Louisiana Voice

It has brought to my attention by an attentive reader that:

• Republicans have the majority in both houses of Congress and the presidency so they are responsible for the shut down and not resolving it
• Congress is NOT shut down; their lights never went out
• Republicans are refusing to fix the problem they created, but they are still taking their paychecks
• Speaker Johnson’s job as the leader of the House Republicans is to operate the United States Government
  • The problem is not what is in the Continuing Resolution (CR), but that Republicans have removed the funding for health care from the budget and the CR
  • He knew they would not get the required 60 votes in the Senate
  • By passing the “clean CR”, he has not “done his job”, because the government is still shut down
• Congress is not shut down like the rest of the government, the lights are on in Congress
  • The only way to get government back open is to negotiate with the Democrats
  • Saying that they can’t negotiate until the government “lights are back on” is a lie
  • The Republicans are refusing to do their jobs, negotiate a settlement, even though they are being paid 

Having made these points, I decided to dive a bit further and reveal the following:

Essential federal employees like air traffic controllers, are being required to work without pay and thousands of employees have been furloughed or fired while the Republicans and Democrats take turns pointing fingers at each other and nothing gets done. Members of the military were initially included in those who would go unpaid but Trump, under considerable pressure, illegally decreed that money earmarked for other purposes be clawed back to pay those in uniform.

The point is, while those who actually get the work done go without pay, members of Congress are exempted and will not miss a single paycheck.

Rank-and-file members of the House and Senate are paid $174,000 per year.

That means for the 17 days (and counting) of the government shutdown, Reps. Julia Letlow, Clay Higgins, Troy Carter and Cleo Fields and Sens. John N. Kennedy and Bill Cassidy have each been paid $476.71 per day, or a total of $8,104 each for not working.

Carter, at least, made the effort to pay for meals for TSA workers but was told that federal employees could not accept gratuities from elected officials. Of course, that didn’t stop Kennedy from once attempting to make a contribution to LouisianaVoice from his campaign funds – a contribution that was promptly returned by LouisianaVoice.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is paid $195,400 per year, or $529.86 per day. For the 17 days that he has not worked, he has been paid $9,067.62.

Mike Johnson, Donald Trump’s boy puppet, serves as House Speaker and accordingly, is paid $223,500 per year, or $612.33 per day. For the 17 days that he has refused to call the House to session, he has been paid $10,409.61.

But I’ve only given you the numbers for the 17 days of the shutdown. Let’s look at the real figures:

Since July 3, the House has been in session only 20 days, meaning there are actually 86 days in which members have been idly collecting their salaries:

Higgins, Letlow, Fields and Carter: $40,936 each, or a total of $163,744;

Scalise: $45,567;

Johnson: $52,660.

That’s a total of $261,971 for all six representatives – for doing nothing.

The minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. That means a minimum wage worker who works a 40-hour week would receive $15,080 per year.

For a rank-and-file member of the House or Senate to make $15,080 for doing nothing during a government shutdown, it would take 31 days, or the equivalent of one month. It’s even shorter for Scalise (28 days, or one February) and for Johnson, only 24 days of non-working would be required for him to receive a year’s salary of a minimum-wage worker.

Taken together, our two senators and six representatives have been paid $67,028 for the 17 days the government has been shut down. That’s $67,000 for sitting on their asses while others scramble to buy food, make mortgage payments, pay car notes, keep the lights on and find a way to pay for critical prescription drugs.

Take Johnson’s 86-day salary. It would take a minimum-wage worker three-and-a-half years to earn what it has taken him less than three months of idleness to be paid.

And just why is it the House has been a hollowed-out echo chamber all this time? It’s pure politics, really. You see, there’s this thing called a discharge petition that would force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files. The petition needs only one vote to succeed but Johnson the Enabler wants so desperately to protect Pedo-POTUS, that he’ll do anything to prevent the files’ release – including keeping the House in recess because to reconvene would mean he’d be forced to swear in newly-elected Democrat Adelita Grijalva who is the vote needed to pass the petition.

What the hell do you suppose could be in those files anyway?

We’ve just passed the halfway point of our October fundraiser. I’ve been reluctant to post a solicitation on a daily basis because to me, it seems to be placing fundraising before substance – kind of like being a member of Congress.

But today’s solicitation is a bit different. Sure, I welcome any contribution to help LouisianaVoice continue doing what it’s doing, but there’s a need that surpasses that of ours and it resonated with me this morning when U.S. Rep. Troy Carter (D-New Orleans) posted the following message:

“I have been providing food to TSA employees at New Orleans International Airport during this government shutdown because it’s the right thing to do. While these public servants are not getting paid, the least I can do is buy them some lunch. This week, they received an email saying that they ‘can’t accept donations from political figures.’ Republicans shut the government down and forced these public servants to work without pay. Now, they are depriving them of basic human kindness. New Orleans, let’s show up for our TSA workers. Let’s all bring them lunch.”

