'Nero Fiddles as Rome Burns,’ Aptly Applies to Our Legislators

As state representative Brett Geymann of Lake Charles continues his one man assault on purportedly making our children safe from the evils of Common Core, using already debunked falsehoods, and sometimes outright fabricated lies, to panic Louisianans to rally around his cause, he seems to miss the bigger picture, namely, the collapse of Jindal’s latest budget proposal to run our state next fiscal year.

Perhaps, if Jindal’s present state number crunchers had had the benefits of the Common Core Standards as part of their education, they wouldn’t have made the following errors in Jindal’s latest budget proposal:

A $40 million mistake in their calculations of the amount of money they projected to receive from the tax amnesty program.

A $50 million underestimate in funding for the public school budget.

A short fall of $15 million allocated to the TOPS program.

A $7 million shortfall in the state’s Sheriffs budgets to house prisoners.

Failure to adequately replenish a trust fund for the elderly used to help with nursing home care expenses.

A shortage of funds to cover the health care of individuals who will fall into the Medicaid non-coverage gap as a result of Jindal’s refusal to accept additional Medicaid funding under the Affordable Care Act.

However,  have no fear,  for  I’m sure that as soon as our legislators get done with the important issues of stopping  the Common Core plague,  dealing with a proposal to make our state book the Bible, deciding the fate of a caged tiger at a local gas station, weighing  in on the location of a group home for the mentally ill, and voting to reject a measure to make it illegal to deny selling or leasing property to same sex partners, they will rise to the occasion and deal with their  least important priority, finding  ways to once again, for the seventh time,  balance Bobby’s smoke and mirrors budget on the backs of educational and medical services in our state. 

Obviously, Jindal is in total sync with our legislators regarding the state operating budget, for he is out of town engaging in the more important issue of self- promotion.