Friday, October 13, 2006
Blanco Eager to Share (Our) Wealth
"THE QUEENFISH" BY CARTOONMAN
TIMES PICAYUNE
By James Gill
(excerpt)
Lady Bountiful is reincarnated in Baton Rouge as Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
She plans to mail checks to most households in the state next year.
Of course, there will be cynics wondering if it is coincidence that she will be up for re-election at the time. And some ingrate is bound to point out that the money with which she is being so generous was ours in the first place.
Blanco proposes that the state intervene to pay off $1 billion in debts run up by the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., a creature of the state that was established in 2003 to provide coverage where the commercial market was disinclined to tread.
Disaster is always pretty much assured when government guarantees speculation in high-risk markets -- remember the S&Ls -- because a management that does not pay the price for its own miscalculations is all the more likely to be reckless.
C.B. Forgotston, the Internet's most vociferous scourge of Louisiana government, says the payback can be accomplished without a special session, a constitutional amendment, a bond defeasement or a "massive check-writing bureaucracy boondoggle like the one going on with the governor's Road Home Program." Forgotston suggests tax credits or rebates be enacted in next year's session.
That would indeed be simple and also serve another Forgotston cause, a reduction in the taxes that he says are holding Louisiana back.
Whether it would work is a question best left to the finest brains in Baton Rouge. But it would certainly mean a much diminished role for Gov. Bountiful.
LPNS COMMENTARY: THE "QUEENFISH" HAS HER PROPAGANDA MACHINE FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS USING TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO AIR "THE GOVERNOR'S" ROAD HOME PROGRAM ADS AROUND THE STATE.
SHE HAS THE BLANCO (L)ouisiana (R)e-election (A)uthority HANDING OUT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CONTRACTS AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN POLITICAL HIRINGS.
ONCE AGAIN SHE EAGER TO SHARE (OUR) WEALTH AND TAKE THE POLITICAL CREDIT FOR IT. THE KINGFISH WOULD BE PROUD!
Look for more political shenanigans from this bunch in the months to come.