I concur with Rep. Carter: it’s the right thing to do. So, if you’d rather do the right thing and buy a meal or meals for an unpaid federal employee and/or his/her family, I’m perfectly good with that. Rep. Carter has set an example for each of us to emulate.

If, after that, you feel you can still help support our efforts, we’ll consider that lagniappe. If so, simply go HERE, scroll down to the YELLOW DONATE button on the right-hand side and click on that to contribute via credit card.

Whatever your choice, thank you as a patriotic American.

This may well fall under the heading of old news, but at this particular juncture it seems well worth revisiting.

Louisiana has a speaker of the House, two U.S. senators, a governor and a couple other House members who received improper – and illegal – CONTRIBUTIONS from a natural gas firm founded in New Orleans but controlled by a group of Russian oligarchs loyal to Vladimir Putin.

American Ethane, founded by New Orleans attorney John Houghtaling even though 88 percent of the company was controlled by Russian nationals, The Federal Election Commission later came under sharp criticism from two of its Democratic members when the other half, both Republicans, ignored the recommendations of the commission’s Office of General Counsel and IMPOSED A MEANINGLESS FINE OF $9,500.

While Johnson’s campaign said it returned the money after learning of its source, it was no coincidence or accident that a Russian firm would choose to contribute to a particular campaign without expecting something in return. It just doesn’t work that way. Quid pro quo is a Latin term. It’s English translation is: POLITICS.

The three Russian nationals who actually owned American Ethane – Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev – were allies of Putin and Nikolaev was behind efforts b Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina to solidify ties with the NRA and with those close to Donald Trump right about the time of the 2016 election. She pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy against the U.S. and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She was deported six months following that sentencing.

Remember that infamous photo of her and Bobby Jindal at the 2014 NRA convention?

But probably more significant than all of that, it was Johnson himself who, at Trump’s direction, REJECTED a $24 billion Ukraine aid package near the end of the Biden administration in late 2024 after the Senate had already approved the bill. Only later did he allow the funding to go through.

That was apparently the first – but not the last – time Johnson did an about-face on a controversial issue.

As recently as this past July, Johnson called on the Justice Department to MAKE PUBLIC all documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Since then, he has done everything humanly possible to keep the files under wraps. Among the unusual steps he has taken to shield the file from public view:

Later that same month, he DISMISSED the House in order to derail efforts to call for a vote on releasing the file.

He has REFUSED to call the House back into session or to have Adelita Grijalva seated as the new Democratic member of the House following her election last month because hers is the decisive vote needed to pass a discharge petition that would force a House vote on releasing the files.

This, then, is the type of representation we have chosen to send to Washington to represent our interests. Mike Johnson is a sanctimonious demagogue whose only mission in life is to carry out the wishes or our PEDO-POTUS. While he DISPLAYS the badge of Christianity and devoutness, he has shown the instincts of someone who is anything but Christian, charitable, or compassionate.

He can PROCLAIM his faith in the Almighty and his love for his fellow man until the holy cows come home, but until he begins acting on the core beliefs of the Christian faith, he is little more than the false prophet the Bible cautions us about.

Last month, I described State Sen. BLAKE MIGUEZ of New Iberia as a one-trick pony because of his glut of bills dealing with firearms and little else.

His initial TV AD announcing his candidacy to defeat U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy in next year’s primary does nothing to dispel that image. He obviously continues to function on a single track, that of guns and ammo despite the literal epidemic of mass shootings plaguing the U.S.

He opens his ad by donning protective eyewear and saying, “Bill Cassidy had his shot. He missed. I won’t” as he fires what appears to be some form of AR-15-type gun (I’m no weapons expert, so if that’s incorrect, forgive my lack of depth of knowledge about semi-automatic guns designed for one purpose: to kill). He fires the weapon and a huge explosion ensues, reminiscent to some B-movie where lots of things, including cars, buildings and people, explode.

He follows that with an exhibition by brandishing a pistol (though he doesn’t actually fire the weapon). After a cutaway clip to el presidente e Pluribus Plumptus, the camera returns to the gunslinger legislator who this time uses both index fingers to point at the camera as if his hands were guns.

I’m no fan of Bill Cassidy, by any stretch. I think he’s revealed himself to be cowardly and he has betrayed the Hippocratic Oath and the principle of “do no harm” because he has certainly done considerable harm by refusing to stand up to Robert Kennedy, Jr. But to launch a political campaign amid the climate of intolerance and violence that currently grips this country by using a semi-automatic weapon as a prop is ill-advised at best and foolhardy at worst.

