Louisiana Voice

Here in these 50 United States, we live in a representative democracy and in a representative democracy, the people choose representatives to serve in legislative bodies (like Congress, Parliament or state legislatures/assemblies). These representatives then make decisions, enact laws and govern on behalf of the people they represent.

That being the case, why doesn’t Congress react to the wishes of their constituents instead of some reality show carnival barker?

These representatives, theoretically, at least, are expected to be held accountable to these same constituents and to act in their best interests.

Check any high school civics book (if indeed, civics is still taught in high school) and you’ll see it in black and white. So, why aren’t our senators and representatives held accountable?

There are supposed to be mechanisms for citizens to provide feedback and to actually engage with their elected representatives. These include letters and emails and supposedly town hall meetings. But only two members of the Louisiana delegation (Reps. Troy Carter and Cleo Fields) have actually held town hall meetings. Sens. John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy and Reps. Clay Higgins, Steve Scalise, Mike Johnson and Julia Letlow have not held one between them. In fact, Trump lap dog, House Speaker Mike Johnson, expressly instructed his fellow Republicans in the House to not hold such town hall meetings. So much for representative democracy.

And those of you who have written and emailed your representatives and/or senators, did you get a response and did that response come anywhere close to addressing the concerns you wrote about? More likely you just got a canned response generated by a computer. (And they were critical of Joe Biden’s autopen…)

Five separate polls over the past few days show an overwhelming opposition to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. In fact, the poll that reflected the largest support (a whopping 38 percent) was by… (wait for it) Fox News, not exactly the most precise barometer going. But wait! That same Fox News poll also showed the second-largest percentage opposed at 59 percent.

Here are the results of all five polls:

• THE WASHINGTON POST found more Americans oppose the legislation than support it, 42% to 23%
• The nonpartisan PEW RESEARCH CENTER found 49% oppose it, 29% favor it.
• FOX NEWS showed 59% opposition and 38% support.
• QUINNIPIAC says 57% are against and 27% are in favor

• A KFF POLL found 64% of the public has an unfavorable opinion of the plan, with just 35% who view it favorably

Folks, those numbers aren’t even close. That’s an average of only 30.4% in favor of the bill. That’s even lower than Trump’s approval rating. it’s nowhere near the 2 or 3 percent margin of error. It’s indisputable that the vast majority of Americans view Trump’s BBB in a HIGHLY UNFAVORABLE.

So, the question must be asked: Where is our representative democracy in Congress?

Where is the concept of representative democracy in Louisiana’s congressional delegation?

And remember, Johnson and Kennedy consider themselves to be constitutional scholars.

What has happened to our inability to think for ourselves in Louisiana that has left us with a pack of cowards like Johnson, Scalise, Higgins, Letlow, Kennedy and Cassidy?

Are Mike Johnson and his fellow Republican Louisiana congressional colleagues so remorseless that the loss of Medicaid benefits to a quarter million Louisiana citizens is of no concern to them? Is this Bible-totin’, scripture-quotin’ hypocrite so callous that he doesn’t give a damn about the fate of malnourished babies who will suffer just so he can please billionaire Trump by pushing this bill through?

Do Johnson and the others not see that Louisiana will be tied with Virginia for the HIGHEST PERCENTAGE CUT (21 percent) in Medicaid benefits when this bill becomes law?

Do they care?

Like the proverbial bad penny, Grover Norquest just won’t go away.

I FIRST WROTE ABOUT NORQUIST way back during the tragic Jindal governorship. That was when a couple dozen Louisiana legislators, our two U.S. senators and a handful of Louisiana House members joined 168 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 46 other U.S. senators and a dozen governors in signing Norquist’s pledge to oppose “any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses”…and “to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing ta rate.”

There was another quote by Norquist that more or less flew under the media radar: “Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub.”

With a country of 340 million people, it would seem an impossible task to shrink government to the size it could be drowned “in a bathtub,”

Norquist is an advocate of a person’s ability to stand on one’s own two feet: “We want to reduce the number of people depending on government so there is more autonomy and more free citizens.”

Well, that’s certainly an admirable objective but the reality is when lawmakers just flat-out refuse to increase the $7.25 per hour minimum wage in the face of rising costs of food, fuel, and shelter, it’s getting more difficult by the day to provide for a family a gross salary of $290 a week while the top 1 percent are increasing their incomes exponentially – on the backs of those who toil on their behalf.

