Bobby Jindal talk about the Stimulus bill

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal talk about the Stimulus bill on Meet the Press.

"The $100 million we turned down was temporary federal dollars that would require us to change our unemployment laws. That would’ve actually raised taxes on Louisiana businesses. We as a state would’ve been responsible for paying for those benefits after the federal money disappeared."

"That’s great, except the federal law, if you actually read the bill -- and I know it was 1,000 pages, and I know they got it, you know, at midnight, or hours before they voted on it -- if you actually read the bill, there’s one problem with that.

The word “permanent” is in the bill. It requires the state to make a permanent change in our law. Law B -- our employer group agrees with me.

They say, “Yes, this will result an increase in taxes on our businesses, this will result in a permanent obligation on the state of Louisiana.” It would be like spending $1 to get a dime.

Why would we take temporary federal dollars if we’re going to end up having a permanent program?

And here’s the problem. So many of these things that are called temporary programs end up being permanent government programs. But this one’s crystal clear, black and white, letter of the law. The federal stimulus bill says it has to be a permanent change in state law if you take this state money.

And so, within three years, the federal money’s gone, we’ve got now a permanent change in our laws, we have to pay for it, our businesses pay for it. I don’t think it makes sense to be raising taxes on Louisiana businesses during these economically challenging times.

And what it shows is what we’re going to do in the stimulus is we’re going to look at every program, every dollar. If it makes sense for Louisiana, makes sense for our taxpayers, we’ll use those programs and dollars. If it doesn’t -- like, on Friday, we said, “This doesn’t make sense for us. This is not a good deal for us.”

It makes -- my job is to represent Louisiana’s taxpayers. Makes no sense for us to take temporary federal dollars and create permanent state obligations."

States prepare to combat stimulus strings

Worried the federal government is increasing its dominance over their affairs, several states are pursuing legislative action to assert their sovereignty under the 10th Amendment of the Constitution in hopes of warding off demands from Washington on how to spend money or enact policy. The growing concerns even have a handful of governors questioning whether to accept federal stimulus money that comes with strings attached.

The sentiments to declare themselves legally independent from Washington have swept across as many as a dozen states, renewing a debate over so-called unfunded mandates that last raged in the 1990s. The states question whether the U.S. government can force states to take actions without paying for them or impose conditions on states if they accept certain federal funding.

States prepare to combat stimulus strings
Assert sovereignty with 10th Amendment
by David M. Dickson

"We are telling the federal government that we are a sovereign state and want to be treated as such. We are not a branch of the federal government," said Arizona state Rep. Judy Burges, who is leading an effort in her state to pass a resolution called "Sovereignty: the 10th Amendment." Ms. Burges was inspired to action by a pair of Bush administration initiatives: The No Child Left Behind education law of 2002 and the Real ID Act, a 2005 law that established national standards for state-issued driver's licenses and identification cards.

In other states, lawmakers say they are bracing to repeal federal mandates to spend their money that they expect will emanate from Washington once President Obama begins delivering some of the big-ticket programs promised during his presidential campaign.

Oklahoma state Sen. Randy Brogdon introduced a resolution that he said would enable his state to "reclaim its 10th Amendment right to reject any and all acts of Congress that go beyond its enumerated powers in violation of the 10th Amendment."

Other states pursuing sovereignty resolutions are Hawaii, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire and Washington. Similar measures are likely to be introduced in more than a dozen other states, analysts said.

"The states are sending a message," said Robert Alt, a legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation.

The nearly $800 billion stimulus bill also has raised worries.

Republican governors Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Bobby Jindal of
Louisiana and Rick Perry of Texas expressed reservations this week about accepting their states' shares of the stimulus package because they are worried that the federal government will impose conditions on how it can be spent.

As a self-styled staunch conservative, Mr. Sanford, the new head of the Republican Governors Association, aggressively opposed the stimulus plan. However, in a Thursday morning interview on CBS' "The Early Show," Mr. Sanford said his state would accept money from the stimulus bill. Opposing the plan "doesn't preclude taking the money," said Mr. Sanford. South Carolina's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is the nation's third-highest.

