Here’s yet another incident of elected officials in Louisiana pushing their own political agendas inside a public office. My Republican counterparts sitting on the Louisiana Bond Commission have decided to pull the state’s debt refinancing contract from J.P. Morgan because of their stance to not do business with gun manufacturers that make military-style firearms. On Thursday the Bond Commission unanimously voted to award the contract to Wells Fargo instead.
Do we really believe that the Louisiana Bond Commission should decide whether or not to do business with financial institutions that provide financial service to gun manufacturers? I don't agree with the LBC’s individual members interjecting their own personal ideology on a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not these organizations are competent in fulfilling their duties as outlined by the commission.
To give you an idea of how childish this behavior is, we now have State Attorney General Jeff Landry and Bond Commission Chairman John Schroeder fighting over who’s going to get credit for the outcome.
The Attorney General is upset because Schroeder didn't reveal some of the back room conversations and investigations by the Bond Commission into whether or not J.P. Morgan in fact had a policy.
Schroeder is upset because Landry tweeted about being the savior after another bank was awarded the contract. Where does this kind of behavior end? Are the next litmus tests going to be on student financing, or child tax credits?
Chairman Schroeder stated at a commission meeting that this was not how he takes care of his business, but that’s the problem right there. This is not his business at all - this is our business, the taxpayers of Louisiana! We have far too many elected officials that are confused about who they actually represent… why would they not just be concerned with who is the most competent of these banks to do the job?
What's most disgusting about all of this is that the Commission continues to play these silly games and we will have members of the business community that are going to stand up and support these knuckleheads... we have to look beyond ourselves. We should not be fighting battles in forums that are completely and totally inappropriate to fight in. I would love to know how many folks have personal friends or professional relationships who totally agree on every issue. We can agree to disagree, but at the end of the day, you must represent all. You must look beyond yourself in dealing with these issues.
