How Jindal Harms the Living
Dayne Sherman
March 9, 2014
Column / 700 words
Published in several newspapers & blogs
March 9, 2014
Column / 700 words
Published in several newspapers & blogs
To truly be pro-life is to respect the lives of all people: the unborn, newborn, children of all ages, mothers, prisoners on death row, victims of crime, immigrants, poor people and old people.
Focusing only on one group, the unborn, and neglecting people from birth to death is a tragedy and a moral abyss that harms the living.
So how can Gov. Bobby Jindal, a snake oil salesman and a fake, who is only trying to raise money and steal votes from the unsuspecting, call himself Catholic and pro-life while at the same time rejecting the federal Medicaid expansion?
Your guess is as good as mine.
The program would provide comprehensive health insurance to 250,000-450,000 Louisiana citizens, many of our neighbors and friends. It would cost Louisiana just a fraction of the expense and could quite possibly save our local hospitals from financial meltdown in the coming years. It will boost the economy and create jobs here in the Bayou State.
How Gov. Jindal can reject healthcare for nearly 1 in 10 citizens and not get called a monster is hard for me to understand.
This mystery seems to puzzle Louisiana's newest House Member, Republican Vance McAllister. You will recall he was elected in a landslide last November after the “Neil Deal” blew up in Jindal's face like a scene in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Such a fiasco happens often to the Boy Wonder, of course. Jindal wanted to make headlines leaving a bi-partisan meeting at the White House recently, and he jumped to the microphone and droned on like a nervous junior high debate team member on espresso. He didn't want to be seen as a buffoon, which is exactly what happened. Jindal is like Pee-wee Herman acting all John Wayne. It came off as a disaster and moved him not one centimeter closer to his real goal in life: to become King of the World, though winning POTUS will do in a pinch. He embarrassed himself and Louisiana.
But back to the Neil Deal. It was a purported scheme to have US Rep.Rodney Alexander quit his seat in Washington to take a job as head of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs in order to pave the way for mortician and Jindal goon State Senator Neil Riser to become Alexander's anointed replacement. However, voters revolted in the 5th District and elected businessman McAllister. Let's not fail to remember that McAllister had never run for public office or even stepped foot in D.C.
Stephanie Grace of The Advocate newspaper quoted McAllister in a recent column. McAllister is totally right on the Medicaid expansion: “I thought, ‘You know what, I’m not going to skirt the issue. Republican, Democrat, it don’t matter. Those working poor have paid that money in. That money’s going to Washington. It’s their money,’ ” he said. “For me to say I’m against Medicaid expansion makes me the best congressman California and Massachusetts could ever have, because that’s where that money’s gonna go.”
He went on: “It’s about doing what’s right. You keep your people healthy, they’ll continue to work. They’ll do better,” he said. “The money’s there. As a business guy, I don’t like Gov. Jindal standing up there and trying to use political points” to argue that the state can’t afford the small fraction it would eventually have to pay to draw down billions in benefits. “It don’t take Einstein to figure out that’s a pretty darn good return on your investment.”
Rep. McAllister, a conservative, told the truth. And I don't care who you are or what kind of ideology you espouse, the federal Medicaid expansion is the right thing to do for Louisiana. Without fighting for it, I don't believe you should call yourself pro-life.
Dayne Sherman resides in Ponchatoula. He covers the South like kudzu and promises that he never burned Atlanta. He is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel. His website is daynesherman.com.
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Dayne Sherman, Writer & Speaker
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***This message speaks only for the writer, a citizen, not for any present or past employer.***
Web & Social Media: http://daynesherman.com/
Talk About the South Blog: http://daynesherman.blogspot.com/
Tweet the South - Twitter: http://twitter.com/TweettheSouth/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/daynesherman
***This message speaks only for the writer, a citizen, not for any present or past employer.***
