I thought I'd seen it all, someone steps to the plate and hits one so far out of the park that all I can do is sit there with my mouth wide open like the proverbial slack-jawed idiot. This time it's Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Go figure.
Jindal, presiding over a cash-strapped state staring straight down the barrel of a two billion dollar budget shortfall, a dilemma many blame on poor financial planning by Jindal himself, has suggested that he might not be ready to accept some or all of the four billion dollars of stimulus money, much of it set to be spent on improving Louisiana's decrepit infrastructure and public education system, allocated for the state he governs. From WWL...
You would think with Louisiana staring at a possible $2 billion budget shortfall next year, Governor Bobby Jindal would anxious to get a hold of the state's nearly $4 billion cut of the federal stimulus package.
But, instead, the republican governor appears to be a bit weary of democrats bearing gifts -- especially when he's set to give the GOP response to President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address.
"We'll have to review each program, each new dollar to make sure that we understand what are the conditions, what are the strings and see whether it's beneficial for Louisiana to use those dollars," Jindal said at a recent gathering in Jefferson Parish.
So, what's in it for Louisiana?
Included in the $3.8 billion: $1.7 billion for the state's Medicaid program, $587 million for public education, $455 million for road and bridge repair and $130 million in flexible dollars to help offset budget cuts.
Now look...I know that an infusion of money isn't going to miraculously fix everything down there, but Jesus Christ come the fuck on! To even think for a second about turning down the cash is utterly retarded. And there is no part of me that believes for a second that this doesn't all boil down to political posturing. Jindal is obviously trying to make waves in conservative wingnut circles to set himself up for a presidential run in 2012, and to use Louisiana as a pawn in that chess game is mildly infuriating. Now, do I think he'll actually follow through and turn down the money? No. There's no way, right? Surely he can't be that fucking stupid, can he?
Wait...don't answer that.
In other sad news regarding Louisiana, the Saints cut Deuce McAllister on Tuesday. The world is surely coming to an end soon.
25 comments:
What he was quoted as saying does make sense though - for eg if there's a condition attached to some of the federal funds that requires the State to contribute the same amount of $$ to a particular project that is pretty worthless like, say, a road to nowhere ... you know maybe the State should turn down those particular funds.
My first comment when I heard about Jindal being picked to give the Republican response to Obama's State of the Union speech was to ask who is going to come back and respond to Jindal? Is Jindal going to tell the world about Louisiana's record of ethics reforms? If so, will he also spill the beans about the fact that we are poised to lose so many people that after the 2010 census, it is expected that we will lose a congressional seat? Will he tell all about the way the Republicans went on a spending spree last year, simply because there was a surplus? If his tax policies are designed to attract new business, why are citizens having to leave the state? Or, why are they wanting to leave the state? His platform was all about "workforce development", but his budget cuts are targeting universities?
Oh, and amidst all the ethic reforms, he has spent days and weeks running around the country to raise money for his "re-election campaign"? Why does he feel compelled to hit up people in Iowa to contribute to his campaign in Louisiana? How much money does he need, or want, in the first place?
I hope he crashes and burns like Buddy Roemer did.
Here in SC our jacka** gov is doing the same thing. They both are posturing for the future while hurting the states they represent.
No offense but good. I want all the Republican governors and vocal congressmen to turn down the money that they're so against. Let their states continue to struggle.
Heard a guy on a conservative talk radio station out of Nashville say that if Sarah Palin turned down the Alaska money it would "virtually guarantee her the Presidency" in 2012.
Jindall/Palin seems to be the GOP Dream Team.
WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
RJ
So is it your stance that it's always stupid to take any kind of real position on an issue? Do you think anything will happen to that $2B other than being poured down somebody's contractor uncle's glory hole? What about Louisiana simply cutting $2B back from the budget? Have you ever met a state worker from La?
In mid-to-late March, once the regular season is over, Louisiana will go up against Texas, Illinois, and Alaska in the Final Four of the Assclown Governors Tournament of Champions. Competition has been feirce so far, and even perennial powerhouse Illinois was forced to forefit early in the tourney (lets face it, as a democrat, BlagHOYVENWITHEGOVERNINGANDTHEIMPEACHMENT never stood a chance). It should be interesting to see how low the remaining three are willing to go to be named the biggest douche of them all.