“The welfare state creates its own victim/client constituency,” he proclaimed. “By making individuals free and independent, we reduce the need for ‘charity’ to those truly needy citizens that we can certainly afford to help through real charity.”

Somehow, Norquist managed to overlook the generous corporate welfare lavished on corporations that somehow manage to avoid paying their share of taxes.

But then he went on to say, “What’s hurting the U.S. economy is total government spending. The deficit is an indicator that the government is spending so much money that it can’t even get around to stealing all of the money that it wants to spend” and that “Government spending is inhibiting the fast recovery we want in jobs and incomes, not stimulating it.”

Speaking of stealing, Norquist, Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff were instrumental in the theft of more than $1 million from the Choctaw Tribe back in 1000. Of course, when it came to time to put up or shut up, Norquist was strangely at a loss for words about economy and efficiency. In fact, he REFUSED TO TESTIFY before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee’s hearing on lobbying abuses.

So, now Norquist has reared his head again, not unlike the Whack-A-Mole.

In today’s installment of Letters from an American, a daily missive of Heather Cox-Richardson, cites a 2010 interview of Norquist, then an attorney for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (you remember the U.S. Chamber: that’s the organization for whom Lewis Powell’s infamous memo on the “Attack on American Free Enterprise System” was written in 1971, earning him an appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court).

Cox-Richardson, quoting from that interview, has Norquist saying, “Government should enforce [the] rule of law,” he said. “It should enforce contracts; it should protect people bodily from being attacked by criminals. And when the government does those things, it is facilitating liberty. When it goes beyond those things, it becomes destructive to both human happiness and human liberty.”

Cox-Richardson wrote that Norquist vehemently opposed taxation, saying that “it’s not any of the government’s business who earns what, as long as they earn it legitimately,” and proposed cutting government spending down to 8 percent of gross domestic product, or GDP, the value of the final goods and services produced in the United States.

Of course, the last time that government spending was at 8 percent of GDP was in 1933, when the U.S. was mired in the Great Depression and before FDR’s New Deal.

Of course, Cox-Richardson continued, all the New Deal accomplished was to give us the regulation of banks and businesses, protections for workers, an end to child labor in factories, repair of the damage to the Great Plains, new municipal buildings and roads and airports, rural electrification, investment in artists and writers, and Social Security for workers who were injured or unemployed. Government outlays as a percentage of GDP began to rise. World War II increased it to more than 40 percent of GDP, as the United States helped the world fight fascism.

Not the government’s business who earns what? Seriously? Does Norquist honestly advocate taking a completely hands-off approach to the business of protecting citizens from exploitation by greedy employers? Would he seriously suggest we look the other way as overtime pay is wiped out, as paid vacations and safety and health benefits are stripped away, as child-labor laws are ignored, as meat packing house are again allowed to peddle tainted meat to the tables of Americans?

If you don’t remember John Belton by name, you’ll probably recall that he is the district attorney who decided against pressing charges against a state trooper who was among those who killed handcuffed motorist Ronald Greene back in 2019.

He just happens to also be the district attorney who seems to be dragging his heels in bringing charges against a drunk driver who struck and killed a pedestrian last October.

Last October. Hey, that just happens to be the same month that one of those state troopers was allowed to PLEAD TO REDUCED CHARGES and walk.

Of course, now that Belton’s a LAME DUCK and no charges have yet been filed against Abby Sterling, 20, who struck two pedestrians, one of whom later died, the case is languishing. Sterling appeared to the investigating officer “to be intoxicated.” She was initially arrested and booked on two counts of first degree vehicular negligent injury.

The two pedestrians were identified as Hahn Bridges and Jackson Mitcham, both 21 and both of whom were apparently walking away from a local bar, though Bridges denied they were coming from the bar, according to the accident report. He said, however, that he had no recollection of the crash.

The investigating officer said speed did not appear to be a contributing factor in the crash, but rather impairment of Sterling “which contributed to her not being able to operate a motor vehicle safely.”

Mitcham later died as a result of his injuries.

