Posted on 12/22/2015 2:06:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Hope and change is coming to Louisiana after the defeat of David Vitter last month. John Bel Edwards swept to victory by a double digit margin and let everyone know that he was going to start changing up the game. Now, well before he’s even taken the oath of office, Edwards is prepping for some of his first big reforms in the financially troubled state. One of the top items on his docket is getting rid of the work requirement for able bodied food stamp recipients. (WDSU News)
Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards intends to remove work requirements that Gov. Bobby Jindal has enacted for more than 60,000 food stamp recipients.
Edwards sent a letter Monday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture saying he will seek a federal waiver of the work requirements. The governor-elect says Louisiana’s unemployment rate qualifies it to skip the work mandate.
He’s asking the USDA and the state social services department to stop any interruption of benefits until Edwards can reapply for the waiver that Jindal allowed to expire.
This reform was supposed to kick in on January 1st and would have required able bodied individuals with no children between the ages of 18 and 49 to participate in 20 hours of work per week or be enrolled in a work training program to qualify for benefits. (Not exactly onerous conditions.) And, of course, there would be easily obtainable exceptions for those with disabilities or other complicating factors which prohibited working. But as with most Democrat administrations, that was too much of a burden to put on anyone.
It’s not as if this is a unique situation in states and cities where Democrats take power. We already discussed the situation in New York City which is pretty much a direct parallel. As soon as Bill de Blasio took over as Mayor of the Big Apple he began peeling back decades of welfare reform which had taken the city from cash assistance rolls in excess of one million down to barely 20% of their historic highs. As a result, while 2015 saw economic recovery finally making its way to the city with tens of thousands of new jobs opening up, the welfare rolls actually rose dramatically. (A trend projected to continue well into the coming year.)
New York City never really went truly conservative, but this is one area where working class residents finally grew fed up with the situation and voted in leaders who promised reform. Louisiana is much closer to being a red area than New York City will ever be so it will be instructive to see how the working residents of the state react to these “reforms” as the process rolls out. But hey… you asked for John Bel Edwards, Louisiana. Now you’ve got him.
Well Louisiana-—
BOHICA!!!!
May you be taxed into complete and total oblivion.
One term longevity. Welfare reform was very popular in Louisiana. People didn’t vote for this guy. They voted against Jindal and Vitter.
This is what happens when you elect democrats.
The stupidity of the American people is disheartening - just about the time you think they’ve learned their lesson and elected people who will keep the country prosperous, responsible and strong, they forget everything they learned and regress to silliness and sloth - soon it will be too late to ever go back......
Why did they vote against Jindal?
He was term limited; wasn’t on the ballot.
Yeah, I'm a fine one to talk with the parallel situation here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
RE: They voted against Jindal and Vitter.
What did Jindal do that earned the ire of the Louisiana electorate?
Why is it that liberals can undo years of popular, conservative policies like Welfare Reform with the stroke of a pen but Republicans are afraid to even try to reign in Obama’s outrageous excesses? Its so freakin depressing.
People prefer lies; even in business, sometimes. Tell them the truth and they get angry or follow the liar. It’s astonishing.
Jindal wasn’t running.
Why is this news? You knew this going in.
Basically this:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/how-bobby-jindal-wrecked-louisiana/
His budget cuts are often radical and seemingly random and have had some serious repercussions on the basic functioning of courts and schools. His lack of personality compared to frozen tilapia and craven submission to the feds during the Deepwater Horizon episode lost him goodwill as well.
The main problem is the oil crash, IMO. Louisiana, unlike Texas, is too wrapped up in oil money without enough other activities to blunt the blow. Jindal is not responsible for that, but he doesn’t seem to much give a damn either. Instead, he bugged off on his absurd presidential bid because the GOPe was whispering in his ear about how impressive he is, being Republican and brown, and he believed it.
He is pro-life. That is good. But so are about nine in ten in Louisiana. He is not a leader. He never will be. His peak was as a functionary for Governor Foster back in the day, and everything since then has been Peter Principle for him.
“Jindal wasn’t running.”
No duh. Any Republican was still handicapped with Jindal’s continuing unpopularity.
Reads like a liberal hit piece. Jindal won’t raise taxes Boo-Hoo
Yet another Edwards bent on the destruction of Louisiana...
Only the fact the GOP ran a loser like Vitter allowed Edwards in.
He’s got to reward his voters for helping put him in office.
Why can’t the Republican majority in the LA legislature just tell to him to STHU, and that he’s already a “lame duck”?
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