I did some searching around and found the following:
State Employees:
Louisiana - 91,000
Alabama - 35,000
Population:
Louisiana - 4.46 million
Alabama - 4.44 million
And that tells you all you need to know about where that money goes.
Yep Nick,
LA can just trim 2 bill of fat from the budget. They can easily make it up with effective marketing of the Angola Prison Rodeo. Need a t-shirt?
RJ
@nick....so in your mind Jindal is supposed to turn down the federal help because of the corruption in the state? why not take the cash and then use it as leverage to clean the state up, which is one of the main things he promised to do when he ran for office?
this whole mindset to me seems akin to a starving man turning down a hot meal because it might upset his stomach. it's fucking stupid....PERIOD.
yeah...when someone offers you an assload of money it might be smart to consider the particulars of the gift.
them toe to toe is hilarious
It's like this:
Jindal is the smartest kid you went to grad school (RHODES SCHOLAR MOTHERFUCKER) with, everyone wanted to hang out with because he was so fucking smart and down to earth. And when he worked in a group he did an abnormal share of the work.
Obama is the kid you went to grad school with who...frequently stated the obvious in class instead of actually moving discussion forward, you weren't sure what kind of grades he made and he was an arrogant ass so you avoided him despite many others thinking he was cool and letting him bum off of them in group work settings.
TCB you might want to consider a few things here.
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO MY FIRST POINT HERE
If you are sick don't you try to take the right medicine? OR are you of the mindset that you should be given free reign of a pharmacy and take insulin shots, lithium, and chemotherapy drugs when you have the flu?
THINK! USE YOUR HEAD!
Also, the state is not "nearly bankrupt" financially its not hot but it has had a poor credit rating for a long time and corrupt liberal democrats have run the state for a long time. But the state still has creditworthiness unlike California.
Furthermore, Jindal pushed the nation's most comprehensive ethics reform standards through the legislature.
First of all, there's exactly a 0% chance that he doesn't take the money. So don't proceed until you understand that fact.
Secondly, he's posturing/playing politics/whatever you want to call it. They all do it. So stop making it seem utterly brilliant or acceptable as "just politics" when people like Obama do it, but somehow "glorious dipshit" when Jindal does it.
Now, personally, I DO wish he would refuse it and starve the beast. But of course we know the #1 function of politicians is to spend other people's money to get themselves re-elected, so no dice for me there.
Did you see the recent headlines about "rent aid" being re-extended for Katrina "victims" for a 4th year now? This is what happens with federal money. Nothing. It's poured down a welfare gullet and washed down with a 40.
@anonymous: They could EASILY trim $2B from the budget. I ask the question seriously - have you ever met La state workers? I actually have quite a few on one side of my family and I know plenty of others. It's worse than unions.
@Nick
My opinions about government were formed at an early age...one particular instance stands out...I recall standing in some bureaucrats' offices in Baton Rouge with my mother who was trying to start a business. She was attempting to take advantage of special provisions for females in getting an SBA loan(small business admin). Basically no dice because she somehow wasn't qualified...how so, she's a white woman. Anyway my mom went on to be very successful with a normal bank loan, but that time spent standing in a dank government office crowded with paper pushers who took too much vacation and seemed to have repetitive functions stayed with me.
@nick and barry o...i sense some sort of romance sprouting between the two of you. maybe this can be the first Cajun Boy love connection. please allow me to facilitate this! you two can go for dinner at TJ Ribs and share horror stories of that time you went to the DMV and had to wait in line for 45 minutes to renew your license. it'll be so fucking swell!
Just read that Governor Perry of Texas is also thinking of turning down the stimulus money.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6268076.html
Actually, Nick, I do know state workers. The ones I know are doing the best they can in their underfunded agencies. Now maybe some of the state bureaucracies are bloated, but I have had a great deal of contact with child protection workers, who go out in the middle of the night to get kids from abusive homes and then spend hundreds of dollars on Christmas presents for these same kids each year. And I know workers in the state vocational rehab office who try to help people that are disabled get some kind of job training or education to move on into work, and do it with constant budget cuts. You can't just generalize.
