The Hypocrisy of our Esteemed Governor

Apparently Governor Landry talks out of both sides of his mouth in a hypocritical fashion. When his recent push for amendment changes, particularly Amendment two, failed he was very upset.  He attributed the loss to national outsiders such as political activist, George Soros, and liberals who had spent money on media advertisements and used strong arm tactics to influence voters. He emphatically stated that national groups had no business messing with our local politics and wanted it to cease. While this theory sounded good in the press, the amendments' failures were not due to outsiders' interference.  

However, now that a national outside group known as Club For Growth has started a media campaign and is using strong arm tactics to push his LA Gator Scholarship Program, our esteemed governor’s lips are sealed.  These outsiders are planning to run media ads encouraging voters to call their state representatives and tell them to support the governor’s requested funding for this initiative. Ads will air in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, and Lake Charles.  This national organization will be spending some big bucks in Louisiana.

For review, the governor’s LA Gator Scholarship Program is basically a private school bailout endeavor using taxpayers’ money to fund tuition and school supplies for parents who send their children to private schools.  Additionally, it funds home schooling expenses like computers and tutoring.  By last count 40 thousand have applied, and Governor Landry wants $93.5 million this year to fund it.  Guess you public teachers and paraprofessionals can kiss that permanent raise goodbye.

Furthermore, it is predicted by many that within 5 years, as more and more apply, this program will bankrupt the state.  And what is odd is that this program being pushed by Landry, who prides himself as a conservative Republican, runs counter to his party’s mantra of fiscal accountability and budget restraint.

And let’s not even talk about strong arm techniques as it relates to these outsiders’ push for this program.  Last year the president of Club for Growth issued the following warning for any legislator bucking their agendas, “Make no mistake-if you call yourself a Republican and oppose school freedom, you should expect to lose your next primary.” 

Well, there you have it, Governor Landry’s blind eye and silence to outsider interference in our state politics when it advocates for his agenda.  Hypocrisy?  Judge for yourself.

Genius or Fool? - You Decide

Well, while many are calling President Trump’s latest 90 day tariff pause, which did not apply to China, a victory lap indicating a true sign of masterful deal making; after what happened last Wednesday it is anything but a victory. Quietly, and without fanfare, President Trump permanently exempted 20 product categories from the 125% tariff imposed by him on Chinese imports and the 10% baseline tariff on imports from other countries.  Included in this list were all computers, laptops, disc drives, automatic data processing equipment, semiconductor devices, memory chips, solar panels, flat panel displays, smart phones, and other consumer electronics.  Most made in China.

The U.S. electronics market serviced by these devices is estimated to be worth $510 billion, so how is the lost tariff revenue on these products, with Trump’s latest stroke of a pen, a victory?  It is in fact a complete capitulation on the very premise given for imposing the tariffs, namely, increased income for the U.S. economy, and the bringing back of manufacturing jobs to the U. S.

And true to form Fox News gave this latest tariff retreat a rather bizarre spin as they reported, “The bottom line is Donald Trump is back!” Fox Business cast the president as some sort of ingenious chess player, who was a prudent and heroic figure who had saved the world from an economic disaster; the very one he had created by his initial tariff plans. Fox also stated that, “and just when you think the hope is lost, that we’re going to go into a recession, that we’re going to have months, if not years, of down markets, something like this happens!” Again the only reason for the predicted recession and down markets was due to President Trump’s tariff plans.

So, I remain confused as to why this retaliatory tariff plan was initiated in the first place since now one of its biggest sources of income, the foreign made electronics industry tariff has been rescinded, and one of the largest manufacturing industries, again the electronics industry, no longer has any incentive to be brought back to the U.S.

I seriously question this being a plan by some master genius who fully understands how the world economy works.  But then again if one looks at some of President Trump’s other business failures, namely, Trump casinos, Trump resorts, Trump’s failed university, his failed airline, failed mortgage company, failed Trump steaks, failed Trump vodka, failed Trump magazine, etc., maybe one can get a better understanding of the present situation.  And ironically, Forbes Magazine predicts that Trump would be over $400 billion richer today without all his past failures. Now I understand what happened.

Governor Landry Has Little Respect for Voters

I hope all the Republican voters in our state caught the insult regarding their voting intelligence that Governor Landry recently subtly attributed to them.  With all four of the proposed amendments being soundly rejected by over 60% of the voters, our esteemed governor blamed the defeats on outsiders and state liberals.  He claimed this was particularly true for the defeat of Amendment #2.  However, the facts of the matter refute both claims for apparently many Republicans voted against these measures.

I guess Governor Landry feels that only he knows what is best for our state and that Republican voters in our state should just be little minions and follow his directives.  He also apparently thinks they possess no intellectual abilities to objectively judge the merits of legislative proposals which might directly impact them, nor does he feel they should have the right to make such judgments.  He seems to confuse the citizens in Louisiana with his sycophants in our state legislature.

Additionally, did you catch the insult the Governor paid to our state as a whole; the one he governs?  He stated, “We realize how hard positive change can be to implement in a state that is conditioned to failure.”   He just characterized our entire state as promoting “failure.”  That’s the kind of lashing out one might expect from some spoiled brat child when they don't get their way, but certainly not from the governor of our state.   Maybe he is just too immersed in the “white horse syndrome,” where the hero swoops in on a magnificent white stallion and saves the day; in his mind, from our state’s “conditioned to failure.”  And apparently he feels only he can do this, so everyone in the state must religiously follow his orders without question.  Sound familiar?

Sadly, our governor and legislators need to come to accept the realization that their present slew of proposed legislative amendments didn’t align with the wishes of their constituents, and they need to lose the defensiveness and get on board.  Party affiliation had little to do with these defeats, for without bipartisan support this would not have occurred.