Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has had his fair share of missteps during the 2012 GOP presidential primary campaign, including his now famous “oops” moment, when he couldn’t recall one of the three federal agencies that he wants to abolish. (It was the Department of Energy.)

Yesterday, Perry added to his list of gaffes, misstating how his tax plan — which would supposedly implement a 20 percent flat personal income tax — treats deductions. Fortunately, he had Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) there to bail him out:

During a question-and-answer session with the audience, Perry was asked if his flat tax plan would include the standard deduction in the current tax system.

After Perry first indicated that it wouldn’t, Jindal reminded him that the plan actually raises the standard deduction to $12,500 per person in a household. “Thank you for correcting me on that,” Perry said to Jindal. “Not that I ever make a mistake.

Removing the standard deduction — which is the set amount that every person gets to claim tax-free on his or her tax return — would make Perry’s wildly regressive tax plan even worse. As it is, the plan already gives millionaires a tax cut of half a million dollars every year, while raising taxes on most of the middle class.

Perry has admitted as much, conceding to the Des Moine Register’s editorial board that under his plan, low-income people get slammed while it would be possible for a millionaire to pay literally nothing. When CNBC’s John Harwood noted that the plan gives millionaires hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks, Perry replied, “I don’t care about that.” And he evidently doesn’t care enough to learn the details of his plan either.

Louisiana has had its share of disasters during Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) time holding political office, from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 (when Jindal was a congressman) to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that threatened the state’s beaches and waterways in 2010. The federal government came to Louisiana’s aid in each case, spending billions of dollars in emergency disaster funds to help clean up and rebuild the state in the aftermath of the disasters. In none of those instances did Congress offset the emergency funds with spending cuts, and in none of those instances did Jindal go out of his way to ask them to.

But with states across the nation rebuilding in the aftermath of hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and tornadoes, Jindal wants to put restrictions on emergency funds that didn’t exist for the funds that benefited his own state. In an appearance on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown today, Jindal told host Chuck Todd that deficits and debt are a “man-made disaster,” and because of those, the disaster relief funds for New Jersey, Virginia, and other states in desperate need of relief “should be offset”:

TODD: There’s been a movement afoot to…search for budget offsets now, a change frankly. [...] Any advice for your fellow Republicans in the House when dealing with disaster relief?

JINDAL: We certainly as a state benefited after Katrina and Rita from the generosity of the American people. I fully support making sure the resources, the necessary resources, are there to help. [...] I do however, also support, at the same time, so they need, they deserve the help they need to get back on their feet. At the same time, I do think these dollars should be offset, should be part of a balanced approach to the budget. The reality is the deficit, the debt in DC is not caused by natural disasters, that’s a man-made disaster.

Watch it:

While some Republicans fought to offset Hurricane Katrina funding, Jindal was not among them, and neither was then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), who argued that the funds should be deficit financed. And in 2008, Jindal traveled to Washington to lobby Congress to preserve $400 million in funding for ongoing hurricane relief and recovery efforts that had been stripped because they weren’t offset by other cuts.

Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond (D), who represents New Orleans, recently told the New Orleans Times-Picayune he couldn’t imagine what would have happened had Republicans held disaster relief hostage for the millions driven out when Katrina put his city under water. “We would have been waiting for months or even years for the assistance we needed to get New Orleans up and running again,” Richmond said. Jindal, apparently, has forgotten that.

ThinkProgress filed this report from the GOP presidential debate in Tampa, Florida.

Though Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) picked up the support of Bobby Jindal yesterday, the Louisiana governor was unwilling to endorse Perry’s tough talk on Social Security, despite repeated questions from reporters after the Republican presidential debate.

In his book Fed Up!, published in November 2010, Perry called Social Security unconstitutional, a claim he stood by after a question from ThinkProgress last month. Since that time, Perry has repeatedly called the retirement program a “Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie.”

Following yesterday’s debate in Florida, Jindal spoke with the press about Perry’s performance. However, as reporters asked Jindal whether he agreed with Perry that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, the Louisiana governor ducked the question, repeatedly saying, “call it whatever you want” and “I don’t care what you call it.” When ThinkProgress asked Jindal if he agrees that Social Security is unconstitutional, he again demurred.

REPORTER: Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme?

