EDITORIAL: Keep Focus On Results
Advocate (excerpt)

A budget’s consequences are not imaginary. Jindal probably doesn’t get enough credit from conservatives for the cuts he’s already made, and he receives criticism from universities and other institutions for cuts in education and health care — the things that all sides in this debate would call top priorities.

The budget debate should not be about campaign slogans and shrill attacks on government spending. Rather, let’s talk about the real world, where you get what you pay for.

The enemy is not the governor, any more than it is teachers or prison guards, university professors or highway crews. The enemies are poverty, disease, ignorance and backwardness. Where the state effectively tackles those, let’s spend more money. Where it doesn’t, let’s spend money differently, or make cuts to beef up the real priorities. That’s the challenge before the House.