路易斯安那州州长博比·金德尔代表共和党所做的回应讲话
晚上好，我是路易斯安那州州长博比·金德尔。
今天晚上， 我们目睹了我们共和国历史上的一个伟大时刻。在国会曾经投票废除奴隶制的同一个会议大厅里，我们第一位非洲裔美国总统发表了国情讲话。奥巴马总统今晚发表的讲话，完成了救赎之旅，让我们国家从独立大厅，到葛底斯堡，到午餐柜台，并最终来到总统的椭圆形办公室。
无论党派之分，所有美国人都为总统的个人经历所感动。一个美国母亲，肯尼亚父亲的儿子，长大成人，成为自由世界的领袖。跟总统的父亲一样，我父母也是从遥远的国度来到这个国家的。他们到达路易斯安那州首府巴吞鲁日时，我母亲已怀有四个半月的身孕。我就是保险业人士现在所说的“承保前已存在状态”。为了找到工作，我父亲拿起一本黄页广告，开始给当地企业打电话。即便是在找到一份工作后，他仍然担负不起我的出生费用，所以他和医生制定了一项分期付款计划。我很幸运，他从来没有错过一次还款。
在我长大的过程中，父母告诉我吸引他们来到这个国家的价值观，向我灌输了一个移民对美国伟大的感叹。我还记得小时候跟父亲去杂货店买东西。我父亲从小在印度长大，知道什么是极度贫困。我们走过一排排货架，看到货架上琳琅满目的商品，他会对我说，“博比，美国人可以做到一切”。这一点我至今坚信不移。美国人可以做到一切事情。只要齐心协力，没有任何挑战是我们战胜不了的。
正如总统今天晚上明确阐述的，我们目前面对挑战。在聆听今晚讲话的人当中，很多人失去了工作，另外一些人的教育和退休储蓄在缩水。你们当中很多人担心会失去医疗保险，失去住房。你们指望自己选出来的华盛顿领袖拿出解决办法。
共和党已经做好了跟新总统合作，提供解决办法的准备。在我所在的路易斯安那州，只要你有好建议，能让人民过更好的日子，我们不在乎你属于哪个政党。我们需要首都华盛顿的民主党人与共和党人也能更多地抱持这样的态度。所有人都想让经济复苏，让国家繁荣。在意见相同的问题上，共和党人必须做总统最坚强的伙伴。在意见分歧的问题上，共和党人有责任坦诚相待，并且为下一步发展提出更好的意见。
今天在华盛顿，有些人承诺，政府将把我们从金融风暴中拯救出来。我们这些经历过卡特里娜飓风的人，对此持怀疑态度。
让我给大家讲个故事吧。
卡特里娜飓风期间，我去拜访哈里.李治安长官，他是一位民主党人，也是我的好朋友。我走进他的临时办公室时，他正在大发雷霆。我从没见过他那么生气。他对着电话筒大喊：「我是治安长官，如果你不喜欢，可以来逮捕我！」我问他：「为什么那么生气？」他告诉我，他要求志愿者驾船前去援助被洪水困在屋顶上的人。船只都已经做好了出发的准备，但是某个官僚却告诉他们，除非有保险和船只注册证明，否则他们就不能下水。我告诉他说：「这真是太荒谬了。」我还没回过神来，他已经对着电话筒大喊：「金德尔众议员就在这里，他说你也可以来逮捕他！」哈里告诉船主们，不要去理会那些官僚，立刻投入救援。
我们从中可以汲取的经验是：美国的力量并非来自政府，而是来自公民的热心和创业精神。我们感激在持续的重建努力中得到的来自全国各地的支持。这种精神帮助路易斯安那州渡过了飓风的难关，这种精神也会让我们的国家渡过今天所面临的风暴。
要解决眼前的问题，华盛顿必须发挥领导作用。但领导的方式并不是增加税收，把更多的金钱与权力交到华盛顿的政治人物手中。领导的方式是将力量交付给你 -- 美国人民。因为我们相信，美国人民可以做到一切。
这就是为什么共和党提出计划，通过降低工薪家庭所得税率，为小企业减税，增强企业投资新设备和雇用新工人的积极性，来创造就业机会，并且通过新的购物免税额度来稳定房屋价格。这些计划成本较低，又能创造更多的就业。
但是国会民主党人拒绝这种做法。他们不相信我们能对自己的金钱作出明智决定，而是通过了美国历史上最大的政府支出法案，包括利息在内，总值超过一万亿美元。虽然有些项目合乎情理，但同时，法案也充塞着浪费支出，包括3亿美元给政府买新车，80亿美元用于兴建高速铁路，例如从拉斯维加斯到迪士尼乐园的「磁浮铁道」，还有1亿4千万美元的「火山监测」项目。国会不应该监测火山，而是应该去监督一下华盛顿开支的大爆发。
民主党领袖说，他们的立法将刺激经济增长。其实，他们的立法所能做的将是扩大政府规模，最终增加税收，给我们的子孙后代套上债务的枷锁。我们当中有谁会去向子女贷款，这样就可以花我们本来没有的钱、买我们并不需要的东西呢？而这恰恰是国会民主党人所做的。这是不负责任的。这完全不能加强经济、创造就业、或者给我们的子女建造一个繁荣的未来。
在路易斯安那州，我们采取了不同的作法。从我担任州长以来，我们从州预算中削减了250多项专项拨款。为了给本州公民创造就业，我们六次削减税收，包括路易斯安那州历史上对所得税最大规模的削减。我们的减税计划获得了两党多数人的支持。共和党人和民主党人放下分歧，共同努力，保证人民可以把收入更多地留在自己的手中。如果我们在巴吞鲁日可以这样做的话，在华盛顿也一定可以做到。
为了加强经济，我们需要采取紧急措施，降低能源价格。大家都记得4美元1加仑的汽油的感觉，除非我们立即采取行动，否则那种价格将会回来。为了避免这种情况，我们需要节约能源、提高能效、提高使用替代燃料和可再生燃料、提高核能的使用，提高对美国石油和天然气资源的开采。我们相信，美国人民可以做到一切，如果我们释放出人民的创造精神，就一定能够实现能源独立。
为了加强经济，我们还需要应对医疗方面的危机。共和党人相信一个简单的原则，那就是：任何美国人都不应该为失去医疗保险而担心。我们主张，全体公民都应当获得可以负担得起的医疗保险。但是我们反对由政府运作的全民医保。医疗保健的决定权应该掌握在医生和病人手中，而不是政府官僚。我们相信美国人民可以做到一切，如果我们搁置党派政治、共同努力，就能让每个公民得到可以负担的私营医疗体系。
为了加强经济，我们还需要保证美国的每一个孩子都可以最大程度地接受最好的教育。“卡特里娜”飓风过后，我们重新规划了新奥尔良的学校体系，新开办了几十所特许学校，建立了一个新的奖学金项目。通过这个项目，家长有机会选择送他们的子女去私立学校或者教区附属学校。我们相信，有了适合的教育，美国的孩子们可以做到一切。我们的国家不需要一场毁灭性风暴让我们的教育体制有所创新。
为了加强经济，我们必须通过确保我们的制度是世界上最道德、最透明的制度来提高人们对美国的信心。在路易斯安那州，过去有一种说法：不管什么时候，路易斯安那总会有一半淹在水中，另一半受到起诉。现在再也没人这么说了。去年，我们通过了美国各州中一些最严格的道德伦理立法。今天，路易斯安那州已经告别了腐败的过去。我们需要让华盛顿透明化，这样我们才能把腐败从国会里剔除、保证不会再看到另一个万亿美元支出法案获得通过，而国会甚至于没有读过、美国人民也没有看过这个法案。