Mr. Perry sent Mr. Obama a letter Wednesday certifying that Texas also would accept stimulus money.

"I remain opposed to using these funds to expand existing government programs, burdening the state with ongoing expenditures long after the funding has dried up," Mr. Perry wrote, clearly expressing his opposition to unfunded mandates.

Mr. Obama has promised that his administration will use federal funds to support his administration's initiatives.

"[Mr. Obama does] not support imposing unfunded mandates on states and localities. They strongly support providing necessary funding for programs such as No Child Left Behind," his campaign literature said.

The states are resting their efforts on the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Mr. Brogdon said prospects for passage of his resolution are "grand," noting that a similar bill passed the Oklahoma House by a 97-3 vote last year and that Republicans captured a majority of the Oklahoma Senate in the 2008 elections. He predicted that the Legislature would easily override a veto from Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat.

Mr. Obama proposed a slew of expensive programs during his presidential campaign, ranging from health insurance to policies addressing alternative energy and climate change. "The states are worried that these programs would increase the overall regulatory burden without providing the funding," Mr. Alt said.

Some analysts dispute the financial impact of recent unfunded mandates on state budgets.

Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute who recently completed a two-year stint in Indiana's budget office, said he hasn't "heard states clamoring about unfunded mandates the way they were during the 1990s. What you hear more today are states begging for federal money."

The reality is that states are being "hypocritical," he said, noting that about a third of average total state spending comes from the federal government.

The biggest federal grants involve Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides health care for the poor.

"States were adding Medicaid benefits when times were good. Now the federal government must bail the states out through the so-called stimulus bill because the states' revenues have taken a hit and they must operate under a balanced-budget mandate," Mr. DeHaven said.

In 2007, according to the Congressional Budget Office, states collectively spent $1 billion for unfunded federal mandates from programs enacted since the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, said Brian Riedl, a budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

"To a large degree, states are scapegoating their budget problems on Washington," Mr. Riedl said. "It's tough to be sympathetic for states and local governments when they got $467 billion in federal grants last year," he said.

Mr. Riedl also rejected the notion that the No Child Left Behind Act constitutes an unfunded mandate. States are free to opt out of this and many other federal programs by not accepting federal money in exchange for federal regulations. States have effectively decided that the federal dollars are worth the strings attached to them, Mr. Riedl concluded.

Mr. Riedl acknowledged that Medicaid, which was created in 1965, does represent a major unfunded mandate. But he said that "a majority of state Medicaid spending is on populations and benefits that states have voluntarily added and could reduce at any time."

The other major unfunded federal mandate that predates the 1995 law is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, federal funding for IDEA has grown 71 percent faster than inflation since 2001, Mr. Riedl said.

Many of the sovereignty resolutions under consideration in the states will not have the force of law. Even if they did, said Mr. Alt, "through the supremacy clause in the U.S. Constitution, so long as a federal statute is constitutional, it would trump state law."

Mr. Brogdon of Oklahoma did not take issue with that. "Federal law does not trump the Constitution," he said.

He suggested that if he becomes governor, the federal courts likely will get a case involving the 10th Amendment and congressional powers.

Moving the Party to the State House

Hat Tip to The Garnet Spy




There is an important gathering this week - potentially the most important between last week’s presidential election and the next. It’s the annual Republican Governor’s Association Conference in Miami.

Yeah, yeah… there will be golf, a cruise and fancy dinners, but there are sessions at which “rising stars” will be recognized and one called “Looking Toward the Future: The GOP in Transition.” If played correctly, This group has the capability to take control of the party and steer it back from the devastation of November 4.

There are 21 Republican governors - 8 will leave in 2010 due to term limits and another in 2011. Mitch Daniels (Indiana), John Hoeven (North Dakota), Jon Huntsman (Utah) and Jim Douglas (Vermont) won reelection. Missouri was lost when Matt Blount chose not to run for re-election.

