Times Picayune columnist Tim Morris is unhappy that Louisiana's democratic governor John B. Edwards spoke before the republican controlled state legislators on opening day and said, THE BUDGET CRISIS THAT FOR YEARS HELD LOUISIANA HOSTAGE IS OVER. WHAT WAS ONCE A $2 BILLION BUDGET DEFICIT IS NOW A SURPLUS THAT WILL LAY A FOUNDATION FOR US TO CONTINUE TO MOVE THE STATE FORWARD. Morris tried to make the governor's statement a partisan issue, but any one who follows Louisiana politics understands the facts of the subject matter.
The so called conservative opinion writer also used a self serving statement that President George W. Bush used when he took office. Morris proclaimed, "one person's surplus is another's over taxation." President Bush used the same theme, then cut taxes and ran up eight straight years of federal budget deficits which wiped out President Clinton's 4 years of budget surpluses. Republican governor Bobby Jindal and the republican controlled state legislature did the same thing. They inherited a $800 million surplus when democratic governor Blanco left office and never balanced one state budget during Jindal's 8 years in office. (see previous commentary on the matter published in PolitiDose)
Morris is angry because a democratic governor was the one responsible for having the leadership ability to recognize Louisiana's fiscal problems and then act on them despite the criticism from so called republican conservatives. In fact, those Louisiana republicans who serve in the state legislature and those republicans who serve in congress have no fiscal record of being conservative. No republican President has balanced the federal budget since President Eisenhower in 1960. That is over 50 years ago. All conservatives have concerning fiscal matters is their rhetoric, but no facts. The state of Louisiana, its fiscal house and the people are better off today than they were under the previous administration.
And that really says it all.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
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