Vowing to reduce the size of government, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday portrayed himself as a “doer” among a field of smooth “talkers” running for president.
During a speech announcing a presidential run in New Orleans, the Republican said: “If great speeches helped our country, we would be on easy street right now.”
“The guy in the White House today is a great talker, and we have a bunch of great talkers running for president,” Jindal said. “We’ve had enough of talkers. It’s time for a doer.”
Jindal, known in politics for giving a rusty GOP State of the Union response in 2009, said: “I’m not running for president to be somebody. I’m running for president to do something.”
In an apparent reference to Republican senators like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, Jindal acknowledged that “there are a lot of great talkers running for president already.”
“But none of them, not one, can match our record of actually shrinking the size of government,” he said.
Jindal boasted of reforming the state’s ethics laws, privatizing the state’s government-run hospital system, implementing statewide school choice, cutting the state budget by 26 percent and eliminating more than 30,000 government jobs.
“But of course, there is another side to the story – the big government crowd hates what we have done – they say we have cut government more than anyone, and that government budgets are always running low on funds with me in the Governor’s office,” he said. “My response to the big government crowd is simply this – yes. I am guilty as charged, and our state is better off for it today.”
For now, Jindal’s biggest challenge is to get his poll numbers up so he can be included in the debates. The Real Clear Politics national polling average of Republicans has Jindal at just .8 percent, in 15th place.