Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal did not mince words in his response to President Barack Obama’s first congressional address, calling the president’s $787 billion stimulus “irresponsible” legislation that will “grow the government, increase our taxes down the line and saddle future generations with debt.”
“Who among us would ask our children for a loan, so we could spend money we do not have, on things we do not need?” Jindal asked. “That is precisely what the Democrats in Congress just did.”
Jindal blamed Democrats for passing the bill, but he accused his Republican colleagues in Congress of straying from their party’s core values.
“Our party got away from its principles,” he said. “You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline, and personal responsibility. Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust — and rightly so.”
While Obama had cast the decisions facing the country as a choice between his plan and “inaction,” Jindal offered a choice between a more powerful government or personal freedom.
“We appreciate [the president’s] message of hope — but sometimes it seems we look for hope in different places. Democratic leaders in Washington place their hope in the federal government. We place our hope in you — the American people,” Jindal said.
Indeed, Jindal chose as the title of his speech, “Americans can do anything” — a phase he said he learned as a boy from his Indian-immigrant father .Republicans in need of a strong rebuttal to Obama’s first official address to Congress, chose to bypass senior members of the House and Senate and instead tapped 37-year-old Jindal, a rising Republican star.
Many in the party are turning to Jindal and a few other GOP governors to provide a strong voice in opposition to a popular president.
Republican governors, not members of Congress, have taken center stage as they led the debate over the stimulus plan that Jindal priced at more than $1 trillion “with interest.”
Last weekend, Jindal and Govs. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., and Tim Pawlenty, R-Ohio, hit the Sunday talk shows to criticize the stimulus plan and Obama’s mortgage proposal aimed at struggling homeowners. Jindal has even refused to accept all of the stimulus money designated for his state, and others may follow suit.
The shift in power comes as Congress has suffered some of the lowest approval ratings in decades. Jindal served barely two terms in the House before his successful bid for governor, and in his rebuttal speech he explained the dangers of Washington control with a story about a Louisiana sheriff ignoring federal bureaucrats who tried to block his rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Louisiana coast.
“There is a lesson in this experience,” Jindal said. “The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens.”
Republican leaders in Congress have acknowledged they need to regroup and come up with a new message.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, in response to Obama’s address, called for a spending freeze, “so we can get our budget in order.” Boehner and Republicans want the Democrats to strip earmark spending out of the $410 billion appropriations bill they will take up on Thursday.
