Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal: A Lack Of Wisdom

Governor Jindal has once again displayed a lack of wisdom and his ignorance of the facts.  In his speech last month in his reply to President Obama's speech to the nation Jindal said, "Democratic legislation is larded with wasteful spending.  It includes $140 million for something called volcano monitoring.  Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.

 

The recent eruption of Mount Redoubt in Alaska brought the story to light.  It was pointed out that only $7.5 million is going to be spent on upgrading  equipment used to monitor Mt. Redoubt and 32 other active volcanoes in Alaska, not $140 million as Jindal said.  The governor can not seem to get his facts straight before he opens his mouth. 

 

When Jindal was in congress, he and his fellow republicans failed to monitor the eruption of Bush's record deficit spending and debt.  Is it any wonder he is so familiar with those words.  These guys lie so much they do not recognize the truth or facts any more.  Then on Tuesday, March 24, Jindal said at a republican fund raising in D.C. concerning President Obama, "republicans are now part of the proud tradition of the loyal opposition."  (That describes them to a tee.)  He and his republican cohorts will be opposed to Obama's programs even when they fail to learn what the programs are all about.

 

The governor is spending so much time outside Louisiana raising money for his campaign, it indicates his mind is on a national run for office.  It is also noticeable Jindal is getting closer and closer to Newt Gingrich and the republican right wing, the republican party base.  Jindal may be a new republican face to many, but represents the same old republican conservative ideology that brought economic disaster to our country and its people.  One would think he would have known how much was actually involved in the stimulus package for those volcanoes.

Deregulation: A Misconception

There has been a lot of talk about deregulation being the cause of wall street and the financial markets failure and even of the economy in general.  For sure, deregulation has played a part in past failures such as the meltdown of the S&L industry in the 80's which was covered in a past politidose article.  That failure cost the tax payers over $150 Billion which was never paid back. 

 

The present problem with the present meltdown in the economy and wall street is a result of the failure of the regulators to regulate, because that was Bush's policies.  The government does not have to change the laws to deregulate, all it has to do is let industry have a free hand.  The results are the same.  That was Bush's ideology and a long standing ideology of conservatives in general, even though it has proved to be a failure because industry will not regulate itself.

 

Our founding fathers knew how important it was for government to have checks and balances and accountability.  If they were alive today they would be astonished to see the principals they worked for and established be trampled on. 

Why Are Gasoline Prices Still So High?

For the past year the American people have reduced their use of gasoline in a number of ways in answering the cost increase of gasoline that hit $4.00 gallon.  There is a surplus amount of gasoline on the market and the combination of both have brought the price of a barrel of oil and a gallon of gasoline down to its present level.

 

The national rig count of rigs working in the U.S. has dropped and so has the Louisiana rig count in response to the reduction in use of those fuels, plus the fact that inventories are outpacing demand.  So why is the price of oil still in the $50/barrel range and gasoline still in the $1.90/gallon range?  The answer is manipulation by the oil industry.  That same manipulation occurred to create $147/barrel oil and $4.00/gallon gasoline.  There was not any shortage of oil or gasoline at any time during the run up to record price levels.  The industry created a smoke screen using the Iraq war and talk of inventory shortages to manipulate the prices.

 

The oil and gas industry is now saying they can not make money at the present level of oil prices.  They say they borrowed money to do more drilling and expansion when prices were in the stratosphere and now can't afford to carry on with those plans at current prices.  It is just another smoke screen excuse to keep prices high while demand is falling.  They are betting the economy will improve and the people will go back to their old driving habits that will give the oil companies a higher base to start increasing their prices again.

 

The other factor is the Bush's administration meeting with the energy industry representatives chaired by V.P. Chaney.  Those meetings were held in secret and the decisions that were made at the meetings are still secret and with held from the public.  There has been no disruption in the availability of oil or gasoline in the past 8 years that compares to the disruption caused by the Arab oil embargo of the 70's, yet the manipulation of prices during the past 8 years have been more severe and longer lasting on the American people.  Hopefully, the people will continue to use less and less oil and gasoline in favor of other alternatives.

Facts Tell The True Story

The republicans in congress and their cohorts, including the right wing neocon journalists are once again playing the blame game since President Obama became President.  Lets look at the facts.

