The shame that is Bobby Jindal

[DonViejo]

Posing as the man to remake the GOP, he’s just a southern Paul Ryan, balancing budgets at the expense of the needy

BY JOAN WALSH

It’s rare that I think my colleague Alex Pareene isn’t tough enough on a Republican. Actually, it’s never happened. But while his column on Bobby Jindal’s plan to remake the GOP by liking people captured its saccharine emptiness,(http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251280006) I think it’s crucial to contrast Jindal’s rhetorical faux boldness with his same-old-GOP policies as Louisiana’s governor.

The man hailed by the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza for his readiness to “speak truth to GOP power” in a tedious speech to the Republican National Committee Thursday night is anything but a rebel or renegade. One night before his big 2016 star turn, Jindal was forced by national outrage to reverse himself on what is one of the ugliest GOP policy decisions in an ugly decade: cutting Medicaid funding for hospice care. His health secretary actually announced the decision Wednesday night as hospice backers gathered for a mournful candlelight vigil.

Good timing; continued attention to Jindal’s hospice cruelty might have made it tough for him to be the new public face of what he hopes will be the diversity-friendly GOP.

Yet Jindal’s other cruel cuts are set to stand – cuts to battered women’s shelter programs, to higher education, preschool programs, anti-truancy efforts and a range of other efforts to make life better for low-income people. Meanwhile Jindal wants to replace the state’s income tax with more regressive sales taxes.

His speech pretended to mock the budget-cutting focus of the national GOP. “By obsessing with zeroes on the budget spreadsheet, we send a not-so-subtle signal that the focus of our country is on the phony economy of Washington, instead of the real economy out here in Charlotte, and Shreveport (La.), and Cheyenne (Wyo.).” Yet Jindal’s program cuts show that on budget-cutting issues, he’s a typical Republican.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/25/the_shame_that_is_bobby_jindal/

[Enrique]

1. actually this part is pretty bold for a Republican

“We’ve got to stop being the stupid party."

Huckabee might nail him on this in the debates: Jindal is going to take our stupid away!

[southern_belle]

2. Shine a big light

here... LOTS TO SEE

[southern_belle]

3. ...

Good timing; continued attention to Jindal’s hospice cruelty might have made it tough for him to be the new public face of what he hopes will be the diversity-friendly GOP.

Yet Jindal’s other cruel cuts are set to stand – cuts to battered women’s shelter programs, to higher education, preschool programs, anti-truancy efforts and a range of other efforts to make life better for low-income people. Meanwhile Jindal wants to replace the state’s income tax with more regressive sales taxes.