Pete Egan and Michael Nation of the above Mandeville organization in a letter to the editors of the Times Picayune dated 5/10 titled, "Leadership means reducing the size of government" is a great example of two more republican ditto heads living in the conservative world of failed ideology.
The authors of that letter thinks the state needs to reduce the size and scope of government and not raise existing taxes to cure the problems the state has at the present time. They also say and I quote: We need to broaden the tax base in order to lower rates, so that more persons, both corporate and personal, share in the responsibility of paying for government. The easy road for our political leaders to take is to raise taxes; the harder path is to reduce spending.
Being republicans, both Egan and Nation should know that republicans in the state legislature signed a no tax pledge and have stuck to that and Bobby Jindal said he has cut $9 billion from the government since he has been governor. Yet, that combination has not solved the problem and has made things worse. Egan and Nation are full of it when it comes to cutting government. Trickle down economics has not worked on the state or federal level. Neither authors touches on the $8 billion of tax exemptions given to business and thinks those business taxes should not be raised. They also do not know the difference between a broader tax base vs. a fair share of the tax burden.
The problem Louisiana has is a republican governor and republican controlled legislature who put business first with massive tax breaks and give aways which reduce government revenues to fund governments responsibility to the people it serves. Louisiana lags the national level in job creation and in reducing unemployment despite all the tax breaks given to business.
Egan and Nations party has had almost 8 years to move Louisiana and its people forward but the party's ideology and failed policy has produced a $1.6 billion state deficit to close in Jindal's final fiscal year budget. And to think those two authors are recommending the same failed policy of reducing government and are silent on the reckless give away of tax revenue to business.
The answer to Louisiana's fiscal problems dictate a change from a conservative ideology to a true fiscal policy and only a democratic governor can bring about that change. Eight years on the federal level under President George W. Bush produced a fiscal failure not seen since the great depression and eight years on the state level under Jindal has produced the same fiscal failure. Bobby Jindal served in the U.S. Congress during the Bush administration and learned nothing. Egan and Nation are following in the same foot steps.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
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