 

What the Clinton Administration bequeathed to President George W. Bush:

 

1. A government in the black with balanced federal budgets and record surpluses.

 

2. Paid down over $450 billion on the public debt.

 

3. The longest economic expansion in U.S. history.

 

4. Over 22.7 million new jobs created, a record with over 91% coming from the private sector.

 

5. Lowest unemployment rate in 30 years with five of those months in his last year in office at 3.9%.  Unemployment rate went from 7.3% when he took office to 4.2% when he left. a decrease of 3.1%.

 

6. The unemployment rate never exceeded the high when he took office.

 

7. A yearly average price of a barrel of oil of $23.88.

 

8. A safe America. 

 

For those reasons, Clinton left office with a 65% approval rating.  The highest approval rating in modern times.

 

What the Bush administration bequeathed to President Obama:

 

1. Eight straight years of record federal deficit spending and debt.  The results of the first 7 years of deficit spending was $2.13 trillion.  Mr. Bush's final fiscal year budget will end Sept. 30, 2009 and is projected by the CBO to come in at over $1 trillion.  That will bring his total deficit spending to over $3 trillion.

 

2. An economic recession.

3. A doubling of the national debt.

4. Over 4 million jobs lost in Bush's last 13 months in office.

 

5. One of the weakest job creation in the last 40 years.

 

6. An increase in the unemployment rate from 4.2% when he took office to 7.6% when he left.  A

 

7. The economic price paid by the consumer for the record oil and gasoline prices.  The average yearly price of a barrel of oil was $50.80.

 

8. Record home foreclosures.

 

9. A calamity with the collapse of the financial industry.  That caused the President to recommend and then sign into law a $700 billion rescue package.

 

It should be noted the very first budget which ended fiscal Sept. 30, 2002 was in deficit to the tune of $157.8 billion and by Bush's own admission had not decided to go to war with Iraq so the war played no part in that reversal of fortune for the American people. 

 

At this point we do not know what President Obama will bequeath to his successor, but time will tell.  Those who are opposed to the Presidents policies will not wait.  But after the last eight years of failed policies President Obama should be given a chance to make his policies work. 

What Might Have Been

Just think what might have been had President Bush followed President Clinton's lead with sound fiscal policies.  The national debt would have been paid off, budget surpluses would have continued and our nation would be in a better position to face any problem that came along.

 

For the past eight years an opportunity was missed big time to have the means to do necessary things with out creating more new debt but just the opposite happened.  And now we are told because of the current economic problems we are looking at more deficits and more debt for future generations that could have been avoided.

 

If President Obama is really serious about going back to balanced budgets, it can be accomplished with less pain than predicted.  It can also be accomplished in a reasonable time frame.  We know the republicans in congress would like to see the President fail in this regard because they have no record themselves of balancing the federal budget.

 

One of the first thing members of congress should do is show lobbyist and special interest groups the door.  The lobby system can be broken by refusing to meet with them.  Meet only with businesses employers and only on the same basis as they meet with the average Joe.  If its good for the average Joe, it should be good enough for business.  All it takes is the political will and courage to do it.

 

Reexamine our foreign policy that has thousands of American troops still stationed in Europe, South Korea and around the globe and bring most of them home.  It can be done without harming our national security.  The savings would be tremendous in dollars.  I will have more to say why this can be accomplished in a future post.

The Real AIG Story

Every one is up set about the recent announcement by AIG that they will distribute millions of dollars in bonus money to their executives.  Every one should be up set, but not because AIG is receiving the benefit of taxpayers dollars in the form of federal bail out money.  Although that is a good reason, it does not address the real problem that has existed for to many years.

 

The real problem is the systematic transfer of wealth from the average workers to their CEO's and executives in the form of exorbitant bonuses, stock options and other financial rewards that the average worker helped create.  They should have a stake in that wealth.  This massive transfer of wealth is happening while the companies say they are loosing billions of dollars.  It is also happening at the same time the average workers are seeing a decrease in their health insurance coverage, loss of retirement benefits and a shorter work week with less pay.

