Ellington

Listen to Mississippi Public Broadcasting Friday morning at 5:35 and 7:35 to hear an excerpt from the JFP's most recent editorial read as part of "Opinion Round-up." Following is the excerpt you will hear:

It is telling that Haley Barbour was not in the state of Mississippi when he decided to call a special session to pass his favored fix for Medicaid's 2005 funding woes.

This nugget speaks to a larger problem that we have with Mr. Barbour at this time in his tenure, one that was made more evident by his success in forcing the House to help him raid the Tobacco Trust Fund to fill this year's gap in Medicaid funding.

Barbour is a smart tactician and a savvy political operative—and he's acting like it. And that's our problem with him. He's acting like a lobbyist; not a governor.

Barbour's strategy seems straighforward—he's here to serve the ideology of his backers and benefactors at any cost. That means there's no negotiation on increasing the cigarette tax in Mississippi in order to fund Medicaid, despite the support of a majority of Mississippians.

Mr. Barbour was one of the most successful lobbyists in the history of Washington up until the day he took office in Mississippi—his firm, Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, still bears his name—presumably so that he can return when his sabbatical in the Deep South is over.

The fact that Mr. Barbour may one day again manage a client list that includes multiple tobacco and pharmaceutical companies should be more cause for concern now that we've witnessed Barbour in action.

So far, Barbour's fiscal strategy is one we're growing familiar with from the national GOP—"borrow and spend." To pay for Medicaid, Barbour is unwilling to raise Mississippi's extremely low cigarette tax; instead, he'll take money out of the Tobacco Trust Fund's principal.

Barbour's strategy is smart, it's savvy—but it's not sensible. It's not conservative, it's not fiscally responsible, and it's not good stewardship. It's the work of a political operative, not a governor.

We challenge Mr. Barbour to spend more time behind his desk in Mississippi, so that he might have occasion to read the nameplate on that desk and see if—perhaps starting right now—he might want to take on the job of governor.

He should start with fully funding the Adequate Education Program.

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Previous Comments

ID

86939

Comment

Nice! Can I use this as a platform to tell you that the present issue is especially good? I guess I just did. Excellent articles, timely subject matter; this is one of your (collectively speaking) best efforts, in my opinion, for what it is worth.

Author

C.W.

Date

2005-03-24T21:01:27-06:00

ID

86940

Comment

I guess I'll let you, C.W. ;-) To be honest with you, I feel the same way about this issue. It has a lot in it -- from JFP interviews with Nevada Barr and Jim Wallis, to election stuff no one else has reported, to lots of entertainment and fun stuff, and provocative opinion. Having said all that, I must give credit to the JFP team for finding this stuff. Too many people think I make all the decisions around here. THEY bring me stories, and THEY are getting very good at it. Cheers to the home team. Now, I must admit that Todd and I forgot to set our alarms to listen this a.m. to our editorial. We're not a.m. people. ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-03-25T10:37:13-06:00

ID

86941

Comment

And it's worth a lot, C.W. You know how I must respect the work that you do. Thank you ma'am.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-03-25T10:38:07-06:00