Jindal: Rail is Stupid. Gimme some.

In the lackluster Republican response to Obama's speech earlier this week, Bobby Jindal mocked the inclusion of rail spending by citing the GOP's favorite imaginary "magnetic levitation" train line from Disneyland to Sin City:

While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a magnetic levitation line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called volcano monitoring.

Of course, the bill doesn't actually include a train line between Vegas and Disneyland, but Republicans have never let the facts get in the way of their arguments before.  Why start now?

On Tuesday of this week, it was entirely ridiculous, but by Friday, Bobby Jindal's very own Department of Transportation applied to get a piece of that $8 billion of wasteful rail spending.

You can't make this stuff up, people.

Kenneth the Page Responds to Jindal...

Not particularly funny, but they do sound oddly similar...

Bobby Jindal Loves Extending Unemployment Benefits...

...when he doesn't have plans to kick Obama out of the White House.

Back in 2005, shortly after a different crisis, good old Jindal co-sponsored a bill that extended unemployment benefits 52 weeks after the day the area was declared a disaster. So a federal extension of 52 weeks is entirely okay, but the 20 weeks Obama wants is out of the question?

Being unemployed as a result of a hurricane and being unemployed as a result of an economic collapse have the exact same effect: you still need to eat, and you still don't have a job.

Bobby Jindal, Conservative Hero

It's official...Bobby Jindal is sticking to his principles and refusing federal money from the "porkulous" stimulus package.  His principles have forbidden him from accepting a whopping two percent of federal funds intended for Louisiana, and also preventing 25,000 LA families from receiving unemployment benefits.  

Hopefully this will get him the street cred he so desires among the Neo-Hooverites, and also will pave the way for a Palin-esque "Thanks, but no thanks" sound bite when he runs for President in 2012.

Please ignore the fact that his reasoning for rejecting the bill is entirely false.  As the expansion in unemployment benefits is covered by the federal government for three years, Louisiana would simply need to establish a sunset clause for the alteration in the law, and unemployment insurance would remain unaffected for business owners.  But hey, he's a member of the GOP.  Anything goes.

UPDATE:  Yglesias notes another reason why Jindal might be refusing the money:

If Louisiana makes its unemployment benefits less generous than what’s available in other states, then maybe unemployed citizens will leave Louisiana for Texas and other neighboring states, thus creating an artificial appearance of an improved economic situation. It would be the equivalent of Mike Bloomberg fighting poverty by demolishing all the low-income housing in New York and hoping the poor people all move elsewhere.

Bobby Jindal is a Fool

So today, Bobby Jindal, the future of the Republican Party, announced that he would not allow the unemployed of Louisiana to have a 20 week extension of federally funded unemployment benefits, nor would he allow the pool of eligible individuals to expand.

Why?  Who knows.  However, like most foolishness that comes out of the mouths of Republicans, he claims it is because he is concerned about small businesses.  He believes that these two changes to the unemployment system will result in increased unemployment insurance rates on Louisiana businesses.  Heroic, right?

Unfortunately, his very own press release highlights the fact that no such increase would be necessary.  By his own admission, the program is entirely funded for three years, at which point, they could simply end the program.

It's good to see the future of the Republican Party will maintain its opposition to basic reasoning.

Also, I wholeheartedly expect the same folks who were constantly referring to "Barack Hussein Obama" during the 2008 campaigns to refer to Bobby Jindal as "Piyush Jindal."  And the folks who questioned whether or not Obama was actually an American had better be demanding birth certificates from Jindal, as well.

On a related note to the future of the GOP, remember one of the few victories the Republicans got in 2008?  Joseph Cao was able to defeat the legally troubled Jefferson, and Republicans were so proud that they adopted the slogan "The Future is Cao."  It was an exciting moment in an otherwise depressing time for the party.

Unfortunately, some folks have already launched a recall petition against him.  Too bad.