Jindal-Obama more alike than you suspect

U.S. House speaker John Boehner has decided to sue President Barrack Obama for “aggressive unilateralism”.  He states that the president displays, “king-like authority at the expense of the American people and their elected legislators.”

Perhaps Louisiana’s House speaker, Chuck Kleckley, should take note and follow suit, for it appears that Bobby Jindal is as guilty as our President.

Jindal just recently ignored the edicts of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), the Louisiana State Superintendent of Education, and both houses of legislators when he vowed to remove Common Core from Louisiana schools.  He also ignored a Louisiana constitutional amendment, approved by a 73% margin of the voters, forbidding the Medicaid Elderly Trust Fund to be used to help balance the state budget.  Additionally, during his reign as governor, he has taken federal funds intended for pre-k services for children, hurricane recovery, homeland security, and costal restoration and used them for purposes other than their original intent.

He unilaterally set in motion his privatization plan for the LSU Health Care System without seeking prior approval from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the very entity responsible for providing the funding for this venture.  As of today, CMMS has refused to fund the plan.  I could document more of Jindal’s continual dictatorial abuses but that list exceeds the allotted space for this commentary.

However, as Jindal continues to crisscross our country with criticisms of President Obama, it becomes more and more apparent that, in actuality, they are quite similar to each other:

Both display minimal personal leadership roles in pushing legislation through the legislature, and are notably absent during legislative budget sessions,

Both refuse to build working relationships with legislators of the opposite party,

Both passed legislation to limit the release of their public documents,

Both remain aloof when dealing with the press,

Both repeatedly use questionable legislative maneuvers to bypass house and senate legislative vote on their actions,

Both repeatedly ignore their respective governing constitutions.

And last, but not least, both jump on whatever political whim they perceive is popular at the time, for they really possess NO core beliefs of their own.

I hope all those Republicans, that reside outside Louisiana, will stop believing Jindal’s political blogs and guest editorials in conservative media and realize that he is simply an Obama in elephant clothing, for he governs with “king-like authority at the expense of the Louisiana people and their elected officials.” 

Is this really the guy you want as your next president?

 

 

Jindal's Gambles with Taxpayers' Money

In December 2013, Bobby Jindal announced that the Nucor Corporation had decided to build a pig iron plant in Convent, St. James Parish.  His folks set up a big photo op during which Jindal bragged, “Today, we can proudly point to an industrial accomplishment in Louisiana that is without peer, and we look forward to working with Nucor on future phases as we demonstrate that there’s no better place to invest and create jobs than Louisiana, just as there’s no better place to live, work and raise a family than Louisiana. Nucor’s investment in Louisiana is one of the reasons we have more people working and living with higher incomes than ever in our state.”

I find Jindal’s remark about “Nucor’s Investment” quite amusing because what Bobby failed to inform the public was that in order to get the company to settle here the following monetary investments by Louisiana taxpayers were given to the company:

1.      For the first phase of the iron plant, the state pledged $30 million in cash that were provided through capital outlay funds.

2.     A $30 million loan through the parish that would be converted into a state-paid grant.  Not really a loan, if the state is paying!

3.     Another $160 million in grants spread over six years for the remaining phases of the project.

4.     State grants that compensated Nucor for its $60 million purchase of the 4,000-acre site.

However, the state incentives for this plant weren’t only of a monetary nature.  Louisiana’s air pollution standards were also modified. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality issued a special permit which allowed for significant increases in emissions for ammonia and naphthalene, both known toxins.  Additionally wastewater provisions were modified and rewritten specifically for the plant.

So what kind of returns is this investment affording for our great state?

Last Friday, Nucor Corp reported an operating loss at its new iron plant in St. James Parish which presently employs about 150 people.

Perhaps Bobby and his legislative cohorts can just ante up some more of our tax payers’ money and bail them out.  After all, it would look pretty bad on his national resume if one of his most bragged about ventures went bottoms up.

Next time you find yourself unable to get medical treatment or enroll in a course at a local university, just pause and be happy knowing that those funds  were put to good use to provide 150 jobs in a currently money losing, environmentally polluting, enterprise in St. James Parish.

And what is the status of the returns on other business incentives Jindal and our legislators have handed out, to quote, “stimulate economic growth in our state?”

We sure are lucky to have a Rhodes Scholar as king of Louisiana.

Sometimes folks just say things better than I could say them myself.

Below appears a Letter to the Editor that appeared in the Baton Rouge Advocate on June 17, 2014:

Kudos to Karen Peterson, State Senator for District 5, (my addition) for pointing out, once again, that “the Emperor has no clothes.”

Whether its ethical violations of his own “reforms,” moral and fiscal irresponsibility in not accepting Medicaid money forcing him to reallocate funds from other programs, or wasting our time and tax money running around the country on his Don Quixote quest for higher office, Jindal continues to demonstrate how his short-sighted cost cutting adversely impacts the citizens of Louisiana.

His cuts to education and health care programs have long-term, negative consequences that will continue to impact the people of Louisiana long after he has moved on to whatever delusional goal he has.

Jindal reached his plateau on the Peter Principle when he served as the Secretary of the Louisiana Department Health and Hospitals, and it has been the same sad story in every position he’s held since then.

Apparently, he is the only one who has yet to recognize it.

Steven Lindsley

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social worker

New Orleans

What Does the Louisiana Federation of Teachers Stand For?

