When Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican, delivered the Republican Party's response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address on February 24, 2009, here are a few of the things he said:
"The strength of America is not found in our government."
"To strengthen our economy, we need urgent action to keep energy prices down. All of us remember what it felt like to pay $4 at the pump -- and unless we act now, those prices will return. To stop that from happening, we need to increase conservation, increase energy efficiency, increase the use of alternative and renewable fuels, increase our use of nuclear power and increase drilling for oil and gas here at home." [Emphasis added.]
"Democratic leaders in Washington place their hope in the federal government. We place our hope in you -- the American people."
"We oppose the national Democrats' view that says the way to strengthen our country is to increase dependence on government."
Lousiana Governor Bobby Jindal, of the party whose candidates for President and Vice President in the last U.S. presidential election campaigned on the slogan, "Drill, baby, drill!" Bobby Jindal, of the party of "less government." Bobby Jindal, whose most recent Vice Presidential candidate recently said in a speech in his state of Louisiana, that we did not need more studies, we needed more drilling.
That Bobby Jindal.
Today, he held a press conference, together with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. In that press conference he eloquently described the desperate circumstances in which his fellow Louisianans find themselves along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico because British Petroleum's Deep Water Horizon drill, baby, drill oil rig exploded, caught on fire, capsized, and began to leak - at least 5,000 barrels of oil a day, possibly as much as 100,000 barrels of oil a day. That oil is now coming ashore in Louisiana, killing wildlife and destroying the marshes and wetlands on which uncounted numbers of animal species and tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of people depend for their livelihoods.
"We're literally talking about defending a way of life down here in Louisiana,'' Governor Jindal said. Yes, Governor, a way of life, but much, much more is now at stake because of the "drill, baby, drill" greed endorsed by the Republican Party.
But, all that is obvious. What was surprising was where Governor Jindal put the blame. He expressed his opinion that the response - by the federal government - had been inadequate. He listed a long list of things, "resources," he called them, that he, as governor had asked the federal government to provide to help Louisiana fight the effects of "drill, baby, drill." He then listed the really paltry list of the things he had asked for that he had, as of today, received.
Clearly, his premise was that the federal government had failed to provide the resources the people of his state needed to fight the results of his party's energy solution.
But, this was the same Governor Jindal who said that the strength of America was not found in our government, that what we needed was "more drilling for oil and gas," that his party did not place their hope in the federal government, and that Americans should not increase their dependence on the federal government.
Yet, when disaster strikes - disaster which was, in fact, inevitable if we pursued the Republicans' policy of "drill, baby, drill" - Governor Less-Dependence-on-Washington Jindal turns to ... Washington. And, when the federal government can't respond with everything he is depending on the federal government to provide to help the people of his state, he blames ... the federal government.
Look, Governor, either we depend on the federal government to do things we cannot do individually - and we give the federal government the resources necessary to do those things, i.e., tax revenue - or we don't whine and complain when the federal government doesn't have the resources needed to do things we cannot do individually.
You can't have it both ways. You can't strip the federal government of the resources to do the things the American people need it to do, then complain when it doesn't have the resources to do the things the American people need it to do.
And, when a smart man like you does exactly that, and does it for political reasons, that's called ... hypocrisy.
"Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees! Hypocrites!" - Jesus of Nazareth.
"Woe unto you, Bobby Jindal! Hypocrite!"
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Well said. Intelligent citizens need to engage and expose the lies and hypocracy. We need to set the tone and terms of important debates for the sake of our country. There's a lot of work to be done!
ReplyDeleteThank you, James.
You're welcome, Anonymous. And thank you for the compliment. Even more, thank you for the comment. It's a delight to read them.
ReplyDeleteNicely written. Why is this stuff so blindingly obvious and yet not everyone sees it? Frankly, I wish Obama would publicly say something like "So Jindal - is it the Federal Government you want to help you out? Does that mesh with everything you and your party have lobbied for? Are you SURE you want our help?
ReplyDeleteHey dad, as always, I read your blog posts. This one in particular gets under my skin however. Since I know identifying hypocrisy is one of your favorite drums to beat, I don't expect to persuade you. However, I hope your readers might consider that under current legislation Louisiana receives $0 in revenue from royalties for the production of the oil offshore. The federal government, according to DEMOCRAT Mary Landrieu, receives $5 Billion a year from oil produced off our coasts. It doesn't seem reasonable with that imbalance to claim Bobby Jindal has denied them the resources necessary. Why would it be unreasonable for him to assume that if it's the federal government's goose that lays the golden egg, then the federal government should have to clean up the goose crap. So I would say it's not surprising that Bobby Jindal blames the federal government for not taking care of this mess better, I'd say it's reasonable. Unreasonable in light of the fact that governments have a long and storied history of over-promising and under-delivering once they have your money in hand, but otherwise reasonable.
