ANYWHERE BUT LOUISIANA, Again – Today, instead of working with the Louisiana Legislature to help address the impact of his $1.6 billion budget deficit, Gov. Bobby Jindal travelled to Oklahoma City on the latest leg of his vanity tour. Persisting with the same sort of delusional thinking that drove his record of failure at home, Jindal addressed the Southern Republican Leadership Conference with his customary mix of condescension and obfuscation. Touting his latest hypocrisy, an executive order which panders to the extreme right-wing of his party at the expense of Louisiana’s vital tourism industry, Jindal sought to sell the idea of himself as a leader. Louisiana voters know him to be anything but.
Under Jindal, our state has the third highest unemployment rate in the nation. The endemic failure and disastrous financial mismanagement that have been his legacy turned a $1.1 billion budget surplus into a crippling $1.6 billion dollar deficit. Jindal’s failures, and those of the GOP apparatus that supports him, led Moody’s and S&P to drop the state’s credit outlook. His slavish devotion to Grover Norquist and his stubborn, cynical resistance to Medicaid expansion have cost that state more than $52 million in health care funds. Hospitals are closing and our higher education system teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. This is not what leadership looks like.
“Governor Jindal’s record of failure is nothing to be proud of, and while he’s busy running around the country, kissing the ring for out-of-state interests, Louisiana families are hurting,” said Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. “It’s hard to imagine a worse candidate for president than an executive with such a dismal track record at home.”
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