Governor Johnny B. Edwards Can Talk Just Like A’ Ringing A Bel

Governor John Bel Edwards has never met a microphone he didn't like, and today he kicks off his monthly one hour state wide radio show with great fanfare while breathless Bayou State natives sit hushed as one in anticipation of the great man's words......."Ask The Governor", an abbreviated version of  "Ask The Governor If He's LOST HIS MIND?", debuts today.  Edwards, fresh from filming  an upcoming episode of HBO's series 'VICE', and hot on the heels of his critically acclaimed 'Public Address To The State', in which he warned us we would suffer the loss of hospitals, colleges, LSU football and several randomly chosen kittens and bunnies if taxes were not dramatically increased, is looking forward to speaking directly with the voters, according to his press secretary Shauna Sanford. She says solutions are out there, and Edward's is confidant the citizens will counsel him wisely.

One person, however, not expected to join the governor for a friendly chat anytime soon, would be our State Treasurer, one Mr. John Kennedy. It is Mr. Kennedy's view that while, yes, the previous administration did in fact use stop gap measures and gimmicky accounting tactics that helped put our state in this jam, what if  we simply eliminated some or all of the nearly 19,000 paid 'consultants' Louisiana has on retainer to the tune of $36 billion?  (that's 'billion', with a B-DANG!)   The consultants are being paid from our state's coffers to do work that is superfluous at best and pure political quid pro quo legal graft at worst.  Or maybe now might be a good time to reconsider the paltry, pocket change $1 million we agreed to pay for a new sculpture at one of those hospitals we're closing shortly anyway?  And shouldn't we stop raising state spending by 40% at a time when the economy has begun to shrink and oil prices are cheaper than milk?.... Louisiana spends more money per capita than any other state in the south.  For this we are rewarded with the nation's worst roads, schools that are factories of senseless tests and a business climate not many new start up ventures are eager to come and build their brands in.

As is usually the case, the answers lie somewhere in the middle.  The corporate tax breaks the Jindal administration passed out like door prizes are going to cost us $8 billion dollars in revenue this year alone.  And no one believes we should ever turn our backs on the least of us when we see the need to help.  But simply raising taxes on every single possible transaction, product, and basic deduction that citizens employ every day and then raising our spending even more by asserting it is the government's job to solve the very problem it helped create with it's over spending, is not a philosophy taught at any major business college I'm aware of.  So today, maybe we should ask the governor where he sees these policies taking us eight years from now, when a new firebrand will have the chance to heap scorn on his failures in office before eagerly compounding the problem.  Will we bounce back and be an attractive alternative to good paying companies again or morph into a economic leper, prey to the 'for profit' prison industries and title loan giants?  Could go either way......