Naturally, the immediate concerns are going to be retaining as many state house seats as possible in 2010 and pick up as many of the 11 Democrat governorships that will be up for grabs (10 in 2010 and one in 2009). But there is more that they need to do.

The Republican governors need to move the center of the party out of Washington. Take it from Senators and House leaders that are too removed from the citizenry and bring it closer to Republican roots. A subtle but very important point came out during Sarah Palin’s candidacy - executive experience. Governors are the Nation’s company commanders - they are doing the hands-on work that immediately affect Americans. From roads to schools to business incentives and the environment, these are the men and women who know the country - the PEOPLE part of the country - best. The state house is the nexus from which another Reagan Revolution can be launched and from where the GOP must - MUST - concentrate its next group of leaders.

With powerful personalities such as Palin, Bobby Jindal, Tim Pawlenty, Mark Sanford, and others like former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich and his Lieutenant Governor and current GoPac Chairman Michael Steele, the Republican Party has what Steele called “a phenomenal farm team.”

The Republican Governor’s Association website contains this statement:

The success of Republican Governors at the polls offers a bright spot for the GOP, and their victories tonight show their importance to the Republican Party’s future.

Republican Governors prove that when we govern well and stick to our principles the nation still supports the Republican Party. The plan that Republican Governors developed two years ago is working.

When Republicans focus on solving problems we can win in any environment. It’s now time to focus on rebuilding our Party at the state level — not in Washington DC — and our governors are poised to do so.

The Republican National Committee
would be wise to recognize the logic.

The 2012 GOP Field (First Call)

Hat Tip to Dan




What the Republican field will look like in four years. Obviously, there are many variables along the way, ranging from how beatable Obama looks to the 2010 midterms; I'm just forecasting with the known knowns we have today. As usual there will probably be 10 or so candidates, but from where we sit today there look to be four slots from which to put together a credible primary campaign:

(1) The Populist Candidate: With its Washington leadership beheaded, the GOP is likely to become more of a populist and culturally conservative party in the next four years. Mike Huckabee showed this year the power and the limitations of a pure populist campaign, far exceeding expectations with nearly no resources or name recognition (although Huck was out of step with the populists on one of the major causes of grassroots frustration with DC, immigration). Against the backdrop of a tax-spend-regulate Obama Administration, a crucial challenge will be squaring populism with the GOP's need to appeal to economic and fiscal conservatives to expand out of the Huck-size niche. Realistically, the populist candidate is likely to end up as the most moderate serious candidate in the field.

As things stand today, Sarah Palin is the obvious populist candidate and, for now, the very-very-early frontrunner for the 2012 nomination, given her now-massive name recognition (the woman's every TV appearance is a ratings bonanza), amazing talents as a retail politician, appeal to the base, and the GOP tendency towards nominating the next in line.

Granted, only two candidates in the part century (Bob Dole and Franklin D. Roosevelt) have won a major party nomination after being the VP nominee for a losing ticket (not counting Mondale, who'd already been VP), those two waited 12 and 20 years before doing so, respectively, and recent history has been unkind to those who tried (Edwards 2008, Lieberman 2004 - see also Quayle 2000).

I'll expand another day on the challenges facing Gov. Palin - the short answer is that inexperience is the easiest thing in the world to fix, but she'll have to face tougher budgetary times in Alaska in light of falling oil revenues, she'll have to withstand what is likely to be an ongoing national campaign by the Democrats to take her down or hobble her re-election efforts to cut off the likeliest threat to Obama, and she'll have to develop and sell her own, independent agenda and demonstrate a greater breadth and depth of knowledge on national politics than are required from the running mate slot.

Upside in the primaries: the socially conservative, moose-hunting hockey mom could potentially be well-suited to the early GOP primary/caucus electorates in Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan.

