Wow. <\/p>\n
On style points Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor from Louisiana, looked bad last night. Going up against Barack Obama, speech-to-speech, is a tough assignment.<\/p>\n
But the substance of Jindal’s comments were more troubling than his clumsy delivery.<\/p>\n
Jindal presides over a state where Federal stimulus spending — in the form of Hurricane Katrina spending — literally defines the economy. <\/p>\n
Taxpayers across the U.S. have bailed his state out, in every sense of the word. <\/p>\n
His party also supported epic deficits to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as vast expansions to Federal entitlement programs.<\/p>\n
Yet now Jindal is suggesting that Federal spending in times of economic crisis is nothing more than pork.<\/p>\n
You simply can’t have it both ways. <\/p>\n
The truth is that Republicans have grown just as addicted to spending taxpayer money as Democrats. <\/p>\n
It’s become a cliche to say that Democrats are tax-and-spenders, while the GOP is the party of borrow-and-spend. There’s a sad truth in that cliche.<\/p>\n
And the same goes here in the North Country. Generally conservative leaders espouse small government — except when it comes to their towns and counties. <\/p>\n
We want taxpayers in other parts of New York to subsidize our schools, our hospitals, our nursing homes, ourMedicaid services, our economic development projects, and our highways.<\/p>\n
And yet we want to call ourselves fiscal conservatives. <\/p>\n
This disconnect between philosophy and reality is THE Republian dilemma. <\/p>\n
Until the GOP solves it, their leaders will continue to sound — well, like Bobby Jindal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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