Bobby Jindal's Blustery Day

Those Republicans who are opposing the plan and seemingly hoping it will fail (while predicting it will fail) are despicable.
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mistake alert: "30 years of neglect the nation's infrastructure has suffered during the Reagan era" should read "since the Reagan era."

The Republicans are going to take the commie's money, with a snarl on their face. Only with a great deal of reluctance and disgust, will they take it. After the last 8 years, they obviously know best.

The funniest part, and saddest, is how they posture at being competent, give the mountain of empirical evidence suggesting the opposite, that clogs their recent history.
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The new mantra appears to be, patriotism is obtained by opposing the president, even if you agree with him.

Palin or Jindal? How will Republicans ever choose in 2012?
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Heh.

In science when one proposes a theory, it is then subject to verification by a process of experimentation. If, upon examination, it is found to be false, then it is abandoned and appears only as a footnote in the history of the correct theory.
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Why then, in politics, do we find that if a theory fails to hold up to scrutiny, rather than being abandoned, it is clubg to even more forcefully and defended even more voriciously (if comically.)
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Why is everyone insisting that tax cuts will work great if we only clap louder?

PaulD, because the evil liberals aren't clapping at all. Jeeze.

I thought he seemded more concerned about business than the citizens that live in his state.
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I wonder if he has thought about who works in part time jobs? Women voters and college students were my experience when I worked retail. I thought that these were the people the Republicans would like to have vote for them?

Republicans didn't have any interest in responsible governance when they controlled Washington. Why would anyone expect them to start caring now?
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Also, maybe Jindal's right, and we should reinstitute the top tax rates of the Kennedy or early Reagan eras-- your choice, Bobby, 91% or 50%.
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Jindal may well be a smart fellow, but he wants to be a big time GOP candidate. He knows if there's an inch of daylight between himself and Rush Limbaugh on major issues, he'll be attacked by the dwindling, isolated, despised, rabid GOP base.
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It's a shame to see apparently intelligent people like Greg Mankiew and Ross Douthat say false things and shy away from important issues, all because they want to curry favor with a party gone astray. Profiles in careerism and cowardice. Just like Bobby Jindal.

Funny thing about Jindal's stance. If he actually refused the funds for unemployment as he said he will, tht would qualify as less than 2% of the funds Louisianna is eligible to recieve. Yeah thats REALLY walking out on a limb there goverener. You're ONLY going to take more than 98% of the money lol.
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I wonder how many MSM folks will point this out.

And now a word about math:

... ... ...

WW II effectively ended the era of
protectionism, which led to higher
employment, greater use of available
resources, creation of disposable
income, entire new industries, the
desire for better educations, the
need for improved infrastructure,
etc. Lots of trade, lots of
demand.

Short of declaring war on Mexico
we need leadership that harnesses
the same sense of priority, but
I doubt either party has that now.

Some of this in the long run will
be good, to cut out excess capacity,
pollution, and plain old greed, BUT
many people will suffer and be further
cheated by the attempts to balance
the ship.

The POTUS needs to pay very close
attention to the G-D Russians, old
Euros, and militants at home that
will seek to use this to hammer the
U.S., democracy, DOD, so on.

DO NOTHING was a viable option for
Uncle Sam, since some of the banks
and mortgage houses deserve to fail.

The smart and efficient move would have
been to insure accounts up to 250k
each, and then let the bubble burst.
We are just delaying the inevitable
contraction, and like FDR likely making
it longer and more expensive.

The safe bets are food, some computer
stuff (Intel, Microsoft now cheap).
GE is scary low, due to their credit
segments but should survive. There
are many more good companies than bad
ones; that does not always make them
less susceptible to declines, when cash
is required to pay other bills.

The shareholders will take their licks,
and they have to demand much better
management in the future at lower exec
pay rates, since the unions too will
be forced to retrench deeply if they
want to have any future (better no).
$5 million a year tops is plenty.

The Dow is about 1000 points below
where it should have bottomed so
all estimates on Time are questionable,
but this will be a 3-5 year thing and
that's how it should be handled by the
nitwits in DC -- though they've started
off poorly.

Obama may be a 1 termer like Carter; if
Romney can get his social story straight
he may have a slim shot in 2012, with
Jindal as VEEP.

Palin should be put on a boat and pushed
toward Iceland.

So Jindal is a "very smart fellow" who just happens to be hopelessly out of date, likes to talk out of his ass, and is a nailed-on hypocrite? You don't see any problem with this flagrant contradiction, Joe?

Hulagate, Iceland has enough problems without Mooseslayer washing up in the driftwood. And what's with the dadaist style of writing? Have you finally decided that form and content must run parallel?

Save for the "boilerplate," as put, about capital gains tax breaks, I think Bobby Jindal is just speaking his mind.
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Mr. Klein, you give a fairly substantive rebuttal of the tax issue, but the rest of your essay comes down to avoiding any substantial counterpoints to the rest of Gov. Jindal's points. Your bit about the Arts foundation is ridiculous. This is a stimulus bill. It's supposed to be a quick patch for the economy, hence the reason why it was rushed through Congress so quickly. We should NOT be packing in bonuses of dubious effect in such a bill. Period. Gov. Jindal was right.
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Also, that was a cool $98 million he rejected. I believe that constitutes taking a stand.

