Bobby Jindal’s All-Hate Relationship With the Federal Government

by Tony Chavira

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who made a name for himself with his rebuttal to President Obama’s Address to Congress, has been trying for a while to push for two big things: 1) total privatization of public services and 2) a rejection of control in any form from the federal government. To these ends, Jindal has rejected federal stimulus money, outsourced state-run medical and construction services, and cut away cash from unemployment services (which many Republicans would consider “nanny-state welfare” anyway).

This morning, I’d like to compare two separate speeches Jindal gave about the role of the federal government in the State of Louisiana, and cut right to the point of his messaging:

I find it interesting that he considers emergency measures to help unemployment as “wasteful spending” while at the same time he feels comfortable picking and choosing which federal programs to implement. It may seem innocuous, but by this logic any program could be considered wasteful spending based on any notion since all of them will require policy changes and approvals at the state level. “We really don’t need roads, we’ve already built them” or “we really don’t need safety regulators, the industry has its own safety codes” are just as legitimate as arguments like “we need to create a state program to manage unemployment into the future,” which Jindal doesn’t deem to be a worthwhile effort. They will all require changes in state policy and personnel at some level.

Also, both of his state senators said that he was wrong about the state having to make any permanent changes. Or he knew he was wrong and just enjoyed grandstanding against the federal government.

Anyway, it should be crystal clear to you now: Jindal hates the federal government and loves locality. Globalization clearly isn’t something this Indian-American man finds enjoyable (at least, rhetorically). So let’s cut to a few statement he made this morning featured on the Today Show on NBC:

NPR Morning Edition has more when he states that the federal government “resources needed to protect our coast is still not here.” Not to say that he isn’t right ... all of our national marine resources should be at the state’s services: what’s the point in having emergency services (or even a Navy for that matter) unless they can protect us from harm like this?

However, this wouldn’t be so shameless if Bobby Jindal weren’t completely trying to cover up his outright rejection of those federal unemployment funds. Imagine having that $90 million for unemployment now to help stranded fishermen, resort workers and conservationists who depend on the now-toxic Louisiana environment and would otherwise love to help the cleanup effort except that they have to work to pay their bills.

Somehow, Jindal has no problem blaming the government for not being more proactive about cleaning up the spill when at the same time he also has no problem blaming the government for being proactive about unemployment benefits. Does Jindal want the federal government to provide assistance and contribute to his state’s well-being or not? Right now, he seems to have his priorities mixed up but things in the Gulf are maddening so it may be hard to focus. The question later will be, “what happens when the spill is finally contained?” Will the state accept aid “borrowed from the federal government” to clean up the spill and preserve the Louisiana wetlands, or will Jindal reject it based solely on grandstanding while places and people across his state suffer from the free-market actions of BP?

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