 

Many of those who are opposed to the AIG bonuses are the same ones who supported them over the last 20 years and actually defended those bonuses all through those years as the "free enterprise system."  Our country and its people are going through tough economic times and it is past time our leaders recognize the real problem with corporate greed and take a stand once and for all that the status quo is unacceptable.  Anything less is a betrayal of the American working men and women who give so much.

The Other Meltdown Connection

Does any one remember the meltdown of the dot coms on the NASDAQ in late 2000 and 2001?  Unless one forgets, that was also about Wall Street greed.  Technology stocks were popping up all over just as subprime mortgages were doing the same with the housing boom. 

 

Wall Street brokers and financial institutions were offering IPO's (Initial Public Offerings) on newly created dot coms that had no balance sheet, no record of earnings, no record of revenue and no prior record of experience.  Those dot coms were promoted by Wall Street and the public had faith in what they were hearing.  Wall Street caution in those IPO's and dot coms were gone with the wind. 

 

Wall Street was making money offering those stocks and selling them, just like they were making money lending to non banks who originated trillions of dollars in subprime mortgages and then bought those subprime mortgages and packaged them as bonds and other instruments and sold to investors, many overseas.  Wall Street was not concerned about the viability of the dot coms as they were not concerned about the financial health of the subprime borrowers.  Then all came tumbling down.  Greed was the driving force on both accounts.

 

The NASDAQ lost over 60% of its value because of the dot coms crash and investors in those stocks were devastated.  In the mean time the DJIA was loosing only about 3%. Not many dot coms there.  The American people need to adjust their thinking when it comes to investing their hard earned money.  Don't pay any attention to those on cable news who have shows concerning the economy and the financial markets.  They have a proven record of being impotent on the subject.

 

The Savings and Loan meltdown of the 1980's, the dot coms meltdown and the present financial meltdown of 2008 all had the same common denominator, greed, big time.

Another First For Politidose

Bob Herbert, a writer for the New York Times whose editorials are published in many of the nations major newspapers, was right on target with his editorial published in the Times Picayune of 3/12/09.

 

In the article, "Smothering The Dream," Mr. Herbert pointed out public officials were part of the reckless and shockingly shortsighted alliance of conservatives and corporate leaders that rigged the economy in favor of the rich and ultimately brought it down completely.  Mr. Herbert continued, "working people were not just abandoned by big business and their ideological henchmen in government, they were exploited and humiliated.  They were denied the productivity gains that should have rightfully accrued to them."

 

If all of this seems familiar it is because you read it here first on politidose way back in November 2007 and in other post this writer has written since then about corporate leaders and the transfer of wealth.  This was way before the collapse of the economy in 2008. 

 

Mr. Herbert continued, "the right wingers were crafty: you smother the dream by crippling the programs that support it by starving the government of money to pay for them by funneling the governments revenues to the rich through tax cuts and other benefits, by looting the government the way gangsters loot legitimate businesses and then pleading poverty when it comes time to fund the services required by the people."

 

This writer has pointed out on more that one occasion in politidose that the purpose of the massive deficit spending and debt of Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 over the 20 years they served was to bankrupt the federal government so programs like Social Security, Medicare and other needed programs for the people would go unfunded.  Also how the CEO's and their executives received billions of dollars in bonuses instead of sharing those benefits with their average worker.

 

The readers of politidose were alerted to our economic and fiscal problems caused by greed, trickle down economics, the conservative ideology and lies of Corporate America long before the current economic collapse and fiscal disaster the country is going through today.  And the alert came long before the facts became public by our leaders.  It was not heard on the cable news networks or Wall Street.  They beat the same drum as the Bush administration. " The fundamentals of the economy is strong and sound."  Yea, tell me another fairytale. 

 

The American people can not depend on the so called experts two deal with the facts that affect their own lives.

 

Note:  Past politidose commentary dealing with the subject matter listed below.

 

11/23/07     Corporate America:  Leaving The Average American In The Dust

 

1/27/08, 2/17/08,2/25/08 and 3/2/08  The U.S. Economy:  Which Party Performs Best.  3 part series with

                                                      conclusion.