JINDAL: Look, call it whatever you want. What was clear to me today was that when you listen to all the different candidates, they essentially agree with Gov. Perry’s position. [...]

REPORTER: Do you agree with that characterization that it’s a Ponzi scheme?

JINDAL: Look, I don’t care what you call it. What’s important is that if we don’t do anything it will not continue to be sustainable for younger workers. [...] Call it whatever you want, the bottom line is it’s not sustainable, it needs to be fixed. Look, people in Texas talk differently from people in Louisiana. They have a different accent, they use all kinds of different words. It doesn’t matter what you call it, what’s most important is the substantive point he was making.

KEYES: Do you think he’s right that it’s unconstitutional?

JINDAL: Look, bottom line on Social Security, I think you heard everybody agree with the governor tonight that it needs to be kept and preserved for the seniors in the system that are approaching retirement, but it also needs to be reformed and improved for younger workers.

Watch it:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has proposed a progressive solution to ensure Social Security’s solvency for the next 75 years: simply lift the payroll tax cap.

Louisiana, like most states, is struggling with its budget, as the recession continues to take its toll on the state’s coffers. Recent estimates place next year’s budget deficit at a whopping $1.6 billion.

Recognizing the need to raise revenues, the mostly Republican Louisiana Legislature voted earlier this week to renew part of the state’s cigarette tax, which brings in $12 million a year. But Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is expected to veto the legislation this week:

It’s a bad habit that helps bolster the state budget. Smokers in Louisiana pay an extra 36 cents in state taxes every time they buy a pack. But part of that tax is set to expire next year. And while lawmakers voted to renew it, Governor Bobby Jindal is expected to veto the tax extension early this week. “It’s going to be a very tough fight on both sides,” said Clancy DuBos, WWL-TV political analyst and Gambit political columnist.

The segment of the tax that the legislature voted to renew would maintain a tax of 36 cents on every pack of cigarettes bought. If vetoed, the taxes per-pack would fall by four pennies to be 32 cents per pack. WWL-TV covered the debate over the tax. Watch it:

Jindal has until tomorrow to decide to sign or veto the cigarette tax legislation. “I think it’s a mistake to lower the tax on cigarettes,” says House Speaker Jim Tucker (R). “Louisiana is accused of being backwards all the time. This vote (to eliminate the tax) would easily support that position.” Interestingly, while Jindal wants to lower taxes on cigarettes, he has endorsed raising tuition and fees on students.

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) last night opened a “fiscal session” of the Louisiana legislature with an address on the state’s finances and how to approach the $1.6 billion hole in its budget. During the speech, Jindal vowed to veto any tax increases, saying, “Tax increases kill jobs. Tax increases kill opportunities. Tax increases hurt economic development. Tax increases hurt our ability to attract new businesses into Louisiana.”

But as the Advocate noted, “the only real tax hike proposed thus far filed is an increase in the state tobacco tax”:

House Bill 63 by state Rep. Harold Ritchie would increase the 36-cent state sales tax on a pack of cigarettes by 70 cents. The state’s tobacco tax is among the lowest in the nation.

In the past, Jindal has explicitly voiced opposition to raising the cigarette tax, even though Louisiana’s cigarette tax is the second lowest in the country, after Virginia. According to the Louisiana Budget Project, the proposed increase in the cigarette tax would raise about $200 million, while also lowering health care costs. It would also provide almost twice the savings of Jindal’s proposal to raise tuition and fees for Louisiana’s college students:

Tucked in the pages of the $24.9 billion spending plan are provisions for spending more than $98 million that Jindal hopes the state’s colleges will get through tuition hikes on students. Separate legislation would need to be passed to enact the cost increases…The increases would come on top of increased costs for students already set to take effect this fall and more increases for at least four additional years, under legislation passed last year.

In the last two years, Louisiana has cut $315 million from higher education, even as it charged students more for tuition.

Louisiana’s current tax code is a mess, with 441 different exemptions that cost the state $7 billion per year, several times the size of its current budget shortfall. One exemption alone — allowing residents to deduct the amount they paid in federal taxes from their state tax bill — costs the state $643 million per year while overwhelmingly aiding the richest Louisianians. But Jindal has ruled tax increases off the table, deciding that the more prudent course is to force students to cover the cost of the state’s budget woes.