BATON ROUGE – With time all but lost to resolve the catastrophic budgetary crisis left behind by Gov. Bobby Jindal, Republican leaders in the legislature have failed to offer anything resembling a viable way forward. Neither Rep. Cameron Henry nor Speaker Taylor Barras have managed to produce legislative instruments capable of addressing the fiscal crisis. New members have been thrown into the fire, bereft of leadership or coherent direction by so-called leaders that have utterly failed to rise to the occasion.
For more than three weeks, Henry and Barras have talked and talked, and fundamentally failed to produce legislation equal to the task before lawmakers. The House leadership has failed to command the cooperation of its members, while the Speaker and top committee chairs have refused to even vote on bills that would begin to address the crisis.
“How can anyone call these men leaders, or mistake their stubbornness and lack of direction for leadership?” said Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. “Responsible representatives like Walt Leger, Kenny Cox, Julie Stokes, Jay Morris, Ted James and Katrina Jackson, along with Andy Anders and Malinda White, have all worked to put forward bills that would credibly and responsibly address the crisis. Nothing from the House leadership— none of them have even put together an instrument that could help address the problem. Cameron Henry and Taylor Barras’ failure to lead is endangering the entire state budget and doing taxpayers a grave disservice.”
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