'Pub pundits love to use the word "laboratories" when referring to state governments, and the Dr. Frankenstein pointed to most often is our own Gov. Bobby Jindal, whose policies are indeed a model for 'Pubs everywhere.
"Transparency" laws that actually shield the governor's office from records disclosure. Education "reform" that blocks teacher raises and shifts public money to private schools. Health care "innovation" that slashes health care.
A basket of Bushian newspeak initiatives to make national Republicans drool. All to maintain a precious tax virginity that the guvnuh thinks will lead to Pennsylvania Avenue some day, or at least the Observatory grounds.
We, the lowly rats in the guvnuh's lab, fight against the not-so-good doctor, rallying at the capitol, hectoring our reps, but we understand it's pretty much a lost cause. The fundies in the north and the knee-jerk Catholics in the south make an "every-sperm-is-sacred" coalition that will keep our fair state R for the foreseeable future.
Rarely, one of Jindal's own rat-wranglers, a king rat, really, since they, too are trapped in the lab, speaks out. The results are, as in any good lab, predictable and reproducible.
This week, Martha Manuel, Jindal's director of Elderly Affairs, was called before the legislature to testify on her office's budget and the guv's plan to fold the agency into his beloved bureaucratic alma mater, the Department of Health and Hospitals, where Wonder Boy got his start in governance. Her testimony was a bit, um, off-script.
Manuel's criticism was prompted by Rep. James Armes, D-Leesville, who asked why the administration would tinker with a program that appeared to be serving residents. While this year's budget proposal calls for all of the $45.3 million assigned to the Office of Elderly Affairs to be transferred to DHH, Armes said there was no guarantee that the office's funding would not be cut in the future.
With year-after-year budget cuts that mainly impact DHH and the state's higher education system, the two largest areas of discretionary funding, Armes said, "I can pretty much tell you, our senior citizens are going to get cut."
"Yes sir, you're right," Manuel said.
From the plan's first rollout, it has been criticized by local Councils on Aging for exactly the reasons that worried Manuel: funding cuts and excessive red tape.
"If anybody has ever had to access DHH, you will know they are not as easy to get to as the Office of Elderly Affairs," Manuel said. "There's no comparison. When I get you the figures you'll see. We're providing three times the services Adult Protective Services is providing at nearly half the cost because we don't have the levels of bureaucracy."
So, how would you suppose the guvnuh might react to this candid, fact-based input from his appointee? In 3... 2... 1...
State Elderly Affairs director removed after criticizing administration plan
BATON ROUGE -- The head of Gov. Bobby Jindal's Office of Elderly affairs has been removed from her position after criticizing plans to merge her agency into the Department of Health and Hospitals. Martha Manuel, who was appointed by Jindal in Feb. 2011, offered a sharp denunciation of the plan Tuesday while testifying before the House Appropriations Committee.
The online version of the story leaves out a few details that give a bit of backstory. From this morning's print version:
"To be honest, I knew I would get fired if I talked to the committee," said Manuel, who was appointed by Jindal in February 2011. "But there's some things you have to do."
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Manuel said the lack of transparency surrounding the move, as much as anything, persuaded her to speak against it, she said. She said administration officials didn't consult with her about the plan which she only learned about once she saw that her agency's funding had been moved in the state budget.
"I saw everything that was going on, and we couldn't say anything," she said. "Yet DHH was allowed to go around the state and have all these community meetings where they could talk about what was good about this transfer, and it wasn't true."
Asked again if she were upset at being canned for speaking out, Manuel responded, "I was retired when I got appointed. I didn't go back to work for the money. I went back because I thought I could make a difference."
Which, for a brief moment, perhaps she did.
Until the assistants sweep up the mess and get a new king rat, one who will run the mazes as ordered, so the good doctor can continue reporting glowing results from the laboratory of democracy.