采取这些步骤时，我们必须记得，国内面临上述麻烦的同时，危险的敌人仍然在试图摧毁我们。眼下绝不是解除保卫这个国家几百年的防御体系，或者大幅度削减军队经费的时候。美国的男女官兵可以做到一切。如果我们为他们提供他们所需要的资源，他们就能保持攻击能力，击退我们的敌人，使我们免受伤害。
共和党人希望和奥巴马总统在所有这些方面进行合作。我们感谢他传递的希望之音 -- 但是有时候，我们似乎是在不同的地方寻找希望。民主党在华盛顿的领袖把希望寄托于联邦政府。我们则将希望放在你们 -- 美国人民身上。这最终要归结于我们在政府应该扮演的适当角色这个问题上实实在在和根本性的分歧。我们反对民主党有关强化国家就要增强对政府依赖的说法。我们相信，让国家强大的办法是限制华盛顿的开支，为个人和小企业提供动力，促进经济增长，并且创造就业。
近年来，这些理念上的差异日渐模糊，这是因为我们的政党偏离了自己的信条。你们选择共和党人，是要他们推动小政府、财政纪律、和个人责任。然而，共和党人却对华盛顿的专项拨款和大额政府支出随声附和。共和党人丧失了你们的信任 -- 这是应得的。
今晚，我代表我们在国会里的领袖和共和党州长们对你们说：我们的政党决心重新赢得你们的信任。为此，我们要维护那些我们共享的信条，维护那些你们选择我们去捍卫的信条，维护那些让我们成为这个世界上最强大、最繁荣的国家所遵循的信条。
几个星期前，总统警告说，我们的国家正面对他所说的“我们恐怕无法逆转的”危机。我们的麻烦是真实存在的，的确如此。但是别让任何人对你说我们无法恢复 -- 或者说美国已经好景不再。这是一个砸碎了奴隶枷锁，渡过了大萧条，在两次世界大战中取胜，赢得民权斗争，打垮苏联威胁，并以坚定勇气对2001年9月11号的恐怖袭击做出回应的国家。美国精神战胜过人类面临的几乎所有形式的不幸。美国精神必将再次获胜。
我们对未来抱有信心，因为，我们虽然面对挑战，但还是有许多可以为之自豪的地方：我们有最具创新精神的公民，最富有的资源，最具韧性的经济，最强大的军队，和世界历史上最自由的政治制度。国民们，永远不要忘记：我们是美国人。正如我父亲多年前说的那样，美国人可以做到一切。
感谢你们的聆听。上帝保佑你们。天佑美国。
Good evening. I’m Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana.
Tonight, we witnessed a great moment in the history of our Republic. In the very chamber where Congress once voted to abolish slavery, our first African-American President stepped forward to address the state of our union. With his speech tonight, the President completed a redemptive journey that took our nation from Independence Hall … to Gettysburg … to the lunch counter … and now, finally, the Oval Office.
Regardless of party, all Americans are moved by the President’s personal story - the son of an American mother and a Kenyan father, who grew up to become leader of the free world. Like the President’s father, my parents came to this country from a distant land. When they arrived in Baton Rouge, my mother was already 4 ½ months pregnant. I was what folks in the insurance industry now call a “pre-existing condition.” To find work, my dad picked up the yellow pages and started calling local businesses. Even after landing a job, he could still not afford to pay for my delivery - so he worked out an installment plan with the doctor. Fortunately for me, he never missed a payment.
As I grew up, my mom and dad taught me the values that attracted them to this country - and they instilled in me an immigrant’s wonder at the greatness of America. As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my dad. Growing up in India, he had seen extreme poverty. And as we walked through the aisles, looking at the endless variety on the shelves, he would tell me: “Bobby, Americans can do anything.” I still believe that to this day. Americans can do anything. When we pull together, there is no challenge we cannot overcome.
