Blog Archives
A hate-love relationship: Bobby Jindal and his special-interest lobbyists
By Robert Mann
Come with me back to the good old days, when Gov. Bobby Jindal was a fearless crusader against the special interests and the obscene tax credits negotiated by their dastardly lobbyists.
Let us travel all the way to March 19, 2013.
Here’s what our modern-day St. George had to say in Houma as he pitched his erstwhile tax “reform” plan:
Don’t Stop Believing
What is it men cannot be made to believe! - Thomas Jefferson, 1786
It was only 5 short years ago when the following words were spoken:
That is how we will run our New Louisiana government. Twenty-first century schools and colleges. Curricula linked to our new economy. Quality teachers. Accountability for results… A modern health care system that provides for all.
Bobby Jindal promised a modern health care system that provides for all. As of today, Bobby Jindal made sure that the promise he asked us to believe in would never come true:
The LSU governing board has backed a plan to deepen cuts to the university-run public hospitals that care for the poor and uninsured to $152 million.
The reductions will fall across seven south Louisiana hospitals, eliminating dozens of inpatient beds, some clinic services and nearly 1,500 jobs, most of which will require layoffs.
Opelka emphasized that the system was looking for private health care providers to “partner” with to provide care to the largely uninsured population that the LSU hospitals treat. These partnerships will help fill the care gaps, he said.
But Opelka mostly did not specify what those partnerships will look like, although he noted that Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center will treat patients.
For those taking stock at home, that’s a 25% cut. According to the AP, the cuts will fall in this manner:
Job cuts at
#LSU hospitals include 423 positions in New Orleans, 341 in Baton Rouge, 173 in Lafayette, 146 in Bogalusa, 95 in Independence.
It was just the other day that we saw that “Reductions for the LSU-operated charity hospital system are particularly unpopular. 89% said they were concerned by the cuts.”
In other words, if you didn’t like what’s already happened, get ready to Believe in Louisiana even harder! After Bobby cuts health care and education beyond the bone, so much so that the physical infrastructure will disappear, the only thing we’ll have left is our belief.
But this is completely in line with the teahaddist agenda, so don’t be surprised. “Opelka didn’t answer #LSU board member’s question about whether uninsured care will be harmed with the cuts.“
The facts don’t matter. Despite the smoke screens, the truth is, we won’t cover everyone. Health care, already in crisis for our very poor state, will evaporate. You’re on your own. But we know this. “It’s arithmetic.”
In this post-truth right-wing hysteria, it’s always about “modern delivery systems,” or “reforming antiquated systems,” also know as privatization. Giveaways to your big business friends, campaign contributors. And Louisianians are left out to dry. Again.
After Bobby Jindal is done dismantling our state, belief is all we’ll have left.
Jindal Goes Berserk Over Obamacare Ruling – Time For An Exorcism!
First, what was obviously constitutional was held constitutional in a strangely satisfying, but somewhat unexpected way.
There, got that out-of-the-way? The Affordable Care Act is here to stay. This is big and great news. Thanks, Barack.
But, in Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, he of “health care expert” fame, had a total meltdown. Let’s take a look at Jindal’s twitterstream, for example:
Today’s decision is a blow to our freedoms.
—
Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) June 28, 2012A blow to our freedoms? You mean, because Barack Obama passed a Health Care plan that is directly sourced from one that the freedom-hating Heritage Foundation (you know, the foremost conservative “thinktank” in existence) wrote?
Or because Obamacare is exactly the plan that Mitt Romney enacted in Massachusetts as Governor and then lustily touted and promoted on the talking heads circuit for years? The same Mitt Romney Jindal now begs for a Vice-Presidential spot on the GOP ticket?
Bobby, let’s be clear here. You are a monstrous hypocrite. You cannot have it both ways.
The Court should have protected our constitutional freedoms, but remember it was the President that forced this law on us.
—
Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) June 28, 2012Forced this law? You mean, by passing it in Congress by majorities? That’s forcing? I mean, Bobby my friend, you “forced” the taxpayers of Louisiana to fund fly-by-night nutcase religious “schools” by passing some egregious wingnut social engineering project via your “education agenda.”
Instead, in exchange for cutting costs, increasing access to health care, and reducing our deficit, Barack Obama is instituting a tax (or “fee” in your language, Bobby) on free-loaders who refuse to purchase health care coverage and instead make all of us pay for their dumb decisions by going to Emergency rooms and sucking our public health care dollars down a terrible drain.
But we digress. Back to Bobby’s wack-job hysteria:
Americans oppose it because it will decrease the quality of care, raise taxes, cut Medicare, and break the bank. All of this is still true.
—
Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) June 28, 2012Of course, Jindal is wrong about everything here. But that is nothing new.
And now the kicker. With all of his sputtering and flailing, Jindal slipped up and played from the wrong playbook. He forgot he wasn’t a Rick Perry acolyte anymore (you know, he of “the first thing, the second thing, and uhhh…ooops.”)
Ooops! Poor Bobby! Your Veep-stakes ranking might take a tumble. And you’d still be a blithering moron.