Today I’m distraught.   The Louisiana Federation of Teachers, who backed proposed legislative bills to scuttle the implementation of the Common Core Standards, claims our students can’t take the tests associated with these standards. The reason given is that “the students lack the computer skills needed to succeed on the exams.”   Instead, the LFT wants an educational system which utilizes state developed standards and assessments.

As a union representing professional teachers, I’m sure that the LFT is aware of the fact that for the past 20 years our state education system has been operating under just such a paradigm as an integral part of the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, better known as LEAP.

In case they’ve forgotten, according to the Louisiana Department of Education, LEAP was, “a high stakes criterion-referenced testing program created to assess how well a student had mastered STATE DEVELOPED CONTENT STANDARDS (my caps).”  These tests were, “directly aligned with the state content standards.”

Beginning in 1989, local school districts developed curriculum based upon these state standards, and students were tested at the 4^th, 8^th, and high school grade levels on their abilities in successfully mastering them.

I find it unacceptable,  that 14 years into the 21^st century, the LFT claims that teachers  failed to provide  students with the basic computer skills needed to handle an on line test, considering the fact that part of the LFT’s mission statement reads, ” …. is a union of professionals that champions high-quality education…..”

 

It is obvious, by the LFT’s own admission, that the very plan which they seek to perpetuate, namely, state developed standards, is the major cause of why our students are presently not prepared to adequately compete in the digital age, and consistently rank, nationally, 48^th on reading skills and  last on math skills.

Jindal Wants La. Out of Common Core

As I predicted, in an earlier post, Governor Jindal’s meddling with the medical insurance plan for state workers and teachers resulted in my receiving a letter last week from the Office of Group Benefits, the state’s medical insurance office.   

In summary, it stated my monthly premium rates were going to increase and benefits were going to change.

These changes in benefits included, “time limits on certain services, prior authorization requirements for certain procedures, and a new formulary that will designate some brand drugs as preferred.” 

Although there were enough generalities and vague statements to prevent the reader from understanding what was specifically going to change, it was pretty obvious that I was going to pay more for less service, and that the ‘preauthorization part’ could lead to easier denial of services and longer delays in receiving medical treatment.  

Contrary to what others might think, this was not a result of the Obamacare mandate.  Instead it was because our Rhodes Scholar governor reworked the original plan and lowered the premiums, to help balance his smoke and mirrors state budget, which ended up dwindling  its cash reserve from over $500 million to less than $55 million in two years. Furthermore, state auditors predict that the plan will be bankrupt by 2016 unless drastic changes are made.  

This brings me to Bobby’s announcement today that he is going to throw out Common Core Standards, set to be implemented this August.  As with the state medical plan, he wants to REWORK its implementation, and develop state standards and assessments.  All before the start of the new school year in TWO months! 

As a result of this action, I think it’s necessary for the State Department of Education to warn its clients about these changes, as did the Office of Group Benefits.

Every public school parent needs to be sent a letter.  It should state that due to recent actions by your Governor, your child will be receiving a subpar education.

 

It needs to further state that, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, as exemplified by the Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP) disaster, implemented for 20 years, Louisiana knows how to develop its own educational standards and assessments. 

 

The letter should end with the warning that this change will lead to a reduction in educational benefits resulting in your child’s continued participation in an educational system which produces reading and math student achievement at either the 48th ranking or DEAD last when compared to the other 50 states.  

You’d think a Rhodes Scholar would have more sense, but quite often school intelligence doesn’t necessarily correlate with common sense.

 

Additionally, let's not forget  this is NOT about what's best for the children of Louisiana, but instead about national political image.

Our Absentee Governor is Still in Complete Control

At the close of this year’s legislative session one can only conclude that our legislators really do love being marionettes controlled by their puppet master, Governor Bobby Jindal.   The Louisiana House voted 81 to 20 in favor of House Bill 2, the capital outlay plan, for the new fiscal year which starts July 1^st.  They overshot the allotted funding by $388 million and the Senate also approved.

This money is used for construction projects throughout our state, and there isn’t anywhere near the amount of funds needed to fund all the projects included in this bill, so Bobby gets to decide which ones will get completed.

This explains why our legislators, with the exception of Common Core,  didn’t challenge Bobby’s wishes on any other major issue.

Every legislator has pet projects that they want funded for their district, and by intentionally over loading projects into the capital outlay budget, if they kiss the puppet master’s ring enough, they might just get him to decide to fund theirs.

So no matter how harsh the P. R. of some of our legislators might have sounded at the beginning of this year’s legislative session in their criticism of Bobby’s use of one time monies to balance this year’s budget, his refusal to accept expanded Medicaid funding for the working poor, his refusal to accept more over site regarding his office and the privatization of the LSU hospital system, and his refusal to permit a lawsuit to proceed against the oil companies for costal damage, our legislators clearly realized that, as the legislative session continued to progress, they best not aggravate Geppetto, because they wanted his blessings further down the road. 

Talk is cheap and our legislators are the masters of bargain shopping.

They can deny all they want, but at the end of the day it was their decision to make themselves beholding to King Bobby and it was premeditated all the way.

Bobby Jindal may be a ‘lame duck’ governor, and mostly absent from the state capital building, but it is quite obvious that the majority of our legislators are still afraid to stand up to him and do what’s best for their constituents.

It’s all a game, called politics.