Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is a mirror image of former President George W. Bush when it comes to keeping the states house in good fiscal order. Both took office and inherited balanced budgets with hefty surpluses. Bush left office with 8 years of record deficits and increased the national debt by $6.1 trillion.
Jindal took office with a $1.08 billion surplus from the previous administration of democratic governor Blanco. As reported by Robert Mann in a Times Picayune article dated 1/14 the vast majority of that surplus was spent on pork and public works projects. The state now finds itself with a projected $1 billion deficit for this fiscal year and also the next fiscal year. Because the state mandates a balanced budget, Jindal has had two rounds of budget cuts to balance the budget and most cuts came from higher education and health care, two area's that serve the people.
Families U.S.A. said Louisiana had 823,000 people un-insured in the years 2007-2008. We do not yet know what that number was at the end of 2009. U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu said the health care bill passed by the U.S. Senate would insure 554,000 of those un-insured people. Health care and education would have been a better investment for the state and its people had the governor spent the $1.08 billion surplus wisely. After all, both are the responsibility of the state.
The conservative ideology of Jindal is a barrier to sound fiscal policy. The budget is tilted against the average worker and it shows up in so many area's where the state is ranked so poorly in the nation. The average family in Louisiana will continue to feel the effect of the budget cuts that gets into their pockets 100 different ways. Make no mistake about it, that is the conservative ideology. Jindal has no real plans for the budget outside of cutting spending and that will cause a hardship on the people in Louisiana who can least afford the cuts. A deep thinker, Mr. Jindal is not.
Mr. Jindal had an opportunity to do those things that really matter and make a difference for the state and its people and like Bush, he blew the opportunity big time. That says it all.
