We are 7 days away from the inauguration of Governor elect Edwards and a Times Picayune article dated 1/3/16 by staff writer Kevin Litten is a grab bag by various pundits about what the Edwards administration policies might be. Will it be conservative, liberal, steer away from national policies, will social issues be dominate, etc, etc. Litten talks about how the democratic party lost control of the state legislature like as if the republicans can point to any real accomplishments after they took control.
Litten and the pundits are still stuck on ideology to solve problems which has failed the test in the last 8 years. What Edwards needs to do is pursue policies that answer and solve the real short and long term problems of the state, especially fiscal matters. Some decisions will be hard choices and offend some and maybe even all, but they will have to be made. The policy does not need a name tag.
According to a Times Picayune article dated 11/30/15 Louisiana ranks 48th in terms of quality of life. Only Virginia and Mississippi are worse. Louisiana has the 11th lowest rate of population growth, the 18th highest unemployment, the third highest poverty rate and the 4th lowest rate of life expectancy at birth. A policy based on ideology will not and has not solved any of those problems.
The people of Louisiana will find out that the republican party in the legislature and the Times Picayune editors will continue to push a conservative ideology that has proven to be a failure. The Times Picayune in a article of 2/13/12 titled, IT FIGURES, showed that the state budget for fiscal 2007/2008 was $34.3 billion and the proposed Jindal budget for fiscal 2012/2013 was $25.5 billion and makes the remark, ADJUSTING TO REALITY. The editors of the Times Picayune thought those cuts would reflect reality but every one now knows how those cuts have hurt the state and its people.
Governor elect Edwards will have to move the state in a different direction with hard choices that work and policies that have no name except "success." Conservative, liberal, bla, bla, bla, just disregard that political nonsense governor Edwards and do what is right for the state and its people. PolitiDose will be paying attention and reporting.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
