Bobby Jindal to run on his record in Louisiana

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Wednesday he would seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. In a speech in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, La., he promised bold action and an unabashed conservative reform agenda.

Jindal came out swinging with a jab at his presidential rivals, telling supporters, “There are a lot of great talkers running for president.” But he added, “None of them—not one can match our record [in Louisiana] of actually shrinking the size of government.”

As evidence, he touted a 26 percent reduction in the state’s budget and that he “cut the number of government bureaucrats by more than 30,000.” Jindal also mentioned that he privatized the state’s “outdated” government-run hospital system.

“America was made great by people who get things done,” he said, proclaiming he is not merely a “talker” but is the kind of “doer” America needs in the White House.

On education, Jindal pointed to the statewide expansion of school choice and the establishment of charter schools throughout New Orleans: “Instead of the child following the dollars, we made the dollars follow the child, because we trust the parents, not the bureaucrats, to make the best decisions for their kids.”

The governor brought up tax cuts he signed into law and declared that business is booming in Louisiana. “Now we have more people working than any time in our state’s history,” Jindal said, “with the highest incomes in our state’s history.”

He also boasted about a reversal of a 25-year trend of declining population in his state: “Today, we have more people moving into Louisiana than out of it—our highest population in history. Our kids are coming home!”

Jindal, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India some six months before his birth, promised to tackle illegal immigration and secure the southern border. He added that it is reasonable to expect immigrants to enter the country legally, learn English, and fully embrace American values.

On healthcare, Jindal called for the repeal of Obamacare, which, he conceded, hardly sets him apart from the rest of the GOP field. But Jindal, who once served as secretary of the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals, added that he is the “only candidate who has written a replacement plan, a free market plan, that focuses on reducing costs.”

Jindal blasted the foreign policy of President Barack Obama and “his apprentice in waiting” Hillary Clinton. He pledged to “rebuild America’s defenses and restore our standing on the world stage,” adding he would never “lead from behind.”

In renewing his pledge to defend religious rights, Jindal declared, “America did not create religious liberty; religious liberty created the United States of America.”

While he took an early general swipe at the Republican field, Jindal called out GOP frontrunner Jeb Bush by name, saying the former Florida governor believes Republicans should disguise their conservative ideals. “But the truth is that if we go down that road again, we will lose again,” Jindal said. “Let’s do something new. Let’s endorse our own principles for a change. Let’s boldly speak the truth without fear.”

Jindal, 44, was elected governor in 2007 after serving three years in the U.S. Congress from Louisiana’s 1st District.