Night and Day

The contrast couldn't be more stark.  One leads with absolute and necessary determination to cut spending, lower taxes, and reverse the kinds of policies that have put our municipalities, states, and our country in peril.  The other pays only lip service to waste and ineffectiveness, demanding others make the hard choices for him, while continuing to extend and expand a government that even he knows cannot be sustained nor payed for.  One hasn't reached his zenith.  The other peaked too soon.  One is the Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie.  The other is the Democrat President of the United States, Barack Obama.

If you have not had the chance to hear or read what Governor Christie is doing in New Jersey, you should.  It's breathtaking.  I don't mean that in the way that Barack Obama sends shivers up the leg of Chris Matthews.  I mean that in the sense that no one, not even other Republican lawmakers, have shown the kind of courage and conviction that Governor Christie demonstrated in a speech to a joint session of the New Jersey legislature last week in Trenton (Read Speech,Watch Speech).  When Democrats chide Republicans for being obstructionists, saying we don't have a plan of our own, here it is.  If every Republican lawmaker adopted Christie's candor in taking on special interests and pork, Democrats calling us obstructionists would be flirtatious.  This stuff is seismic.  These are the kinds of bold strokes and measures that can rebuild a party, or launch a career.

In an attempt to fill a $2 billion deficit, Governor Christie is crafting a budget that will cut funds from 375 state programs.  He's cutting their school aid budget by $475 million.  Over 500 school districts will be affected, 100 will get no state funds at all.  Yet despite these cuts, not one dime will be lost in the classroom.  He said that New Jersey cannot afford the $100 million they contribute to state pensions, calling such expenditures unfair to a majority of state residents.  As an example, he cited a 49 year old state employee who retired after contributing   $124,000 toward his own pension, but the state will pay him $3.8 million over the rest of his life.  Or the teacher who paid only $62,000 for her pension, and nothing for full medical, dental, and vision coverage for her family, but who will receive $1.4 million back on her pension and $215,000 in healthcare.  Instead, Governor Christie suggested public entities like the New Jersey Transit Authority, for which the state will cut its subsidy, "revisit its rich union contracts, end the patronage hiring that has typified its past, and consider service reductions or fare increases."

Governor Christie closed his speech with "Make no mistake: our priorities are to reduce and reform New Jersey's habit of excessive government spending, to reduce taxes, to encourage job creation, to shrink our bloated government, and to fund our responsibilities on a pay-as-you-go basis and not leave them for future generations.  In short, to make New Jersey a home for growth instead of a fiscal basket case."  Now isn't that the kind of straight talk grownups want to hear?  Isn't that the kind of real action that is required to speed our recovery at every level of government?  Of course it is.