Now, eight months later, the district attorney’s office appears reluctant to pursue the matter for whatever reason. The original assistant district attorney assigned to the case has moved on and is no longer the prosecutor. In fact, he lashed out at Mitcham’s mother when she attempted to get him to move the case along, telling her he would not let her dictate how he ran his office.

There was a court appearance scheduled for last Tuesday but has been reset for September 16 which, coincidentally, is Mitcham’s birthday and almost 11 months since the Oct. 19 accident.

Interestingly, there is a difference between a crash report and a police report and an arrest affidavit. The investigating officer has yet to sign off on the investigation report. Because of that, Hahn Bridges’s father, Richard Bridges, has been denied a copy of the police report and Hahn Bridges has never been interviewed by anyone from the district attorney’s office.

Bood tests show Sterling’s blood alcohol content (BAC) as 0,169, which is more than twice the limit to be considered intoxicated.

Ten of the 11 most devastating hurricanes to strike the U.S. mainland struck either Louisiana or Florida and in two cases (Andrew and Ivan), raked both states while inflicting hundreds of billions of dollars in damages.

The only one not to impact either state was Sandy (Florida suffered damage but did not experience a direct hit), which moved up the Atlantic and made landfall in New Jersey and New York

Four of those – Katrina, Harvey, Ida and Ike hit Louisiana while sparing Florida. Those four combined to cause $462 billion in damages. Katrina, in 2005, of course, was the worst in U.S. history in terms of economic damage, followed by 2017’s Harvey whose tab came to $151 billion.

So, why bring this up now?

First, we’re not officially in hurricane season when the entire Gulf Coast holds its collective breath while thinking I don’t wish bad things on others but please let the next hurricane hit somewhere else.

Second, if you look at the numbers, you’ll see that of those eleven most destructive hurricanes, 10 have occurred since 2005’s Katrina, lending credence to the theory that global warming is producing more dangerous storms.

Third, and perhaps most distressing, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced after last year’s hurricanes Helene and Milton that it was RUNNING LOW ON MONEY to assist those affected by the storms.

Fourth, the Trump administration has announced plans to earmark as much as $450 per year to operate “ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ,” an ICE detention center to be constructed in the heart of Florida’s Everglades. The $450 million is part of $625 million that was set aside for provide temporary housing, food and emergency medicare care for new migrant arrival awaiting court hearings.

Of course, FEMA is only responsible for providing relief in natural disasters; it also works closely with the Pentagon, Homeland Security and other key agencies in order to coordinate recovery and to continue operations of the government in any disaster, natural or man-made.

Still, to announce this kind of expenditure on the cusp of hurricane season seems a bit out of whack, priority-wise.

For whatever reasons, Trump wants to eliminate FEMA altogether.

Perhaps a former Biden DHS spokesperson said it best. Alex Howard referred to the Everglades project as “Desantis’s Little Guantanamo in the swamp.”

“You don’t solve immigration by disappearing people into tents guarded b gators,” Howard said. “You solve it with lawful processing, humane infrastructure and actual polity – not by staging a $450 million stunt in the middle of hurricane season.”

Of course, “stunts” is in perfect keeping of the showman persona of Donald Trump who has never shown any substance in anything he’s done so, why should we expect anything less?

Just remember that when you’ve had to evacuate your flooded home, covered your roof with those garish blue tarps and need assistance. Just don’t expect that assistance to come from FEMA.

It’s broke, after all.

Prior to May 23, 2024, residents living along the 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans had a reliable, affordable method of monitoring air quality as a means of measuring potentially deadly air pollution, thanks to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

But on that date just over a year ago, Gov. Jeff Landry, with the willing assistance of a Republican super-majority in the State Legislature, took that away with the stroke of a pen when he signed into law the COMMUNITY AIR MONITORING RELIABILITY ACT (CAMRA).

Up until that time, citizens could monitor the air quality in their neighborhoods effectively, accurately and economically with the use of a monitor that cost only about $289 per unit. Sometimes even then, the EPA would even loan the equipment at no cost.

But then came CAMRA which overnight BANNED THE USE OF THE EPA-APPROVED MONITORING DEVICES in favor of equipment that cost as much as $58,691 per unit, effectively pricing the air monitoring practice out of the financial reach of community groups and individuals.

