New Jersey’s Governor is doing to his state budget what the president should be doing to the federal government: freezing spending. And unlike the Democrat’s proposed freeze, the Republican is not waiting until he has increased funding to various pet programs he’s trimming spending right away:
Calling New Jersey’s budget a “shambles,” Gov. Chris Christie announced Thursday he is immediately freezing all state spending.
Saying New Jersey is on the verge of bankruptcy, Christie declared a fiscal emergency, announcing drastic cuts. Among them, aid to school districts that have excess surpluses.
“Today we are going to act swiftly to fix problems too long ignored. Today I begin to do what I promised the people of New Jersey I would do,” Christie said.
Wonder if Christie is blaming his big-spending predecessor for the fiscal mess he inherited. We’re hearing squeals of protest from the typical suspects. Democrats and liberal special interest groups are outraged, but taxpayer groups are pleased. It sounds like the Governor has only just begun; he plans to revisit union contracts for the state’s public transportation system. Let’s hope those are they only union contracts he’s looking into.
This freshman Governor is showing the way Republicans need to act if they want to restore the faith of the American people and return to sound fiscal policies, but they need also brace themselves for attacks in the media and from special interests. Doing the right thing won’t endear you to everyone, least of all those used to sucking a the government teat.
Looks like this Republican is keeping his promise to pick the state capital up and turn it upside down. Kudos, Governor. You’re a credit to your party–and your state.
I’m so pleased you chose to post a story about our new Gov. I did what I could do to help him win and have faith that he is the right man for NJ, if we are to have any hope of turning this state around.
I’m also proud of our fat Gov. Kinda fits the image of NJ television’s icon, Tony Soprano….but Christie is the Good strong leader vs. the Soprano mafia leader.
Christie has made some decisions that are not popular, but them are not as hard to live with as the incredible spending along with budget cuts that Corzine.
How Corzine managed to take more and more of our money, while cutting back on more services was absolutely Criminal.
Corzine was the test run for Obama, the canary that would be the test for an Obama run. If Corzine could be elected and get away with his mind-numbing policies, then so could Obama.
Goldman Sach’s former employees should never, ever be allowed anywhere near government service again. Corzine taught me that lesson and the Obama Administration proved it true.
Good for him. That’s what drives me crazy about liberals, when times are tough you don’t keep borrowing and spending you cut back. Yes, that means even making tough, painful cuts to programs you don’t want to cut. This is no different than what all of us do when we are short on money, so why should government be any different?
I applaud Christie for the tough moves he is making. I hope it helps our state’s financial problems. He scored points when he lambasted the commissioner of a state related agency who’s making over $300,000 salary, with at least ten other administrator’s making over $200,000. You have to start somewhere.
Wonder if Christie is blaming his big-spending predecessor for the fiscal mess he inherited.
Dan, you don’t have to wonder. He has.
If he needs a break, maybe he can have some waygu beef sent up to his office cocktail party or run a fleet of state limos into NYC for a date night. Somehow, though, he strikes me as being able to get along without feeding his ego and acting the fop. Poor fellow, he is just s-o-o-o-o, well…….., common.
Has he said, “It’s not about me” four or five thousand times yet?
Now if only our President would learn from this lesson in NJ, but I doubt it!
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I don’t think that just “freezing” spending at the present levels is enough. A 10 percent across the board reduction in spending should go along with the freeze. Sometimes this can be done by not replacing retirees or those who leave for other jobs.
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Rocketman
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Humm…Tony Villaragosa got boo’d by the unions of Los Angeles last week when he announced that there had to be layoffs to avoid fiscal armageddon. The unions apparently arent concerned about the multimillon deficit Los Angeles is running at the current moment. The knuckleheads in Sacramento are constantly thinking of ways to get additional taxes from citizens of the once golden state. However, they dont want to shrink the size of their staffs or limit the amount of money the citizens contribute to buying cars for their use. They dont want to reduce their per diem for meals from $170 per day either. BOO HOO – I just dont see how they make it every year with so few benefits to their jobs.
8: They’ll find out the hard way when CA goes belly up. I for one do NOT want to bail them out. Let’em learn to make the difficult choices the hard way.