ROONEY: Murphy’s baby bond plan leaves a huge chunk of the N.J. Middle Class behind

By Matt Rooney
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There’s plenty to hate about Phil Murphy’s baby bonds idea unveiled at Tuesday’s budget address, Save Jerseyans, not the least of which is the fact that we’re simultaneously creating a new entitlement and borrowing $4 billion. Do we REALLY need to borrow money? Or not? It’s maddening.

Here’s another angle you probably overlooked…

Governor Murphy did acknowledge in his remarks that he lifted the idea from Spartacus, a/k/a Gropacus, a/k/a Cory Booker, the sometimes-junior U.S. Senator from Twitter New Jersey. Booker rolled out a variation of the baby bond plan during his recent ill-fated run for president. Last March, Booker sat down with Al Sharpton (which should have been your first warning that this idea was half-baked) on MSNBC to discuss the proposal AND offer an interesting rationale for the program: young white Americans are too rich. I’m not kididng.

Booker followed up the interview by tweeting his belief that the plan was one “which would virtually close the racial wealth gap.” It’s reparations of sorts… by a different name wrapped in subtle packaging. At least that’s how this idea’s framers conceived of it.

Even more interestingly, Murphy never mentioned race as a catalyst for his decision to appropriate Booker’s idea, stating only how “at this time — when so many families are struggling with how they will pay their bills or seeing their hard-earned savings disappear — let’s make a better promise to the next generation of New Jerseyans.”

I think I know why he left race out of it.

Families earning over $131,000 are excluded. If that sounds like a lot of money, then you clearly aren’t a New Jersey property taxpayer (and probably aren’t related to one either). Let’s take a hypothetical family where the mom is a public school teacher (the state average salary is about $58,680) and dad is an engineer of some kind (earning $88,863). Yes, they’re grossing $147,543, but after daycare, car payments, health insurance premiums, student loans, a mortgage AND property taxes… yeah, it doesn’t go very far. 

In fact, most young-ish couples earning in this household income range – especially those in “Central” and Northern New Jersey, and regardless of their race/color/creed – won’t be able to save much outside of their automatic 401(k) contributions (if they have one through work). Some will even be living paycheck to paycheck which is incredible but no less true for it. In 2018, Pew did a study and concluded you weren’t out of the “middle class” in North Jersey until your household income eclipsed $191,000!

What are they getting out of this program? Nothing.

Are their children benefitting from this latest social experiment? No.

If we’re going to incentivize anyone, shouldn’t it be hardworking young professionals? I’d think so!

But this is WOKE politics at work, folks, not sound economic policy. It sounds nice but helps no one. It’s virtue signaling with YOUR cash, and as we all know, any marginal hypothetical benefits of the program will be erased when the beneficiary children’s parents leave the state due to high taxes or lost employment (irony of ironies) OR the kids leave for college and never return (a prominent trend).

Murphy couched this one carefully because he knows he needs to get the Middle Class back on his side for 2021 – assuming he stays and runs.

You know better. Whenever they say “it’s for the children,” it absolutely never is. Not in reality.

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Save Jersey’s Founder and Blogger-in-Chief, MATT ROONEY is a nationally-noted and respected New Jersey political commentator. When he’s not on-line, radio or television advocating for conservative reform and challenging N.J. power-brokers, Matt is a practicing attorney at the law firm of DeMichele & DeMichele in Haddon Heights (Camden County). 

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8403 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.