I'm starting to think Vitter is going down. Edwards is running ads with the support of the Sherriff's association, because of Vitter's stupid ads about Edwards releasing dangerous criminals.
Dardenne is going to endorse Edwards today, they say. That may be all it takes. Last week I saw a lot of Dardenne signs in South Baton Rouge, come down and be replaced by Edwards signs. Vitter just has no political friends at all, just ideological supporters. He held a rally a few days ago in downtown BR and only one Louisiana Republican candidate showed up for him . . . Treasurer John Kennedy. They know that Vitter is Jindal on steroids. David Vitter not the candidate people want to have a beer with, even in his own party "The proposition that Vitter is a jerk will find plenty of support around the State Capitol, where Vitter never was regarded as one of the guys in his days as a state legislator. Only three of the current crop, which is mostly Republican, showed up at the rally. He is seriously short of pals for such a successful politician. He is certainly not out to win friends in state government, as he showed once again at last week’s rally. “It’s too many of the Baton Rouge politicians that have failed us,” he told the crowd at the rally. It was no wonder that so few of them were present to hear it."
Politically Vitter and Jindal are very different. Jindal is a W Bush Republican and Vitter is a Bush Republican. From a policy standpoint I like a lot of Vitter's proposals, but a lot of his "cost saving measures are stupid. He thinks reducing the state fleet will save money. He is wrong. Big time. Bel Edwards has no clue on how to fix the budget. He said we can do it by reducing out of state consulting contracts. We can't. Can't even come close. Both guys are horrible candidates. Vitter is also a horrible person. I met Bel Edwards, and he seems like a good dude. I would vote for him if not for his horrible policies.
No. But politicians can't run on raising taxes. They (Republicans) were stupid to slash taxes because now they don't have enough money to run the state and they don't want to put them back. But bringing Stelly back is the only hope we have of having universities, highways, and hospitals in this state, much less functioning state agencies. Edwards will not be telling the legislature that they have to kiss the ass of Grover Norquist. They will be able to do their jobs of finding the revenue to pay the bills, even if it involved taking back tax breaks from big business, cutting TOPs by 50%, and raising some taxes back to where they were before the crisis. Louisiana pays some of the least taxes in the country . . .and it shows. Louisiana sucks bad in almost every category. Fucking Vitter thinks he can balance the budget by getting rid of state vehicles. Hell, they were already slashed by Jindal to the point that agencies can't get out into the field to do their jobs. They will end up having to rent vehicles to get the work done, at greater expense than owning vehicles. And some rental company will political connects to bitter will end up with a fat contract while Louisiana gets poorer.
I think there are better solutions than bringing back Stelly. Getting rid of the Federal Tax Exemption will raise similar revenue, and it is a really dumb deduction. Stelly is a regressive tax that hurts the poor. Unfortunately several important guys on Rev and Fisc and Finance are Norquist guys as well. Luckily Adley is out soon, but we still have Donahue (the architect of SAVE) until 2020. With any luck they can get Fred Mills into the chair for Finance. That dude knows what is up. He is the only guy in the Senate I would vote for. My fear of Bel Edwards ineptitude is based on his stated desire to dedicate more general fund money. Dedications, more than anything have hurt hire ed. What we need is a Governor with the balls to fix our fucked up Constitution. Neither Vitter nor Edwards has that ability. Dardenne had the smarts to do it, but I don't know about the will. This election is really disappointing.
How do you figure that? It raised income tax and cut sales tax which helps the poor, with small incomes and spending 100% of their take-home pay. The GOP screw up badly by removing the Stelly higher income tax but did not restore the old higher sales taxes. All they did was starve the state of income. It will take both more income and smarter spending to fix the budget. Unless you dedicate their funding, too. Then they can't be the one part of government that can be robbed by politicians without the balls to raise taxes to a level that works.
