The Pelican Post

Senator Mary Landrieu may have secured Louisiana a $300 million Medicaid supplement within the Senate health care bill when she voted in favor of cloture. While a provision within the bill is geared towards states currently recovering from major disasters, “when the bill is closely examined…the provision provides immense financial support for only one state: Louisiana.”

Although some, including Landrieu, downplay the significance of the cloture vote, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) points out “fully 97 percent of bills that win a vote to proceed eventually become law.”

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute points out: “Old-fashioned vote-buying is one thing, but what is one to make of supposed fiscal conservatives who voted for a bill that would increase federal spending by $2.5 trillion over its first 10 years of actual operation (2014-2023), paid for by 15 new or increased taxes?”

Do not be fooled into believing Landrieu is helping the state of Louisiana. If the proposed healthcare legislation were to be signed into law, the $300 million allocated to Louisiana will pale in comparison to the long-term debt Louisiana citizens will ultimately shoulder.  Landrieu has done our state no favors by displaying that she, like so many other politicians in the state of Louisiana, has a sweet spot for cash.

And consider this comparison between the actual Louisiana Purchase of 1803 with what has come to be known as the modern day Louisiana Purchase of 2009:

Purchase of Louisiana territory + Cancellation of Debt = $15 million in 1803 for all of the Louisiana Purchase

In today’s dollars, this would be equivalent to $212 million (calculated from Minneapolis Fed historical CPI estimates).

This is $88 million less than it cost to purchase Senator Landrieu’s vote Saturday, which came with a price tag of $300 million.

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a complaint with the FEC over a $25,300 donation by Senator Mary Landrieu’s campaign to the U.S. Treasury.

CREW executive director Melanie Sloan argues, “We all know politicians don’t give up campaign contributions – much less $25,000 – without a very good reason. It appears Sen. Landrieu’s reason may have been to avoid a scandal or, even worse, a federal investigation into some of her contributions.”

Marc Elias, Senator Landrieu’s campaign lawyer, called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said the campaign wanted to protect the identity of donors who “may not have done anything wrong.”  The CREW complaint however argues that the only two scenarios in which “dirty” money may be donated to the Treasury are if a donor is under a Justice Department investigation, or has been convicted for making illegal contributions.  In both of these cases, the identity of the donor must be made public.

Sloan follows up, “Our campaign finance laws were designed to ensure transparency.  If Sen. Landrieu did nothing wrong, she has no reason not to come clean with the American people and explain why she turned over $25,000 in contributions to the Treasury.”

The Landrieu campaign will have 15 days to respond after the FEC provides its formal notification.

In a recent speech to the Houma Rotary Club, Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy has called for the state government to cut the fat out of the budget. In Kennedy’s opinion, the state government has more than enough money to cover the basic government services that are absolutely needed.

“We have plenty of money to deliver the vital services the Louisiana government ought to provide,” Kennedy, a Republican, told the Houma Rotary Club.

At the same time, the government could do much more to rein in spending, particularly when families and businesses are being forced to do the same, he said.

“It can be done; they just haven’t tried,” he said. “One of the things I’ve learned in government is its belly has no bottom.”

The manager of the state’s $5 billion budget and unsuccessful challenger to U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., spoke about his views on fiscal matters. Of particular focus was Gov. Bobby Jindal’s $26.7 billion budget for next year, which will cut spending by 9.8 percent and eliminate about 1,400 government jobs.

One of his most interesting comments was when he noted that Louisiana has the highest ratio of state and local employees per 10,000 people in the Southern States, and that this might be one of the contributing factors to our current budgetary problems.

He then went on to castigate our state’s system of taxes, which he views, quite correctly, as a burden on the free market.

For example, Louisiana has the country’s eighth-highest rate of state and local taxes paid per $1,000 of personal income, he said. It’s also eighth in state spending per capita, but 47th in per-capita income.