The Republican National Committee recently conducted an?online straw poll?identifying 32 candidates who could get its nomination in the 2016 presidential race. Each of the 32 has quite a questionable history, though, that contrasts with the GOP’s consistent claim of it being the ?moral? option for voters.
Philander, racism, thievery, bribery, and combinations of these and other?sins?are?found across the slate, in fact.?In this series on the 32 potential candidates (updated every other day), Liberal America will offer a quick rundown on the hypocrisy clouding each one’s ?holier than thou? claims.
Bobby Jindal
Governor of Louisiana
Bobby Jindal was only 24 when Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster appointed him to head the state’s Dept. of Health and Hospitals. The appointment was a political trick, though; Foster told his staff that if anyone complained about the dramatic cuts he would instruct Jindal to make, he could just blame it on the new guy’s youth and inexperience. And dramatic cuts were made; Jindal reduced the department budget by 25 percent and laid off 1,000 employees.
Those dramatic cuts apparently caught the eye of George W. Bush, who appointed Jindal to the federal Health and Human Services office in 1999. That must be where he got his political itch, because shortly after in 2003 he ran for Louisiana governor. He lost, but used his new name notoriety to immediately launch another campaign; just weeks after the governor’s race, Jindal decided to run for U.S. Congress and won the state’s 1st District the next year. He didn’t give up his hopes for the governor’s mansion, though, and won the seat in the next election cycle of 2007.
After taking the office, Jindal resumed his role of state axe-man, laying off 28,000 state employees. Many of the layoffs are due to privatization of many facilities, including state hospitals and homes for the developmentally disabled, but the companies that now operate those facilities didn’t hire back many of the folks?who lost their state jobs. Workers?who did get hired?received less in pay and/or in benefits, too.
Like many of his Republican counterparts, Gov. Jindal claims that religion influences his work. Also like other Republicans, it seems that he wants tax dollars to go hand-in-hand with that faith; for example, he’s allowed the state’s federal funding for public schools to go to private religious schools, even ones that don’t use valid, approved textbooks. (He’s also a proponent of ?intelligent design? in the classroom.)
In some instances, Jindal’s arranged for dollars to go right into his own hands, and other times?straight from taxpaying Louisiana citizens to the bank accounts of his campaign donors. For example, he’s accepted corporate donations to a charitable organization listed in his wife’s name, and then taken actions from his office that benefit those corporate donors. In another example, after accepting sizable campaign donations from three different company executives, Jindal arranged for their companies to receive tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to purchase facilities in the state, and/or give them state contracts. And most recently, Jindal signed a bill into law that blocks a lawsuit against 97 oil and gas companies, many of which have donated to his campaigns, for damages to New Orleans? levee system. This latest action is projected to interfere with lawsuits against an oil company (BP) pertaining to its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
He still claims ultimate moral supremacy, however, recently reiterating his bizarre claim that while in college he performed an exorcism on a fellow student he thought to be demonically possessed. He’seems a bit demonic himself at times, though, such as at the recent Faith & Freedom Convention, where Jindal called for a ?hostile takeover” of?the federal government.
And although a minority Indian-American himself, Jindal believes racism is no longer a problem in the U.S. No one should identify him- or herself by ethnicity, either, he says, writing in a 2013 editorial ?it’s time to get over it.? (See The Young Turks? take on Jindal’s ?get over it? essay?in the video below.)
He’s probably made many other questionable actions while governor, but the public can’t learn about them. You see, Jindal arranged a last-minute amendment to a 2008 education bill that?excludes his office from transparency rules in Louisiana government. Any document originating from his office is now private; Jindal’s office does not have to comply with public requests for release of any documentation, either.
Visit Liberal America for future updates on?the other?GOP 2016 hopefuls.
What’s your take on these?hypocritical Republicans? State your case on?Liberal America’s Facebook?page.
See previous posts on GOP 2016 hopefuls:
Kelly Ayotte??|?Haley Barbour?|??John Bolton?| ?Jeb Bush?|?Hermain Cain? |?Ben Carson?|??Chris Christie??| ?Ted Cruz??|?Mitch Daniels??| ?Newt Gingrich??| ?Nikki Haley?| Mike Huckabee? |
