Gov. Jindal, Faust and the devil

Let’s plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will – it’s only action that can make a man.

~ Goethe, “Faust”

[T]his will result in a permanent obligation on the state of Louisiana. It would be like spending $1 to get a dime.

~ Gov. Bobby Jindal

During these perilous times we live in, I often find solace by retreating to my classical music background and the literature that sustained the classical masters for hundreds of years. In particular during America’s current economic recession/depression and the recently passed economic stimulus plan of $787 billion ($3.67 trillion in actual spending costs over three years), my mind hearkens back to that magnificent German playwright from the Romantic Era, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), particularly his dramatic epic poem in two volumes, “Faust” (1808, 1833). Goethe’s “Faust” made a deal with the devil (Mephistopheles), which by the end of this epic poem not only cost the good professor Faust his life, but also the lives of those people he loved, including the fated young lover Marguerite.

In an earlier article, “Faust, Greenspan and America’s economic collapse,” I drew an analogy between the folly of Alan Greenspan’s “irrational exuberance” speech, where he continued to lower interest rates leading in part to the collapse of America’s home mortgage industry, with the folly of Goethe’s Faust (“We the People”) making a deal with the devil (Congress, the Executive and the Supreme Court) to guarantee our own destruction by trashing the constitutional framers’ intents – like separation of powers and no taxation without representation.

In an earlier article, I wrote:

The narrative of “Faust” in brief was about an aging professor (Faust) toiling in his study, surrounded by books but painfully aware of the vanity of life – that he is running out of time. According to Michael Cumming’s synopsis of “Faust,” Part I:Faust laments that though he has studied philosophy, medicine, law and theology he really knows nothing about the inner workings of the universe. Even his magic – powerful as it is – fails to lift the veil of mystery. On the brink of despair, he considers suicide.

Enter Mephistopheles (Mephisto), that suave, sophistic angel from the underworld (Satan) who eagerly offers to grant the hapless professor Faust his one last wish, but as usual when dealing with an irredeemable, evil figure like Satan, there is a catch: Mephisto “offers to show Faust the secrets of the world and let him experience the profoundest pleasures,” but when his life is over he must relinquish his immortal soul to him and do his bidding forever in hell.

How does the legend of Faust apply to Gov. Jindal’s refusal to accept all of the $100 million dollars Obama is offering the state of Louisiana as part of it’s share of stimulus package money. President Obama, like the suave, cosmopolitan Mephistopheles, has not only crafted and passed the largest wealth confiscation in the history of the world, but upon closer examination of the 1,000-plus pages of this bloated, complex and convoluted text, the devil is truly in the details.

Last Sunday on “Meet the Press,” Jindal made public some of those diabolical details that Obama, the Democrats and the propaganda press have been so scrupulously trying to hide over the past month:

I don’t think the best way to do that [stimulating the economy] is for the government to tax and borrow more money. I think the best thing they could’ve done, for example, was to cut taxes on things like capital gains, the lower tax brackets, to get the private sector spending again.
They could’ve done some things on a real energy policy.
If all they do is borrow federal money and give it to the states, all we’re really doing is delaying the inevitable. We’re eventually going to have to make these hard choices anyway. … You’re talking about temporary federal money that would require a permanent change in state law.
The word permanent is in the bill. It requires the state to make a permanent change in our law. Law B – our employer group agrees with me. They say, “Yes, this will result an increase in taxes on our businesses, this will result in a permanent obligation on the state of Louisiana.” It would be like spending $1 to get a dime. Why would we take temporary federal dollars if we’re going to end up having a permanent program?
In Louisiana, we made midyear reductions, $241 million. We’re going to have to do more with less. What would be more helpful from Washington is less unnecessary spending. How does $300 million for federal cars, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, how is spending like that going to help our economy? How’s that stimulus?

Jindal’s rhetorical question, “How’s that stimulus?” was the critical question professor Faust in retrospect should have asked Mephistopheles (the devil). If he had been prudent and wise instead of greedy and lustful, Faust would not have made that terrible deal with the devil in the first place. Instead Faust foolishly and lived for the moment: Let us plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will – it’s only action that can make a man.

Thank God Gov. Jindal and a few other stalwart Republican governors will not take all of the economic stimulus that President Barack “Corleone” Obama is thrusting upon them, for Jindal understands that taking this contaminated money from the federal government will eventually lead to the bankrupting of his state. The federal money that will only last for three years. There will then be an “unfunded mandate” that the states will be required to pick up when the federal money runs out. Even more diabolical is that the programs funded by the economic stimulus package are “permanent,” meaning that neither Jindal nor any other state political official once they accept the money can later say, “I don’t want your federal funds for my state.”

It’s like the wedding scene of “The Godfather,” Part I, where Michael Corleone recalled his father (Vito Corleone) doing business through his muscleman, Lou Cabrachi: “Either your signature on this contract, or your brains on this contract.” President Barack Corleone’s so-called $787 billion economic stimulus package has offered America a deal with the devil. Let us hope that men of goodwill refuse this tainted money, or I fear America will be plunged into an economic abyss that will drown our children and our grandchildren.

Ellis Washington, currently a professor of law and political science at Savannah State University, former editor at the Michigan Law Review and law clerk at The Rutherford Institute, is a graduate of John Marshall Law School and a lecturer and freelance writer on constitutional law, legal history, political philosophy and critical race theory. He has written over a dozen law review articles and several books, including “The Inseparability of Law and Morality: The Constitution, Natural Law and the Rule of Law” (2002). See his law review article “Reply to Judge Richard Posner.” Washington’s latest book is “The Nuremberg Trials: Last Tragedy of the Holocaust.”

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