It’s one thing when you have something to run on. It’s quite another when you have to run away from your record. That’s the position Governor Christie finds himself in on the eve of his long-awaited announcement that he will run for president. Most candidates have a signature issue or can point to improving conditions in their state. What can Christie run on?
- There’s no New Jersey economic miracle.
- His attorneys argued in court that the one significant legislative achievement of his term, a state workers pension and benefits reform bill, was, in fact, unconstitutional, which will require another round of pension cuts and significantly higher health care premiums for state workers.
- Property taxes continue to rise.
- Funding for education has been cut.
- Businesses and the very wealthy continue to enjoy the governor’s protection from tax hikes while middle class workers have seen their wages stagnate to erode further.
- He created an atmosphere of fear and contempt in his administration and hired aides who shared his vengeful attitude, which resulted in the Bridgegate scandal that is still rocking the Statehouse.
But you know what? None of this Governor Christie’s fault. How do I know? Because he said so.
On the economy, Christie is taking credit for slowly improving conditions in the state, where unemployment still lags behind the national rate. What he isn’t saying is that job growth during his tenure is 48th nationally, ahead of only Mississippi and New Mexico. His reaction?
“We inherited a wrecked ship,” he said, “and we’ve now made it sea-worthy.”
Arguable, but the bigger issue is where the Governor is steering that ship. Right now it’s going in circles and is perilously close to the rocks. The truth is that after more than 5 years, Christie’s economic plan is dead in the water. The state budget chief said as much in 2013 and Christie mocked him as a fiscal Dr. Kevorkian. And thankfully, the Democratic Legislature killed his proposed tax cut. That really would have sunk the ship. Christie now wants to take his fiscal genius to a national level. For anybody making under $100,000, that would be real suicide.
His proposed national economic plan, just released, calls for the highest tax rate to be cut from 39.6% to 28%. That’s an enormous tax break for the wealthy that will redistribute more income to the upper class and require cuts to the programs that most Americans want and that many desperately need.
As for hiring the best and brightest for his administration, the governor is now saying that he can’t be held responsible for what his aides did on his behalf. Says he:
“I obviously spent time thinking about that, because it’s an obvious question,” the governor said. “But no, I really don’t think so. I think, unfortunately, there are going to be times when people that work for me do things that are completely out of character.”
“I’m accountable for what happened because I’m the governor,” he added. “But you can’t be responsible for the bad acts of some people who wind up in your employ.”
The buck, obviously, stops…there, but never here.
My Ouija Board just spelled out, “I am not a crook.”
Governor Christie has spent a good deal of time during his term in office criticizing people who don’t recognize that he’s telling us the truth on taxes, on pensions, on the role of government and, mostly, on being responsible for our future. His hypocrisy knows no bounds.
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