“Bobby Jindal’s self-created crisis, the one that Republican legislators shockingly rubber stamped year after year, is now being used by them for political theater at the expense of our people. Our people can’t afford any more hypocrisy,” said Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. “The true cost of correcting eight years of budget lies, the ‘Jindal Tax,’ has already hurt our people, our economy, and our children’s futures. The time for self promotion is over.”
Bobby Jindal inherited a $1.4 billion surplus from Democratic Governor Kathleen Branco, and left incoming Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards with $2.9 billion in deficits to correct over the next 16 months. That $4.3 billion dollar difference has already transformed into massive cuts to every level and area of government. “The suggestion that simply cutting can solve this problem is intellectually dishonest,” said Handwerk. “The people of Louisiana don’t want life preserving services to 25,000 NOW Waiver families cut, they don’t want higher tuition or cuts to TOPS and they don’t want their ER’s to close. They want GOP lawmakers to come down from their soapbox and work for solutions.”
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