Louisiana House Republicans, come up with a budget plan or stop pretending to legislate.
You burned the house down and now have the gall to lecture Gov. John Bel Edwards on how he should keep the house tidy.
When then-Gov. Bobby Jindal took office, Louisiana had a $1 billion budget surplus, according to The New York Times. Now the state is in a budget crisis, which is not only a result of falling oil prices. Jindal threw his support behind “the largest tax cut in the state’s history” yet didn’t pay for it.
Edwards must combat a $940 million shortfall for this year and a $2 billion shortfall for the next fiscal year, according to The Advocate.
Republicans, you had a super-majority in the legislature and a very conservative Republican governor. You had everything you wanted and more. As a result, you wrecked the state, had seven straight years of funding shortfalls and cut roughly 55 percent of higher education’s budget.
For years, you went along with Jindal’s budget games, using one-time money to fix long-term problems. And you weren’t kicking and screaming for eight years.
The late C.B. Forgotston, a prominent Louisiana politics blogger, called former House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, “Jindal’s lapdog.”
Who was there criticizing your games since day one? According to The Lens, Edwards, then a state representative, said, “Kleckley has absolutely done the governor’s bidding … He has been in lock-step with the administration. There have been growing concerns that we’re not an independent, co-equal branch of government.”
In his statewide address focusing on the state’s budget woes, Edwards sounded the alarm your party long ignored. Without action from the state legislature, many hospitals will face devastating cuts, and the University will run out of money and close on April 30th, according to The Advocate.
Now you want to continue cutting state services. Your delegation’s Twitter account said in two tweets that you “will firmly stand for short-term and long-term budget reforms… cuts to government waste and fiscal solutions that are aligned with the conservative values of our state’s citizens.”
This is exactly what our state has done for all of the Jindal years. The only problem with that approach is “there are no magic wands,” Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said in an interview with The Advocate. “If there were any easy fixes, they would have been done.”
You refuse to address $1 billion in tax giveaways, including the $330,000 the state spends per episode of “Duck Dynasty” according to The Advocate.
Your plans to fix the budget belong in a dumpster fire, not in the Capitol. That’s where graduating seniors’ diplomas will end up with your current plans anyway.
Even your own colleagues are calling out your incompetence. “If they are going to offer an $800 million plan of cuts, let’s see it,” said Senate President John Alario according to The Advocate.
Aren’t you supposed to be the party of balanced budgets and “fiscal responsibility Where are the fiscal hawks now?
Don’t pretend to care about children with disabilities losing their life-saving health coverage or deferring a college student’s dreams if you aren’t going to come up with a plan.
Stand behind a plan or stop complaining, House Republicans. You need to do your job and keep the state’s lights on.
Michael Beyer is a 22-year-old political science senior from New Orleans, Louisiana.