Don’t Throw Stones if You Live in a Glass House

Now days, Bobby Jindal spends most of his time crisscrossing our nation speaking to anyone who will listen about the waste of taxpayers’ money due to the ineffectiveness of the Federal government and how he can rectify this waste if elected president.

Perhaps if he spent more time in the governor’s mansion and actually governed this state, he would realize that his administration is also a major source of waste of our hard earned cash.

A recent audit of SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, found that Bobby’s staff provided benefits totaling over $1.1 million to ineligible people in prison during 2011 to 2012.  Additionally, another $100,000 in benefits was paid to ineligible drug felons.

Another audit found more waste of federal dollars by the Louisiana Health Department totaling nearly $2.7 million in Medicaid payments to more ineligible state prisoners.

However, the latest reported error, which will have the most impact on the quality of life for Louisiana citizens, was the intentional or unintentional overstating of the number of children eligible for bonus payments under the children’s health insurance program component of the state’s Medicaid Program.

This error process started shortly after Jindal became governor and continued through 2011 until discovered by outside sources.  A federal inspector general’s report concluded that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid are owed more than $7 million by the state of Louisiana.  The report concluded that, “if the state agency had calculated its current enrollment in accordance with federal requirements, the current enrollment would not have exceeded baseline enrollment…..”

As Bobby did with his privatization plan for the LSU Hospital System, which was also rejected by CMS, and now may cost the state over $300 million, he decided he could ignore the rules and do it his way.  As a result, CMS wants their $7 million back.

I bet the $307 million that our Rhode’s scholar has jeopardized on these two projects alone would help plug the educational funding shortfalls.  Just how much more his actions have cost Louisiana remains a mystery, for they have eluded both public and media scrutiny due to Jindal’s repeated vetoes of  legislative bills that would make his office more accountable for public information requests.

Oh, and by the way, Jindal has already paid over $1 million of state money in legal fees to ONE outside attorney alone to defend some of his other blunders.