Louisiana's Indian American Republican Governor Bobby Jindal said on Monday he 'fundamentally disagreed' with US President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic recovery package and accused him of not having a 'bi-partisan approach' on the stimulus plan.
"I just have a fundamental disagreement with this package. When it was originally proposed, it was talked about as target tax cuts as well as infrastructure investment," said Jindal, while appearing on the CNBC news channel's weekly Meet the Press programme.
Jindal (37) has even turned down $100 million of federal money saying he would have to permanently change the state law for this temporary benefit. The rest of the bill is being reviewed by his government, he said.
He accused Obama of not having a bi-partisan approach on the stimulus bill. "I think the President had a chance, if he had worked with Republicans instead of allowing Speaker Pelosi to write this bill, if he had worked with Republicans to say let's really invest in the infrastructure, let's do targeted temporary spending, let's do some tax cuts. Let's get the economy moving."
Jindal said the country's economic challenges can't be solved by government spending. "What I think is the only way we grow this economy is to get the private sector hiring again, expanding, creating jobs. The only way you're going to solve the foreclosure crisis, the only way you're going to have the credit freeze resolved is by the private sector expanding," he said.
