title:  Republicans Had Total Control Of This State And Its About To Collapse
text: Bobby Jindal abandoned his home state of Louisiana to mount a completely pathetic campaign for President. He pranced around with cast members of Duck Dynasty, cheered the far right, and made a fool of himself, exiting the race long before a single vote was cast.Behind him, he left Louisiana, which has a Republican-dominated legislature and is facing an unprecedented calamity which now has to be repaired by its new Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards.Louisiana now stands at the brink economic disaster. Without sharp and painful tax increases in the coming weeks, the government will cease to offer many of its vital services, including education opportunities and certain programs for the needy. A few universities will shut down and declare bankruptcy. Graduations will be cancelled. Students will lose scholarships. Select hospitals will close. Patients will lose funding for treatment of disabilities. Some reports of child abuse will go uninvestigated. Doomsday,  said Marketa Garner Walters, the head of Louisiana s Department of Children & Family Services. If the state can t raise any new revenue, her agency s budget, like several others, will be slashed 60 percent.Jindal  cut taxes for the wealthy during his eight years in office, and created brand new giveaway subsidies to big business   that created a giant deficit, even though conservative Republicans claim to be fiscal geniuses.And now Louisiana may be forced to raise taxes on a population where 18% live below the poverty line, as well as implement cuts on services helping those same people who need it the most.The state is a mess, but it isn t out the ordinary for Republican-run states that often claim they are perfect examples of the right s philosophies, in a positive way.On the same day that the overall national jobs report beat expectations and the country continued its jobs growth record under President Obama, Republican-dominated Kansas again had a major failure. The state LOST 4,000 jobs all in the month of January, and has only added 1,400 jobs across the entire state in the last 12 months. The state has only grown 0.1 percent while the country has grown 1.9 percent.Republican-run states have a terrible future in front of them, but their GOP leaders are so blinded by ideology they don t even notice the lives they are ruining.Featured image via Flickr