And if budget cutting is such a wonderful thing, why did the majority Republican legislators spend every penny of the surplus they had last year?
And "Barry O" is the rich kid who never would have allowed Bobby Jindal into his frat house until he figured out that Bobby Jindal could raise the frat GPA and the frat could keep their charter for another year.
Here's the thing. If nothing else, there is enough money in this plan to keep the state college system from having massive layoffs. I could care less what your political stance is, but it you are against having what has slowly become an outstanding system torn apart because of really rediculous tax cuts, you need to sit down and think about all of this a bit.
If you were in college, had worked hard to get there, were doing well, and suddenly your program was dismantled to any degree at all, if it could easily be avoided, you would feel angry and cheated. There are many, many students now in the system who worked hard in high school to get where they are, chose to stay in LA because the options were, stunningly, better than many other public systems that they could have gone to in other parts of the US. Now, if Piyush does what he is talking about, they will just be stuck. No options, other than stick around and hope for the best. Also, the TOPS plan (the one damned thing in this state that has worked the way that it was designed to work) students will bear much of the brunt of these cuts, as far as the student population is concerned, and this is not only unfair, it is flat out wrong.
He will eventually take the money-unless he has no interest in reelection (which may well be the case-he's been so busy running around the country, he hasn't had just a whole lot of time to work running the state into his busy "I'm not campaigning nationally" schedule.
Oh, and I'm sorry, this is all of the Dem's fault? What the hell did our REPUBICAN, I don't travel in order to get factories to our state, Governor Foster do for 8 inglorious, non-active years? Repeal the motorcycle helmet law? That's about it. All the while, governors all over the South were getting car plants, shipyards, steel plants, etc. Say what you want, but at least Blanco (who I am not a big fan of, but she was much better for business growth than she was given credit for) did actively pursue any and all business opportunities that came her way.
Ha. TJ Ribs. You can't get me to set foot in that place. Thanks anyway, but I think I'd rather the Ruth's Chris off of College - that's the place I saw EWE having lunch about 2 days before he was indicted. He was sitting in the corner like a mafia don - you know, so he could have a view of the entire restaurant and have no people behind him.
@sunshine...is he posturing to run in 2012 as well. how tragically funny would it be for all the 2012 repub candidates to turn down the money to score points with the fringe of their base. fuck it, give the money to new york city. bloomberg is no fool. he'll take it and spend it wisely. also, it should be noted that most of the repub governors have been enthusiastically on board with this. charlie crist in florida was a huge supporter.
@anon...well said.
@karin...barry o is a frat boy. an overgrown one. trust me on that. but i love him nonetheless.
@hadocol...EXACTLY! i meant to make the point that if, at the very least, this thing saves the jobs of teachers who were likely to be laid off, all the better.
@nick...i actually hate TJ Ribs as well, which is why I'd send you two there. and, true story...the last time i saw EWE was about a month before he went to prison...he and candy were in line in front of me at a jack in the box on airline hwy.
@anonymous: Great. Leave social service like it is. But let's agree to a halving of staff everywhere else, OK? "Underfunded"?. LOL. Re your republican surplus question, don't ask me. I'm not a republican. I'm not defending ANYONE here (not even Jindal, because I know it's just posturing.)
@Hadacol: IMO, the state college system DOES need to be cut drastically. Way too many underqualified students use the sysetm as a hammock for 2 years and then drop out. Also, why shouldn't students bear the brunt of cuts? Time to wake up into the real world, kiddies.
Yes, god forbid he should be forced to spend more money on health care for the poor in a state that consistently ranks worst or second-to-worst in overall population health, and has a health care system hugely burdened with costs from the uninsured. way to take the long view.
Nagin says if Jindal turns down the money, he'll take it for just New Orleans...
@ Cajun Boy.
Not sure if Perry's getting ready to run or not. I thought he'd run in this past election, with Rove skulking in the background...I was so wrong...(thankfully)
Heard last night on NPR Perry has decided to take the money.
If he did run in 2012, I wanna see a Perry/Palin, or Palin/Perry ticket. :-)
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/02/19/the-increasing-burden-of-government-employees-on-taxpayers/
Check that out.
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