"Republicans didn't have any interest in responsible governance when they controlled Washington."

Blanket statements like these, from the DNC hacks here including Klein, do get noticed.

Not in a good way, but they are recorded.

The better budgets of the 90's were products of REPUBLICAN demands, leftwits -- not any Clixonian divine intervention, but the conservative tilt of the voters (that appear to have suffered through some really selfish and stupid children in 2008).

Obama's chomped off more than even Monica could swallow, and his job now will be to save himself from himself, since he's been so poorly served by the partial peabrain staff around him.

He might start by not worrying about 2012 just yet, and actually doing something intelligent -- like getting Pelosi and Reid to stand down from their socialist trappings and get to work on hacking off about 90% of the DEAD WEIGHT in the civilian federal employee corps.

They could can most of the IRS "workers" on Tuesday, and we'd be no worse for it -- since the computers do most of the real work there, with a fairly small staff*. The make work of the Treasury was a Congressional gift to dem districts going back to the 60's and they're still shoveling paperwork today, on the same Tingle Tables.

* Maybe 30 years ago a guy I knew in D.C. was the sole night shift IRS employee that uploaded the nationally overnighted tax tapes to the computer systems in Washington. I'm sure he's happily retired to some Mexican island by now, but at the time I couldn't get over the fact that a complete STONER had the financial tax balls of the country in his cigarette stained fingers, on a nightly basis, in the quiet and protected confines off the Mall. He was high AND competent, I guess. Maybe the Michael Phelps of the mainframe set?

Anyhoo, the political football the libs keep wanting to kick around like it was 43 gets tired pretty quick.

Rahm missed the memo again, of course.

To reiterate, there are entire federal agencies that could be eliminated (PRIVATIZED), and others with staffs that could and should be severely reduced in size and budget.

The shareholders of the ship of state should demand better, must demand better, for the bailouts current and forthcoming, in this grand plan to redistribute success to failures.

Other than national defense and national parks, the feds need to get out of everything they touch and ultimately mis-manage, including the money flow.

If Alabama and Utah start printing their own currency, I may just get some -- and wish Calistan good luck.

"...what's with the dadaist style..."

We are the Borg, but we're not all yet assimilated.

Good post. The only thing missing is what it means when an entire political party decides to work against the interests and advancement of the nation to further their own political power and personal gain. There's a word for people like that and I'll be it isn't used much on the cocktail weenie circuit. They either believe their own crap which makes them merely crazy or it's all a big lie designed to fool the people and obstruct good government which makes them all traitors.

"The only thing missing is what it means when an entire political party decides to work against the interests and advancement of the nation to further their own political power and personal gain."

STOP PICKING ON DASHOLE AND DINGEL.

"They either believe their own crap which makes them merely crazy or it's all a big lie designed to fool the people and obstruct good government which makes them all traitors."

HEY HEY YOU YOU GET OFFA BILL AYERS.

Multiple personalities as well, eh, Hula?

The problem with Yoshi's claims about the arts are that they simply aren't true, and don't, frankly, make much sense. The arts are a major employer, and most artists are small businesses, which is just what the stimulus ought to.. er stimulate.

themaverickformerlyknownasbasilbrush
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We all like a good Pizz Cripes now and then at the spa entrance, but that's not exactly vital infrastructure, IS it?

Some things people are just going to have to pay for THEMSELVES, and not on their neighbor's dime.

Hulagate, stimulus and infrastructure spending may overlap, but are not the same thing. Don't you know anything about the economy?

yoshia
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Yeah, Jindal is ONLY going to take 98% of the money offered to Louisianna. THAT will show them!!!
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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Republican economic policies were indeed a disaster, Mr. Klein, and thank you for pointing that out. We just experienced a lost decade where we didn't pursue life-saving medical technology, we favored the fossil fuel business over new innovations, we ignored environmental issues and clean technology and did not invest in our own infrastructure. Jindal represents more of the same. He doesn't want to invest in high speed rail. How typical of Republicans to be completely without vision.

Jindal isn't just turning money down for the unemployed, he is turning down $9 Mil that would have been spent in his state, much of it at small businesses. What would a small business owner prefer, a tax cut or a customer? Without customers, what good is a tax break. His state is facing massive deficints and he turning down the tax revenue that would come to the state with the spending of federal money. That will translate into fewer teachers for their children.

What a cheap political ploy to put his own political ambitions ahead of the citizens of his state.

I can see the attack ads now:

"When times were hard, President Obama and the Democratic Party passed legislation to help Louisiana... but Bobby Jindal refused the money. Doesn't he care about helping Louisiana? Bobby Jindal - good for GOP talkingpoints, bad for hardworking Americans".