Launchpad

What even was the point of Bobby Jindal being Governor? All this time spent posing as the guy who was gonna drown the gubmint in the bathtub and, at the end of the day, he's even going to let the true believers down.

Boasting about his tax purity might protect Jindal for a while, but in pushing SAVE, he and Norquist may have doomed the anti-tax-increase pledge and, perhaps, ATR’s future. In a few years, if Norquist’s pledge becomes a discredited relic, historians might consider Jindal’s actions in the 2015 session the beginning of ATR’s end.

That’s because SAVE could embolden legislators and governors in other states to hike taxes by creating Jindal-like counterfeit fees and credits. Employing Louisiana’s innovation, legislators everywhere can now employ the subterfuge of phony offsets and claim revenue neutrality (a key component of the Norquist no-tax-increase pledge).

You don’t believe me? Consider what the Republican chair of Louisiana’s House Ways and Means Committee told Norquist. ”If enacted into law, this bill would successfully and irreparably establish the precedent that future legislatures and Governors can raise taxes on a nearly unlimited basis, and then claim revenue neutrality solely based on the creation of a purely fictional, procedural, phantom, paper tax credit,” Rep. Joe Robideaux, R-Lafayette, wrote in a June 8 letter to Norquist, signed by nine other Republican House members.

It's going to work out fine for him either way, of course.  Now that he doesn't have to pretend to be governor anymore, he's got a year of living off of the campaign fund before it's off to whatever consulting, media, or think tank gig he can dream up for himself for a few years. After that, probably another campaign.

Bobby's got it made, really. Thanks for helping him launch his start-up, Louisiana.

Update: Meanwhile the reviews are rolling in 

Several Acadiana legislators speaking Monday to the Acadiana Press Club called Gov. Bobby Jindal's no-tax SAVE bill "fraud" and called the strong-arm tactics used to pass it "despicable."

Yeah, well, they passed the thing, so maybe the whining is untoward.  Also, there is this. 

"If we get another governor who is a shameless self-promoter ... we'll find ourselves back in the same place," LaFleur said.

Is this were we put the spoiler alert? Because you know who is running for Governor, right?