Republican rule and financial ruin

[Photo of Bobby Jindal by Richard Alan Hannon]

Consider the rule of Republican politicians: California under Schwarzenegger is bankrupt; Jeb Bush left Florida in dire financial straits; George W. Bush has run the United States into the ground; and then we have Louisiana.

The state of Louisiana is important because the governor of Louisiana is considered by many in the Republican Party to be a potential candidate for president in 2012. Bobby Jindal, the former Hindu turned fundamentalist Roman Catholic exorcist, has been seen in public in states like Iowa which generally portend a presidential interest.

Why would anyone other than Rush Limberger think Jindal an appropriate candidate for the presidency?

The New York Times tells the sad story, writ over and over again in the pages of the Republican playbook, as it has taken shape in the bayou state.

Once upon a time, Louisiana was rolling in oil money. Not so long ago, in fact, Louisiana had an $865 billion surplus. It was time to spend said the pols, including the chief cheerleader for fiscal irresponsibility, Bobby Jindal.

So first off, taxes were cut, to the tune of $360 million. Jindal said that was "terrific news" and gleefully signed the tax cut bill into law.

"Admonitions on fiscal prudence went unheeded, as they have so often here, and the bill is now due."

As The NYT put it, "Mr. Jindal entered office this year with the happy duty of spending a $1 billion surplus -- and he and the legislators promptly did so, appropriating millions of dollars for highways, ports and a medical research facility, and widely dispensing tax breaks, including one to parents of private school students. The cheery mood in the state Capitol continued all spring, as the legislators then decided to roll back a much-hated income tax increase earlier in the decade, costing the state hundreds of millions in revenue in coming years."

Louisiana is looking at a $341 million deficit this year and next year the budget deficit is projected at $2 billion.

Guess what's gonna get cut! Health care and higher education. That might hurt Jindal's plan to partly privatize Medicaid!


So what's new. Under Republican rule the rule is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. With all the evidence to the contrary, how the hell do Republicans keep fooling so many people with the pretense that they are the party of fiscal prudence when, historically, the Republicans lead us from one depression to another?

To paraphrase another observer of the America scene, the stupidity of the American people cannot be underestimated.


You can read the entire NYT article by Adam Nossiter here. There's more here.