At a time when children and political influencers are being murdered and when even a crackpot candidate is the target of would-be assassin (supposedly – at least that’s the official version), it’s nothing short of nutty to employ weaponry in a political campaign. It calls to mind LBJ’s provocative DAISY PETAL ad in the 1964 presidential campaign.

Simply put, Miguez, though he is a trained firearms expert, is stupid, callous, and tone deaf to employ such tactics designed to appeal to our worst instincts.

And as far as I can discern, those are his good qualities.

Fred Mulhearn is a long-time dear friend of mine and while our lives have differed career-wise, they somehow managed to take a parallel path geographically.

Fred grew up in Winnsboro but moved to Ruston. I grew up and lived in Ruston, working as managing editor of the Ruston Daily Leader, my hometown newspaper. Fred, on the other hand, worked as a cartoonist for the rival newspaper, The Morning Paper, run by the incomparable John Hays. Once Fred lampooned me in one of his Morning Paper cartoons for which I criticized him for making my lips to big.

But then I again moved to the Baton Rouge area (Denham Springs), this time to stay. That was in 1981. Coincidentally, Fred soon closed his flower shop and moved to Denham Springs where he enrolled in LSU Law School. I took him to visit Jim Hughes, executive editor of the Baton Rouge Advocate and introduced Fred and his political cartoons. Hughes hired Fred on the spot as a cartoonist for the paper.

Fred remained with The Advocate until he finished law school and began working for the Louisiana Department of Revenue.

Both he and I are members of the loose-knit Dinosaurs Club, a group of former employees of the Baton Rouge State-Times and Morning Advocate who meet once a month for lunch at the Piccadilly on South Sherwood Forest Blvd, a tradition actually begun by another good friend, Fayette Tompkins, originally from Homer and with whom I worked at the State-Times back in the ‘70s.

Fred “retired” his cartooning at some point after publishing a wonderful book of political cartoons entitled Looziana Political Cartoons.

But now, he’s making a long-awaited comeback with the publication of More Life in Looziana. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s sure to be a delightful collection of cartoons that poke fun at Louisiana politics. Unlike some editorial cartoonists, Fred is never cruel with his illustrations of life in Louisiana’s political circles, but he’s spot-on in peeling back the layers to expose the hilarity – and foibles – of our unique state government or of our many and varied traditions.

Cavalier House Books at 114 North Range Ave. in Denham Springs will host a launch party and book-signing for Fred and his latest book this Friday at 6 p.m. He also will be on hand to offer signed copies of the book at the Louisiana Book Festival on Nov. 1 at the Louisiana State Library in downtown Baton Rouge.

But don’t take my word for it. Here are a couple of observations about the book from folks far more qualified than I:

• “Fred Muhearn’s More Life in Looziana really hits home again. His cartoons capture the heart and humor of everyday life here — the kind of people, places, and moments that make Louisiana one of a kind. You can feel the authenticity in every drawing, just like you can feel the warmth of the folks who call this state home. That’s what makes Louisiana so special — real people, real stories, and a whole lot to Feed Your Soul.” — Billy Nungesser, Lt. Governor for the State of Louisiana.
• “Fred Mulhearn has been entertaining readers for years with his clever cartoons capturing slices of our unique ways of enjoying life. His characters always make wry comments about issues large and small that challenge us on a regular basis.” — Jay Dardenne, former Lt. Governor for the State of Louisiana, and author of Why Louisiana Ain’t Mississippi… or Any Place Else!
• “Fred Mulhearn’s cartoons have entertained several generations of Louisianians. He’s a brilliant and gifted native son with the keen eye of an outsider for seeing clearly the quirks and foibles of his home state. And we have a lot of quirks! In this new collection of delightful cartoons, Fred will make you laugh–and probably even think.” — Robert “Bob” Mann, holder of the Manship Chair at the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU for 18 years, and author of ten books including Kingfish U: Huey Long and LSU and You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis and the Biography of a Song.

From the back cover:

This is Fred Mulhearn’s second collection of cartoons and commentary about what makes Louisiana different, unique, and sometimes just plain weird.  The first book was named Life in Looziana; this one is named More Life in Looziana.  (Apparently Fred is not all that creative when it comes to book titles.)  Looziana Political Cartoons: The Best of Fred Mulhearn is another of Fred’s books.

Fred Mulhearn, “Louisiana’s Own Cartoonist,” was born and raised in Winnsboro.  Now he lives in Denham Springs.  For over forty-five years, he has been drawing cartoons – almost all of them about living in Louisiana.  During that whole time, he has never won an award for his cartooning – not a single one.

(Editor’s note: I will award a signed copy of Fred’s book and Huey Long’s biography, Every Man A King (not signed) to the individual making the largest contribution to LouisianaVoice’s fundraiser which will run through the end of October.)