2013 is right around the corner, Save Jerseyans.
Chris Christie is already developing his lead argument: “Do you support my approach, New Jersey, or do you want a return to the CORZINE era?”
I’m paraphrasing a bit, but that’s what we heard from Governor Christie at a Passaic town hall this week; he contrasted his FY2013 budget with Corzine era policies, specifically, the fact that Democrats raised taxes 115 times (which works out to a tax hike every 25 days!) over eight years while our taxes continued to rise at much faster rates than they are today…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf4ywehSVLo
Corzine is definitely becoming (as predicted) a “dirty word” in electoral politics. He deserves it just on the basis of what he let happen over at MF Global without even considering what he did to us on this side of the Hudson River. He’s even in the Urban Dictionary…
verb. to trust your money to a prominent individual and to find it has mysteriously disappeared
“Oh no! Look at the financial statement. We have been corzined!”
Love it!
I only harbor one reservation about the Governor’s Corzine-bashing strategy, Save Jerseyans…
God knows there wasn’t an earlier, more vocal Christie grassroots supporter than yours truly. My credentials are unchallenged in that respect! Otherwise you wouldn’t have loyally followed this blog since the beginning. And I devoted nearly all of my free time from May 2008 through November 2009 to detailing the abuses, mismanagement, failures and atrocities of a decade of Democrat dominance in Trenton. Some thought I was crazy. I thought there was no better use for my time given the sad state of affairs under the dome.
HOWEVER, while I support tax cuts like any good supply-side economics adherent, there’s no getting around the fact that the Governor’s current proposal is too big and relies too much on borrowed cash. Better than what we would’ve gotten for FY2013 from Corzine? Sure. Limited by the fact that both houses of the legislature are still under liberal Democrat control? Of course.
Good enough? Absolutely not. Not by a long shot, folks. Frankly, I don’t know why the Governor doesn’t publicly challenge Sweeney, Oliver, Lou “Empty Suit” Greenwald and their ilk to a “red pen convention.” Locked door, sweat pants, black coffee, several pizzas. No one leaves the room until the FY2013 budget proposal is (1) trimmed down enough to meet the worst-case OLS numbers but (2) balanced without raising a single tax. It’d be a win-win from a PR perspective, and it fits well with his “I’m willing to work with everyone” narrative.
I wish he’d consider it. Not only for the good of New Jersey, but also to preserve his future national electoral prospects. Everyone in our party is measured against the mythological version of Reagan. I think it sucks; being a blue state governor and serving as U.S. president isn’t exactly analogous for a host of reasons. But this budget, as is, could and will come back to haunt the Governor in a future GOP primary if he doesn’t take affirmative steps to shrink it as much as possible. He’s already 10x better than Corzine. My “red pen” meet-up would add another zero to that stat.
Corzine took money from customer accounts, provided CME with fraudulent records regarding those accounts, lied to Congress under oath about it and is still free because…
I guess Obama needs his bundlers.