Bobby Jindal hearkens back to handshake healthcare coverage at CPAC

Doubling down on "Duck Dynasty" defense, Jindal says, "We must not let them silence the Robertsons”

Published March 6, 2014 7:07PM (EST)

  (AP/Susan Walsh)
(AP/Susan Walsh)

In a midday address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal fondly recalled how his own birth was paid for in a pre-Obamacare era.

“My dad shook hands with the doctor,” said Jindal. “And he said to that doctor, ‘I’m going to pay you in full. I’m going to pay you every month as much as I can’ … And that’s exactly what they did.” Jindal added, “No contracts. No paperwork. No government program. Just two guys in a hospital in Baton Rouge, shaking hands.” The crowd applauded, and then Jindal joked that he’d asked his dad “if you could pay for a baby on layaway today. I’m not sure how that would work – you skip a payment, they repossess the baby?”

Jindal’s handshake deal anecdote – and a declaration that “there’s a rebellion brewing in these United States of America – closed out a speech that touted Jindal’s struggle with teachers unions and Attorney General Eric Holder over education reform, decried the administration’s handling of Benghazi, and accused the president of defying the U.S. Constitution. “If I were him, I would consider suing Harvard law school to get his money back,” joked Jindal. “Because I’m not sure what he learned in three years.”

Jindal also noted pushback he’d received for supporting "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson following the outcry over his remarks about gay people and African-Americans. “I am tired of the left,” said Jindal, that “are tolerant, and they are for diversity, except when you dare to disagree with them … We must not let them silence the Robertsons.”


By Josh Eidelson

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Aca Bobby Jindal Cpac Cpac 2014 Education Healthcare Louisiana Phil Robertson Unions