Blackmail and Funding

From Politico:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Friday that he will decline stimulus money specifically targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal government’s payout to states…
“The federal money in this bill will run out in less than three years for this benefit and our businesses would then be stuck paying the bill,” Jindal said. “We must be careful and thoughtful as we examine all the strings attached to the funding in this package. We cannot grow government in an unsustainable way.”

Jindal says he will accept money for transportation infrastructure and a modest increase in unemployment benefits, but says that unemployment insurance would mean a $12 million tax hike for Louisiana businesses three years from now.

via HotAir

I just love Jindal. He is the real deal.

The Federal government has long used blackmail to get States to do it's bidding. It also does this kind of thing where it funds something in exchange for a State to give into what the federal government wants. And then years down the line, the funding dries up from the federal government, and the States then have to then fund it themselves. So the federal government gets what it wants, and then ends up not continuing the funding it blackmailed states with. This is exactly what Jindal is trying to prevent happening here.

It's hair pulling out crazy and I cant' stand it.

Recently you may have read about 100 college Presidents who are trying to get the drinking age lowered to 18 again (which I am for btw). When I was in college the drinking age was 18. I have two children in college now and I can promise you that the drinking has in no way abated. Now it's just a system of clandestine drinking, fake ID's, and a big local enforcement business of making money off of MIP's (minor in possession).

What a lot of people don't know is how getting all states to lower their drinking ages happened. In 1984 the federal government said (threatened) that they would withhold 10 percent of federal highway funds from any State that did not prohibit selling alcohol to those under the age of 21. By 1988, 49 states had complied.

Louisiana happens to be the one State that fought this law in the courts for years and didn't join the rest of the States until 1995.

Just one example of many.