 

4/6/2008     Republican Administrations, Fiscal Disasters

 

5/16/08      The Republican Trademark:  High Oil and Gasoline Prices

 

7/9/08        The Roadblock to job creation and a Sustained Economy, Conservatives

 

7/23/08      Innovation:  Lost in America

 

8/3/08       The Republican Cycle of Record Federal Deficits and Debt

The Traveling Fund Raiser

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is on another campaign fund raising trip.  This time to California where he will make 4 stops in his effort to add to his campaign war chest.  He raised over $3 million in 2008 for his reelection bid.

 

Despite his denials, Jindal is clearly trying to put himself in a position to be on a national ticket for the next presidential election.  It is ironic that Jindal talks about the Louisiana economy being in better shape than most other states, yet he is looking out side of Louisiana for most of his campaign cash.

 

More and more the governor is looking and acting like the same old republicans who has nothing new to offer the people or the country.  The only answer he has been able to give to Rush Limbaugh's statement, "he hopes the President fails" is Rush is a leader of conservative values.  Neither Rush or Jindal can describe what conservative values mean.

 

The governor also came out with egg on his face when he said he would not accept part of the stimulus package that had to do with unemployment compensation.  The reason, so he said was that it would make Louisiana employers un competitive with other states because their rates would have to be raised.  However, it was pointed out that Louisiana employers pay less unemployment tax than many of our neighboring states and that Louisiana workers receive less unemployment compensation that do workers in other states. 

 

The more Jindal exposes himself to the voters, the more they will understand that he represents the ideology of Newt Gingrich, Bush, McCain and the rest of the neocons.  In other words, he is a younger republican face that represents the failed policies that got us in the mess we are in today.  No wonder he is spending so much time raising money out of state.

A Common Denominator

The meltdown of the Savings and Loan industry of the 1980's which cost the taxpayers approximately $150 billion and the recent financial melt down of Wall Street financial institutions has the same common denominator.  Greed, deregulation and a lack of corporate checks and balances.  Financial reporters Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla in their book, "Chain of Blame" tells the story of what went wrong.  Some of what they reported will be discussed below.

 

In 1982 President Reagan signed into law the Garn-St.Germain Depository Institutions Act and according to the book told an audience of S&L executives, bankers, members of congress, staffers and journalists that the bill would cut S&L's loose from the girdle of old fashioned regulations.  Prior to the act S&L's were the primary lender of home mortgages.  The act allowed the S&L's to get into the business of financing commercial real estate and development and they got into it big time.  New S&L's were created and started by people with no prior experience and soon became involved with financing commercial real estate ventures that they were ill equipped to do or understood.

 

The results were risky commercial loans that defaulted and caused the worst collapse in the history of the S&L industry.  The act opened up the industry to greed and failed to institute checks and balances to the lending process.

 

The present situation in the financial markets is a result of non bank lenderswho originated trillions of dollars in subprime  mortgages during the housing boom from 2000-2006.  There were few checks and balances in writing these subprime mortgages and many of the borrowers were never checked for their ability to repay their mortgage.  The non banks who originated these loans borrowed money from Wall Street bankers and others and then sold the mortgages to the likes of Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and others who wanted to participate in the trillion dollar business of subprime mortgages and failed to get a handle on the safety of the loans.

 

Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and other would package these subprime mortgages into bonds and other instruments and sell to investors.  When the subprime mortgage business went south because of the failure of home owners to repay their mortgage payments the financial industry went belly up.  Greed of wanting to participate in this trillions of dollars industry was the down fall of those Wall Street financial institutions along with their failure of understanding just how risky the subprime mortgage business was. 

 

In early 2008, the largest debt market in the world was the U.S. residential mortgage market at $9 trillion.  Corporate America, especially Wall Street has proven they can not be trusted to regulate themselves.  There is too much wealth at their disposal and the kind and amount of wealth we are talking about is corrupting.  That says it all.

 

I would recommend this book be read by everyone.

Elected Officials Are The Key

Governments are not the problem like some people would have you believe.  Governments can not exist with out people to run it and those people are our elected officials and their appointees.  They are the ones who are responsible for making government run smoothly and efficiently or bogged down and costly.

