“My recommendation to the President it’s time to stop
campaigning. It is time to actually do the job here in Washington, D.C.”,
Governor Jindal said. “Roll up your sleeves and do the hard work of governing.”
Regarding Sequestration, which will take effect on March 1st,
Governor Jindal said, “We need real presidential leadership here. The President
needs to step up to the plate, if he really thinks this is going to devastate
the military, really thinks this will devastate air traffic control, really
devastate meat inspections…here’s his chance to say ‘Here’s how we can do it
better’.”
“The reality is that the Federal Budget this year, even
after the cuts, will still be larger than last year’s budget,” Governor Jindal
continued noting that the President proposed the Sequester.
The Governor also said that the President should delay
implementing ObamaCare to save “tens of billions” and avoid the Sequestration
altogether. “The reality is nobody is saying that he should make these exact cuts. We can cut less than 3% of the budget without hollowing out our military, without jeopardizing air traffic, without jeopardizing meat inspections.”
Contrasting Republicans and Democrats, Governor Jindal said,
“We are for growth. We’re for growing the American economy; not the Government
economy. You’ve seen the greed of Wall Street being replaced with the greed of
Washington, D.C. There’s never enough revenues, there’s never enough taxes for
this Administration.”
“We should be about growing the private sector economy, real
jobs out there. Now is the time to start shrinking our spending so we can grow
the private sector economy, not the Government economy.”
“Government cannot be the answer to all of our problems.”
Discussing ObamaCare and his position that Louisiana should
not expand Medicaid roles Jindal said, “This will cost Louisiana taxpayers over
$1 Billion dollars over the next 10 years. I actually agree with what the
President said in 2009. He said it doesn’t make sense to simply put more people
in the Medicaid program without reforming this program. He was right in 2009;
they’ve not reformed the program.”
“In Louisiana alone, as many as 180,000 people would be
moved from private insurance into Medicaid under this expansion. That doesn’t
make sense.”
On gun control Jindal said, “I think we all agree we shouldn’t
have guns getting into the hands of those with serious mental illnesses…let’s
fix the current background system.”
Governor Jindal was also asked about his positioning himself
for a national run in 2016.
“Nobody in the Republican Party should be thinking about
running for President. We’ve got to win the debate before we can win elections.
The Governor also touted his efforts regarding education
reform and the potential elimination of the state income tax and revamping of
the tax codes as evidence of the difficult issues he has tackled during his
second term.
Governor Jindal was in Washington for a meeting of the
National Governors Association. Jindal is Chairman of the Republican Governors
Association.
While I agree that the President should stop holding
campaign appearances and photo-ops across the country, it is a bit ingenuous
for Governor Jindal, who, according to The Advocate, spent ¼ of his time in the past year, and one week per
month this year, away from Baton Rouge on his campaign to raise his national
profile, to criticize the President.
Of course, it’s also interesting the Governor Jindal would
appear on “Meet The Press” in Washington, D.C. when he won’t meet the press in
Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Acadiana, Shreveport, or any city in Louisiana.