As the President made clear this evening, we are now in a time of challenge. Many of you listening tonight have lost jobs. Others have seen your college and retirement savings dwindle. Many of you are worried about losing your health care and your homes. And you are looking to your elected leaders in Washington for solutions.
Republicans are ready to work with the new President to provide those solutions. Here in my state of Louisiana, we don’t care what party you belong to if you have good ideas to make life better for our people. We need more of that attitude from both Democrats and Republicans in our nation’s capital. All of us want our economy to recover and our nation to prosper. So where we agree, Republicans must be the President’s strongest partners. And where we disagree, Republicans have a responsibility to be candid and offer better ideas for a path forward.
Today in Washington, some are promising that government will rescue us from the economic storms raging all around us.
Those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina, we have our doubts.
Let me tell you a story.
During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: “Well, I’m the Sheriff and if you don’t like it you can come and arrest me!” I asked him: “Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?” He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, “Sheriff, that’s ridiculous.” And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: “Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!” Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.
There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens. We are grateful for the support we have received from across the nation for the ongoing recovery efforts. This spirit got Louisiana through the hurricanes - and this spirit will get our nation through the storms we face today.
To solve our current problems, Washington must lead. But the way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians. The way to lead is by empowering you - the American people. Because we believe that Americans can do anything.
That is why Republicans put forward plans to create jobs by lowering income tax rates for working families … cutting taxes for small businesses … strengthening incentives for businesses to invest in new equipment and hire new workers … and stabilizing home values by creating a new tax credit for home-buyers. These plans would cost less and create more jobs.
But Democratic leaders in Congress rejected this approach. Instead of trusting us to make wise decisions with our own money, they passed the largest government spending bill in history - with a price tag of more than $1 trillion with interest. While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a “magnetic levitation” line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called “volcano monitoring.” Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC.