 

Everyone likes to talk about being responsible but are we.  Are the people who run corporate America responsible when they use their wealth to influence elected officials at the expense of the taxpayers, the cities, states or federal government.  Are elected officials responsible when they give those same people special treatment because of their wealth.  Why is business ready and willing to charge more to work for the government than they would charge a private enterprise.  Is it because we know doing business with government requires kickbacks and other goodies.  Why do elected officials accept kickbacks and other favors for doing their job.  If the answer is, "it cost more to do business with government because of red tape and etc., don't believe it, it won't wash, that is a built in excuse to support the status quo.  Keep in mind, what we already know about government contracts.  Many competitors are shut out of the process.

 

Many aspects of government is in efficient, outdated and over staffed because government is a political system.  It need not be like that.  Many government employees think the people work for them instead of the reverse.  There are so many snow balling reasons why governments do not work properly and I believe the people understand them.

 

The bottom line is the peoples tax dollars get wasted and there fore buy very little of the services needed by the people.  Republicans say the government should be run like a business, but we have witnessed first hand how corporate America has failed the worker with their transfer of wealth.  What is needed is a government of elected officials who put the citizens first and foremost in their plans and look after their tax dollar to maximize the governments purchasing power on their behalf.  I read where former New Orleans Mayor, Victor Schiro said long ago, "if its good for the people of New Orleans, I'm for it."  The motto of elected officials now seems to be, "if its good for corporate America, I'm for it."

 

Term limits won't do the job because there is no checks and balances during the term and the term would be for a longer time.  The answer is for voters to demand better stewardship of the taxpayers money and stop voting for those who do not perform.  That is the best way to make government more efficient and more in tune to what the people deserve.  The voters have to make the elected officials the key to lock the door on the status quo.

A Common Sense Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that federal approval of a prescription drug does not provide a shield against lawsuits from injured patients.  It was a rejection of President Bush's policy to bar suits in state courts after federal approval of a drug by the Food and Drug Administration.  Justice was served in favor of common sense which represented both conservative and liberal justices vote.  The vote was 6-3.

 

Justice Stevens noted that congress passed laws regulating drugs for many years but lawmakers never bared consumers from suing drug makers for good reason.  The ruling lets stand a $7 Million jury judgement of a Vermont musician whose right arm had to be amputated after she was injected with an anti-nausea drug.

 

The Bush administration lawyers entered the case and asked the Supreme Court to side with Wyeth (the drug maker) and wanted the court to adopt the Bush policy as federal law.  Another one of the many examples of the President and his administration favor to big business.  This decision was an American decision by the Supreme Court.

Rush Limbaugh's Big Problem

So Rush wants a debate with President Obama.  Well the country and its people have been there and done that.  It is called the Presidential election of 2008 where the people made a decision and wise choice of choosing substance over republican failure and division.  Conservatives will stoop to any low to try and nullify elections they lose.  They do not like people to have the freedom to choose.

 

Limbaugh's influence is mainly with the right wing of the republican party, its base.  That is why republican fail to take him to task when he undermines America with his phony ideology.  The one thing the people have learned about Rush and Hannity is their inability to cope with the truth about republicans and conservatives.  They are on record as wanting the President of the U.S. to fail and there fore the country to fail. 

 

It is the same track they took after the people elected Bill Clinton and Mr. Clinton erased the sad fiscal wreckage of 12 straight years of record deficit spending and debt by Reagan-Bush 41.  Wrapping themselves in the flag will not wash.  They both need to grow up and lean how to be an American.  

Israel's Leaders And The Status Quo

By their own action Israeli leaders have proven they do not seek peace with the Palestinians.  Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler reported:  Secretary of State Clinton criticized the Israeli government for plans to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, calling the actions un helpful and a violation of international obligations.  The Jerusalem municipal government in recent weeks began planning to evict 1,500 residents and raze 88 homes in an area Israel has designated as a national park, Kessler also reported.

 

The situation will become more dangerous if Benjamin Netanyahu becomes the new prime minister as thought.  Netanyahu does not believe in a two state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.  He is a right wing neocon and was quoted by Cal Thomas in one of his columns as saying, "the liberals are smashed, they must be quiet or join in applause for President Bush's policies."  That statement was made after the tragic event of 9-11.  Now 8 years later I'm sure Netanyahu knows Bush's policies have created a whole new generation of terrorists.

 

Mr. Netanyahu can not be trusted and the President and Secretary of State have to keep him at arms length if he does become prime minister.  This guy is dangerous to the safety of America.