The Miracle of Republican Governance

Tyler Cowen recently asserted that state governments controlled by Republicans are generally better run. And it must be said that his evidence for this claim — consisting in its entirety of a 2012 listicle showing that small states with a lot of oil tend to have low unemployment and high per capita incomes when oil is selling for $100 a barrel — was compelling indeed. Still, even the most rigorously established truth may have limitations, so we should perhaps look at some case studies. Perhaps we can start with the great state of Louisiana, whose government put Republican orthodoxy into practice rather comprehensively:

Already, the state of Louisiana had gutted university spending and depleted its rainy day funds. It had cut 30,000 employees and furloughed others. It had slashed the number of child services staffers, including those devoted to foster family recruitment, and young abuse victims for the first time were spending nights at government offices.

And then, the state’s new governor, John Bel Edwards (D), came on TV and said the worst was yet to come.

Edwards, in a primetime address on Feb. 11, said he’d learned of “devastating facts” about the extent of the state’s budget shortfall and said that Louisiana was plunging into a “historic fiscal crisis.” For all the cuts of the previous years, the nation’s second-poorest state still needed nearly $3 billion — almost $650 per person — just to maintain its regular services over the next 16 months. Edwards then gave the state’s lawmakers three weeks to figure out a solution, a period that expires March 9, no clear answer in reach.

Louisiana now stands at the brink of 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 canceled. 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.

Wow, 3 months of a Democratic governor and the state is already a mess! If only Bobby Jindal was still around to provide that high quality Republican governance.