(2) The Establishment Candidate: The GOP by tradition tends to fall in behind whoever is the candidate of the establishment - of country clubs and boardrooms and Beltway insiders. Part of being a Republican, of course, is having the maturity to understand that being the establishment candidate is not a bad thing. But an angry grassroots is going to take some serious persuading to pick another establishment figure.

The best establishment candidate should be Jeb Bush, for a variety of reasons, but four years won't be enough - if any length of time is - to rebuild the Bush brand within the GOP, let alone the general electorate.

That leaves Mitt Romney as the logical next step; Mitt is currently out of office and thus less equipped to get more experience, but he'll have the money and energy to spend four years staking himself out as a consistent conservative voice and putting the distance of time between 2012 and the flip-flop charges of 2008.

South Dakota Senator John Thune is also sometimes mentioned, but after 1964, 1996 and now 2008, the GOP has hopefully learned its lesson about nominating legislators for President, especially sitting Senators. Newly re-elected Indiana Governor and former Bush budget director Mitch Daniels (see here and here) will have his name come up but more likely as a VP nominee.

(3) The Full-Spectrum Conservative: The Fred Thompson role from 2008 but one that will pack a lot more potential appeal in 2012.

Bobby Jindal is the best of the lot, but while he's already got an impressive resume, Jindal's so young (he's 37, which makes him the age Romney was in 1985), so he can afford to wait out several more election cycles; he's up for re-election in 2011, which makes running in 2012 very problematic; and he really and genuinely wants to stay in Louisiana long enough to make real changes in his beloved home state's legendarily corrupt and dysfunctional political culture.

The other main contender for this slot is South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford, now in his second term as Governor after 3 in Congress. SC is the most favorable turf for a candidate of this type among the early primary states, so with Sanford running as a favorite son he could basically block out any other challengers, and if he doesn't run for re-election in 2010 (offhand I don't know whether he's term-limited), he'd have a logistical advantage over Palin, who will presumably still be in office as governor of a geographically remote state.

(4) The National Security Candidate: After four years of Obama, there's also likely to be strong sentiment for adult leadership on national security. Traditionally, the GOP has tended to prioritize this issue (in 2008, both McCain and Giuliani ran primarily as national security candidates).

But especially with Senators in disfavor, the supply of candidates with more national security credentials than a typical Governor is short - most of the Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld types in the party will be past their prime by 2012, and I continue to doubt that Condi Rice could be a viable candidate for a multitude of reasons.

The name you're likely to hear is CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus, but Gen. Petraeus - who I assume will remain on active duty for another year or two, at least, and who President Obama dare not fire - has no political experience and no known domestic-policy profile (we don't even know if he's a Republican). My guess is that if we nominate a governor in 2012, Gen. Petraeus will be much in demand as a running mate. After that, I'm not sure who will even try to fill this slot in the primaries.

Sorry, but that's the list; the no-more-McCains sentiment among the base will make it impossible for someone like Tim Pawlenty to mount a credible campaign as a moderate, nobody will bother trying to re-create the crippling damage inflicted on Rudy Giuliani from running with a record as a social liberal, and no Ron Paul type candidate (especially Ron Paul) is ever going to make a serious dent. It's those four slots or bust.

And I, for one, am definitely not committing yet to who I'll support as between Palin or a Sanford or Jindal run or maybe somebody else (obviously I'm not a Mitt fan). There's two long years ahead of us before that choice begins to arise.

Saw this on a car in
Moore, Oklahoma USA

Moore, Oklahoma 6 Oct 2008

11-06-08_1609.jpeg
Originally uploaded by Okie Campaigns

Saw this on a car today in
Moore, Oklahoma USA

Announcing a Presidential Forum in New Orleans

New Orleans and Louisiana leaders today announce they are working with Google and YouTube to bring American voices into a forum with Presidential nominees that will address critical issues for the nation's future.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the New Orleans Consortium plan to host the forum on September 18, 2008 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The forum will use Google technology and the YouTube video platform to drive citizen engagement and to create a dynamic, compelling, and constructive live television broadcast.