SENATE BILL 503 by Sen. Eddie Lambert of Gonzales and signed into law as Act 181 of 2024 was not, as with Donald Trump and his hawking of Teslas, cell phones, watches, Bibles and other Trump-branded paraphernalia, done as an overt attempt at personal enrichment of anyone.

Instead, it was a brazenly naked effort, pure and simple, by the petrochemical industry and the politicians it owns to shut up citizens suffering from respiratory illnesses brought on by years of toxic emissions. There is simply no other explanation to disqualify EPA-approved monitoring equipment as a means for citizens to determine the threats to the air they breathe.

One need only examine political contributions to the various political campaigns by oil and chemical interests to verify that assertion.

And wasn’t it former U.S. Sen. and Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War SIMON CAMERON who once said that “an honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought”?

Not only is it cost-prohibitive to employ the newly-approved equipment that the state now approves, but under CAMRA, community groups now face fines of up to $32,500 per day (up to $1 million for intentional violations) for so much as even talking publicly about evidence of airborne pollution.

Have Landry and the Louisiana Legislature ever heard of the First Amendment which guarantees, among other things, the freedom of speech? David Bookbinder, director of law and policy for the Environmental Integrity Project, was probably thinking the same thing when he said, “The Louisiana statute mandates that you can’t talk about air quality unless you’re using the equipment that they want you to use.” Unfortunately, he continued, “the equipment that they want you to use costs hundreds or even thousands of times more than perfectly good equipment that people can use to monitor the air in their communities.

In the aftermath of several Gulf Coast hurricanes and the COVID pandemic, an organization calling itself Micah 6:8 Mission was formed to distribute food, cleaning supplies and other necessities to victims. In 2022, the organization was awarded a federal grant to purchase two air-quality monitors to be used for testing for a variety of common air pollutants in exchange for its promise to share its information with the EPA.

Cynthia Robertson, executive director of Micah 6:8 Mission would post alerts on Facebook and fly a red flat outside her office so neighbors would know when it was best to remain indoors.

No more, however, in light of the threat of heavy fines for doing so. Add to that an even more devastating blow to air monitoring in Donald Trump’s proposed EPA budget which would eliminate grants for state and local air quality management, cutting that program’s funding from $235 million to zero for 2026.

Despite the data that show that residents along that notorious 85-mile stretch, home to more than 200 industrial – mostly fossil fuel and petrochemical – plants, have a 95 PERCENT GREATER CHANCE of developing cancer than the average American, your Louisiana Legislature and your governor have ripped away the only financially feasible method of monitoring air toxins.

One of those who voted in favor of CAMRA, State Sen. Blake Miguez (R-New Iberia), recently announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat. That election is next year and Miguez, one of 30 state senators to vote for CAMRA, will be attempting to unseat incumbent Bill Cassidy.

That SENATE VOTE was 30-8 with one, Sen. Heather Cloud (R-Turkey Creek), deciding to take a walk on the vote. The bill sailed to equally easy passage in the House, passing by a VOTE OF 76-16 with 13 members absent for the vote.

LISKOW, which operates in five cities, including New Orleans and Baton, is a law firm that is focused on the energy and oil and gas industry. The firm sponsors THE ENERGY LAW BLOG and on June 5, 2024, it posted a story on the blog by four staffers that carried the headline announcing the passage of CAMRA, proclaiming it as “establishing uniformity for monitoring and parameters for date use.”

That, apparently is the only thing that residents of river parishes from Baton Rouge to New Orleans need to know, that it establishes “uniformity.”

The important thing to remember about that “uniformity” is that ethylene oxide is unsafe at any level of exposure. The EPA has determined that inhaling 11 parts per trillion (with a T) for a lifetime can produce one additional case of cancer per 10,000 people. The higher the concentration, of course, the greater the risk.

For cancer alley, the level, on average, is about 31 parts per trillion (roughly three times the threshold above which the EPA has determined cancer risk to be unacceptable), according that Louisiana Illuminator story and a team from Johns Hopkins University observed averages of more than 109 parts per trillion, in some cases as far as seven miles away from those spewing fumes of toxins.

But not to worry. SB 503, aka Act 181, has now established uniformity of measuring how deadly the air is residents are breathing.

Hell, I feel better already with the warm fuzzy feeling of just knowing that our state leaders are staying bought like the honest politicians they are.