Lame duck Gov. Bobby Jindal is using his last days to screw over 31,000 unemployed Louisianians https://t.co/IMwIkIxlpB
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) December 23, 2015Less than three weeks before he leaves office, outgoing Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is refusing his replacement’s request to spare 31,000 of Louisiana’s poorest from a needless hardship. Jindal moved in October to reinstate a 20-hour-per-week work requirement for the small subset of food stamps recipients in the state who have no dependants and are able-bodied enough to work. Governors are encouraged to waive those supplemental work rules when their states’ job markets are too weak, and Louisiana qualified for a waiver throughout 2016. Governor-elect John Bel Edwards (D) plans to reverse Jindal’s decision when he takes office next month. But in the meantime, many people will lose their benefits at the turn of the calendar…. Jindal’s move doesn’t save the state money and doesn’t create jobs for SNAP recipients who want them…. Jindal is refusing to cooperate in his final days in office, dooming an estimated 31,000 unemployed food stamps recipients to deeper poverty. “The best way to break the cycle of poverty is for individuals to get a job and get off of government assistance,” Jindal spokesman Mike Reed told the New Orleans Advocate in an email.
So…what did outgoing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal give 31,000 unemployed Louisiana residents for Christmas? How about a big, gift-wrapped “F—K YOU!!”? It’s almost as if he simply couldn’t resist the temptation to put the screws to those down on their luck. Blaming the unemployed for their circumstances is hardly unusual for a Republican, but it takes a real dick to make a decision that in effect tells the jobless to sod off…and Jindal’s revealed himself to be every bit of that.e
Perhaps my mistake was in assuming that, since Jindal’s no longer running for President, he could finally lose the shackles of having to prove that he’s a compassion-free, “tough love” survival of the fittest advocate who believes the poor and unemployed have only themselves to blame for their predicament. Turns out Jindal really is all that, an insensitive ideologue who believes compassion is a sign of weakness and that forcing the poor and unemployed to the brink of starvation is merely an effective motivational tactic.
[D]eclining a waiver that the food stamps law is designed to provide doesn’t save these fiscally conservative politicians anything come budget time. Food stamps benefits are paid by the federal government, not state funds. The people evicted from the system likely impose a greater cost on state workers, if anything, because monitoring their compliance or noncompliance with the extra layer of work requirements Jindal and the rest seek demands more administrative time from state workers — and that’s the part of SNAP that does get pulled from state revenues rather than from D.C.
This isn’t about what’s best for Louisiana or its citizens. SNAP costs the state nothing, so it’s not as if Jindal can fall back on the old “fiscal responsibility” argument. Beyond that, there are studies which demonstrate that public assistance is cost-effective and returns more to the economy than what’s paid out. In short, it’s money well spent…besides being the decent, kind, and compassionate thing to do.
Not that Jindal understands a thing about compassion or could see his way clear to living the Christian beliefs he clings to with such fervor.
Louisiana’s Governor-elect, John Bel Edwards, has already stated he will overturn Jindal’s order, so any damage done will thankfully be minimal. Unfortunately, Jindal has demonstrated once again how little kindness and compassion today’s Republicans are capable of showing to those in need of a hand up. And once again, the people who suffer most are the down on the luck and their families…because Republicans believe they can never go wrong by demonstrating “fiscal responsibility.”
Not only is the compassion represented by public assistance programs such as SNAP not a sign of weakness, it’s a good investment…and the right thing to do. Not that soulless Republicans like Jindal care about anything beyond their own narrow self-interest and political prospects.
Louisiana- and America- deserves better.
