Calling Jindal's Bluff
Much like a beggar suspicious of a free meal, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said in a speech this week that his administration would scrutinize all stimulus funds directed at the state to confirm that there are no "strings attached". The just-signed economic stimulus legislation appropriates just under $4 billion to Louisiana and is meant to fund Medicaid, public education, road and bridge repair, and other miscellaneous expenses to reduce budget cuts.
Meanwhile, State House Speaker Jim Tucker, a fellow Republican and no doubt a loyal denizen to the governor in Baton Rouge, assured listeners that this scrutiny is in the interest of caution, not political gamesmanship. I'm going to go ahead and call their bluff. Is it not telling that Tucker felt it so necessary to issue this disclaimer? Is it not also telling that Governor Jindal, a GOP 2012 presidential hopeful, plans to reveal his findings during the much-hyped speech on February 24 in response to President Obama's first speech before Congress?
One would expect such ideological intransigence from the likes of ultra-fiscal conservative South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who has become notorious lately for his total unwillingness to fund unemployment programs in his state; but, coming from Jindal, it looks like nothing more than political posturing and puerile paranoia to reinforce his GOP credentials. This is presumably an advisable gambit for a presidential hopeful, but one cannot help but ask: what about the people of Louisiana? Surely Jindal, when his little game is up, would not actually be so bold as to refuse his state desperately needed aid.
We must wonder what Louisianans think of their "GOP prodigal son" governor's grandstanding, which is at odds with most other Republican governors around the nation, such as Florida's Charlie Crist, and which carries that subtle stench of being a cry for attention. Jindal should take a lesson from Sarah Palin's Vice Presidential run and subsequent media blitz, which resulted in more and more people asking whether she was putting her political aspirations before her current duties as governor. She has now banished herself from the limelight for the time being to concentrate on her gubernatorial duties, rather than her future delusions of grandeur.
Unlike Republican members of Congress, who fought the bill tooth and claw and ultimately voted against it, Jindal should have very different priorities for his constituents and state employees -- he does not enjoy his Capital Hill counterparts' luxury of ideological carte blanche. It is a shame that being held up as the GOP's next "prodigal son" demands such base displays of political prestidigitation. Perhaps Jindal should not take all the fire though. He is representative of a rising trend within the Republican Party that has emerged as a response to the current Democratic mandate. Republicans are now in the business of bending over backwards to emphasize -- indeed fetishize -- old-school conservatism. Jindal, having not taken part in crafting the legislation, must instead find some other venue wherein to flex his conservative muscles and make his voice heard (picture the little boy in the back of a classroom who is about to fall out of his seat trying to get the teacher's attention and show that he knows the answer to the question).
The desperation of the crisis and Jindal's own political ambitions certainly put him between a rock and a hard place. A reasonable prediction is that he will continue to vociferously express his doubt and disgust for the stimulus, but ultimately will accept the funds. Anything less would be political suicide, and surely the GOP did not pick a total crackpot for their next poster boy.
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Let me get this straight. They don't want the money unless there are no "strings" attached.
Aren't the 'strings" what make sure that the money is to be used how it was intended? Like when Haley Barbour took the money that was supposed to rebuild housing in Mississippi after Katrina but HE decided it was better spent fixing up the casinos? If there were "strings", perhaps poor people in Mississippi would actually have a place to live instead of cancer-causing trailers??
The Obama administration should issue guidelines about refusing any portion of the Stimulus money as a part of their transparency requirements. The guidelines should require that a Governor list the specific tranch that they will be refusing, the amount of money and percent of total stimulus funds that it represents. This way we will know if Gov. Jindal is grandstanding over 1/2 of 1 percent of the funds and accepting the other 99.5 percent.
It should also require that both the Governor and the Legislature sign off on all funds so that the Governor can't just let the legislature do his dirty work. We should NOT deny relief to the citizens of the state however, just because their governor is playing politics.
Finally, in Jindal's case, I'd be curious to know if the feds have set up a system for auditing the money that has been flowing to Louisiana for hurricane relief. If Jindal is playing fast and loose with money that is suppose to be helping hurricane victims, as a means of circumventing stimulus reporting requirements he should go to the Big House not the White House.
