Posted by Holy effing eff. The mathematical gymnastics needed by Bobby Jindal just to keep his No Taxes pledge to Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform are stunning.
- SAVE raises $350 million in revenue to help close the budget hole.
- It also creates a tax credit that—in theory—offsets the new revenue with a $350 million tax cut. So far this is kosher because there’s no net tax increase.
- However, SAVE also creates $350 million in new student fees.
- Then the tax credit is used—in actual practice—to offset the student fees so students don’t have to pay any more than they did before.
- The net result is $350 million in new revenue that’s not offset.
Let’s see if I can get this straight:
$350mil tax increase + $350mil student fees – $350mil tax credits = No tax increase
Even though the -$350mil in tax credits is actually used to offset student fees increase, Norquist-Jindal (aww what a progressive conservative same-sex marriage made in heaven) allow it to be viewed as an offset to the tax increase instead. Voila! $350million in new revenue that is revenue-neutral.
This is laughable even for Bobbo! From a national standpoint, Jindal doesn’t matter. He stands no chance of attaining the Republican nomination let alone winning the Presidency. I don’t think anyone outside of Jindal’s family and campaign employees truly believes in him.
But for the sake of their state, Louisianans should impeach his pandering arse, regardless of how soon his term is up.