ReplyDeleteSecond, looking to the federal government in a time of unprecedented emergency or crisis might technically be considered being "dependent" on the federal government. I think that when you really take an honest look at what Bobby Jindal likely meant when he said the answer was not to "increase our dependence" on the federal government you will agree that he was expressing his opposition to handing over control of the more daily, regular events and tasks like education or health care.
Third, it was not the responsibility of Bobby Jindal's state to regulate, license, or inspect the operations at the Deep Water Horizon rig, but the responsibility of a questionably run federal agency, the Minerals Management Service.
So to sum up, the federal government receives the money from the oil, regulates, licenses, and inspects the operation to ensure it's in compliance and operating properly, but because Bobby Jindal once said he thought it was a bad idea to increase our dependence on the federal government, he shouldn't ask for them to clean up the mess? I'm sure a "smart man like you" considered these things before blasting someone on your blog. At least I hope so.
Anyway, love you dad, hope to see you soon. :D
Hey, Chris! Thank you for responding!
ReplyDeleteAnd, you're right, you didn't convince me.
I did, in fact, consider all the things you mentioned before I wrote this article about Governor Jindal. I don't consider any of them much on point and, to the extent they are, they actually work to support my position, not oppose it.
First, when I read your words, "daily, regular events and tasks," I get the sense that what you are describing is something "routine," and, by inference, something that everyday Americans ought to be able to manage on their own. I'm with you at that point. Then, when you give examples of these supposedly routine and individually manageable events and tasks and your examples are "education and health care," you totally lose me. The sad facts are that everyday Americans cannot afford either adequate education or adequate health care, and it's destroying the fabric of our nation.
Second, I agree with you that it is eminently reasonable for Governor Jindal to expect an adequate federal response to this disaster.
Which brings me back to my point. The Republicans - most of them, at least - speak as if they want a smaller federal government which has less involvement in our lives. In furtherance of that goal, the Republicans, when they have been in power, have a history of trying to limit the federal government by starving it of resources. There are indications that this is the real goal of the tax-cutting philosophy of many conservatives - to eviscerate the federal government by cutting taxes so much that it simply cannot do the things that they object to it doing.
In a related vein, the Republicans have historically tried to limit the power of government by limiting its power to regulate, and by cutting the budgets (in real dollars, at least) of the agencies charged with doing the regulation. The goal, open and publicly stated, is to allow private enterprise to operate with the very least amount of federal intervention and to rely on the "market" for necessary regulation.
Finally, Governor Jindal didn't say, "I'm in favor of more drilling in the Gulf, but I want Louisiana to get some of the revenues so that Lousiana can be prepared to respond to the inevitable disaster when it happens."
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Governor Jindal didn't say, "I'm in favor of more drilling in the Gulf, but I want stronger regulation of the oil industry to try to reduce the chance of a disaster happening and the magnitude of it when it does."
ReplyDeleteGovernor Jindal didn't say, "I'm in favor of more drilling in the Gulf, but I want to increase the funding of the Minerals Management Service so that they can strictly enforce the federal regulations that are supposed to protect against a disaster and mitigate it when it occurs."
No, Governor Jindal said, I want the federal government to have fewer resources (less taxes), I want the federal government to have less regulatory authority, I want us all to depend on the federal government less, and I want more drilling in the Gulf.
We can differ on whether those are wise goals. We can differ on the specific meaning of each of those goals. But, those goals, in combination, do have consequences. Those consequences are not unpredictable, or even hard to predict. In fact, these very consequences have been predicted by those in the environmental movement for a long, long time.
However, Governor Jindal, when it was politically useful to him, ignored those voices which were crying these very predictable consequences. He didn't try to prepare his state to deal with the inevitable consequences of his policies. He opposed the things that would have enabled the federal government to deal with the inevitable consequences of his policies. All he did was go with the "Drill, baby, drill" crowd and ask for more drilling, with less resources to deal with the effects and less regulation to prevent them.
Tnen, when his political chickens came home to roost, and it was now politically expedient to blame the federal government for not solving the problem he helped to create, that's what he did.
That's hypocrisy.