Democratic leaders say their legislation will grow the economy. What it will do is grow the government, increase our taxes down the line, and saddle future generations with debt. Who among us would ask our children for a loan, so we could spend money we do not have, on things we do not need? That is precisely what the Democrats in Congress just did. It’s irresponsible. And it’s no way to strengthen our economy, create jobs, or build a prosperous future for our children.
In Louisiana, we took a different approach. Since I became governor, we cut more than 250 earmarks from our state budget. And to create jobs for our citizens, we cut taxes six times - including the largest income tax cut in the history of our state. We passed those tax cuts with bipartisan majorities. Republicans and Democrats put aside their differences, and worked together to make sure our people could keep more of what they earn. If it can be done in Baton Rouge, surely it can be done in Washington, DC.
To strengthen our economy, we need urgent action to keep energy prices down. All of us remember what it felt like to pay $4 at the pump - and unless we act now, those prices will return. To stop that from happening, we need to increase conservation … increase energy efficiency … increase the use of alternative and renewable fuels … increase our use of nuclear power - and increase drilling for oil and gas here at home. We believe that Americans can do anything - and if we unleash the innovative spirit of our citizens, we can achieve energy independence.
To strengthen our economy, we also need to address the crisis in health care. Republicans believe in a simple principle: No American should have to worry about losing their health coverage - period. We stand for universal access to affordable health care coverage. We oppose universal government-run health care. Health care decisions should be made by doctors and patients - not by government bureaucrats. We believe Americans can do anything - and if we put aside partisan politics and work together, we can make our system of private medicine affordable and accessible for every one of our citizens.
To strengthen our economy, we also need to make sure every child in America gets the best possible education. After Katrina, we reinvented the New Orleans school system - opening dozens of new charter schools, and creating a new scholarship program that is giving parents the chance to send their children to private or parochial schools of their choice. We believe that, with the proper education, the children of America can do anything. And it should not take a devastating storm to bring this kind of innovation to education in our country.
To strengthen our economy, we must promote confidence in America by ensuring ours is the most ethical and transparent system in the world. In my home state, there used to be saying: At any given time, half of Louisiana is under water - and the other half is under indictment. No one says that anymore. Last year, we passed some of the strongest ethics laws in the nation - and today, Louisiana has turned her back on the corruption of the past. We need to bring transparency to Washington, DC - so we can rid our Capitol of corruption … and ensure we never see the passage of another trillion dollar spending bill that Congress has not even read and the American people haven't even seen.
As we take these steps, we must remember for all our troubles at home, dangerous enemies still seek our destruction. Now is no time to dismantle the defenses that have protected this country for hundreds of years, or make deep cuts in funding for our troops. America’s fighting men and women can do anything. And if we give them the resources they need, they will stay on the offensive … defeat our enemies … and protect us from harm.
In all these areas, Republicans want to work with President Obama. We appreciate his message of hope - but sometimes it seems we look for hope in different places. Democratic leaders in Washington place their hope in the federal government. We place our hope in you - the American people. In the end, it comes down to an honest and fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government. We oppose the National Democrats' view that says -- the way to strengthen our country is to increase dependence on government. We believe the way to strengthen our country is to restrain spending in Washington, and empower individuals and small businesses to grow our economy and create jobs.
In recent years, these distinctions in philosophy became less clear - because our party got away from its principles. You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline, and personal responsibility. Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust - and rightly so.
Tonight, on behalf of our leaders in Congress and my fellow Republican governors, I say: Our party is determined to regain your trust. We will do so by standing up for the principles that we share … the principles you elected us to fight for … the principles that built this into the greatest, most prosperous country on earth.
A few weeks ago, the President warned that our nation is facing a crisis that he said “we may not be able to reverse.” Our troubles are real, to be sure. But don’t let anyone tell you that we cannot recover - or that America’s best days are behind her. This is the nation that cast off the scourge of slavery … overcame the Great Depression … prevailed in two World Wars … won the struggle for civil rights … defeated the Soviet menace … and responded with determined courage to the attacks of September 11, 2001. The American spirit has triumphed over almost every form of adversity known to man - and the American spirit will triumph again.
We can have confidence in our future - because, amid today’s challenges, we also count many blessings: We have the most innovative citizens …the most abundant resources … the most resilient economy … the most powerful military … and the freest political system in the history of the world. My fellow citizens, never forget: We are Americans. And like my dad said years ago, Americans can do anything.
Thank you for listening. God bless you. And God bless America.