Will the the christian right support him in 2012????
It's going to be interesting to see if the Christian right is going to back him???
Wasnt he born a Hindu or something? Im not sure he is American etc etc LOL
Who does he pal around with?
Remember, there is a provision in the stimulus that, even if the Governor says "no", the legislature can say "yes" and the state will still get the funds.
Gonna be interesting . . . . .
The "Party of No" is in a really, really tight corner, and there is no way out.
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I just think it is hiliarious that Bobby Jindal and Michael Steele are always propped up as Repub leaders. The rethugs haven't listened to anyone of color their entire lives except to ask "can you go get my car" and once Obama got elected, they run and prop these folks up as their "leaders".
I hope people aren't seriously considering these folks, although they are really funny to listen to. My favorite is Steele with his "hip hop" crap.
You are quite the racist. Only African Americans and Indo-Americans are valets?
I know that African Americans and Indo-Americans do more than valets. My point was it wasn't until Obama was elected President that the Republicans realized this as well.
Well they have to back off touting Tim Pawlenty, evidently, despite the fact that before we all learned about Sarah Palin he looked like McCain's running mate. He got elected on "no new taxes" promptly cut spending, hid some revenue increases as "fees" and "tuition increases" and still doubled MN's deficit... he admitted to Judy Woodruff that MN (like any other government) needs cash to operate.
http://realitytax.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/economic-recovery-facts-for-dc-to-factor-in/
Jindal is no dummy. He knows that it is political suicide in the Republican party for him to accept the stimulus money as a Republican. While many are accepting it, he wants to stand firm in his ideology. BUT, he knows that his legislature can vote to accept the money REGARDLESS of his refusal. He gets the money and ends up having clean hands.
Any governor of ANY state that does not put the welfare of their constituents first before their warped ideology should forfeit the money to their state. It should not be left to the legislature to decide. Then Jindal and all the other mental giants can answer to the people on election day or sooner. What does he think will happen to his state when the unemployment and welfare claims strangle their budget?
This is the rEpUGs answer to Obama!!
If we can only get him to shoot at wildlife from a helicopter......
JiNdAL/pALin 2012!!!
Jindal's claim to fame is that he is/was a boy genius.
His IQ may be up there, but there is so much more of his political and moral quotient that puts him well below average.
Sum it all up, and he is just another odious Republican clown.
Why are we giving money to the Confederacy for reconstruction, again?
Let the South slide back to the 1800's.
hahaha obama really will have to be like lincoln
Is it just me or do these republican self serving mouth pieces sound as clueless as they did during the election? Have they not listened to the people?
Bobby Bobby Bobby - be careful what you don't ask for - you just might not get it
Vote the clown out and save New Orleans and Louisiana at the same time
Yes!
You know those of us in net loss tax states (states whose citizens pay more in Federal taxes than the state gets back in aid) should start demanding value for our dollar from the net gain tax states.
I'd send money to any poor state politician that actually confronted his constituents with the embarrassing issue of being a welfare case.
I live in Louisiana (a net tax consuming state), but grew up in Michigan (a net tax producing state), and I completely agree with you. People here are like ungrateful teenagers. They have no clue how much they depend on those evil blue states for most everything they have, including their jobs, roads, healthcare systems, the military bases that are the backbone of their local economies, the educated people that migrate in to run their universities and hospitals, etc. They watch FOX News, listen to Rush Li.mbo, and their fundy preachers, and think they're the center of the universe. It's intensely frustrating for an outsider.
If it werent for the fact that there must be folks in Lousiana who are praying for that money i would hope Jindall played his dumb little political game of chicken, and wait for the giant sucking sound of jobs and dollars siphoning into Alabama and East Texas and the Florida pahhandle. The next sound would be Jindalls political career going down the toliet.
The word 'grandstanding' leaps immediately to mind.
Send his portion or Obama"s stim money to another state. This is such Bull. there is NO regard for his state's needs or creating jobs with this type of thinking. If Bobby Jindal is not sure if he wants it other states are SURE they do. Same with other Repugs contemplating not taking stim money. If they don't care about those in need in their OWN state, there are many other states who have huge needs for the stimulus money.
Maybe this is another step in making the repug party obsolete.
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