By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : Louisiana’s Indian-American governor Bobby Jindal wants his Republican party to embrace the politics of stubbornness, no matter how unpopular it may be, accusing President Barack Obama of taking the country to an economic “tipping point”.
“It pays to be stubborn,” he said Thursday asking party leaders to avoid future compromises like the one over debt ceiling agreement that left both Democrats and Republicans alike.
“The press is constantly urging compromise. They root for it like it is the highest possible virtue, the sign of true maturity and achievement in life,” Jindal said during a speech to the Republican National Committee’s summer meeting in Tampa, Florida.
Drastically reducing the size of government is the only pathway to economic freedom and job creation, he said criticising President Barack Obama’s economic record. The president has pushed the country to an economic “tipping point,” he said.
While calling for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and an “all out push” to restructure government, he also criticised Republicans in Congress for losing sight of their conservative principles.
“I served in Congress for a few years,” Jindal said. “The idea that Congress will ever get our economic house in order without brute force is silly.”
Jindal chided leaders in Washington for elevating the debt ceiling debate into a pivotal economic moment without doing more to confront current levels of spending and borrowing.
“It’s easy to lose your perspective in government, to get lost in the endless deals and negotiations so that you end up losing the forest though the trees around you,” he said.
Threats of a credit default and economic calamity were overblown, Jindal said.
“As surely as the sun will rise, liberals will always say that curbing government spending is heartless, cruel, wrong, dangerous and will lead to default,” he said. “You can count on it.”
“And the guys on Wall Street will always say we have to increase the debt ceiling,” Jindal added.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])