Two years ago, Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (a former nurse) was urging people to ‘stay home’ and teaching social media users how to sew their own face masks.
Now the Deputy Assembly Republican Leader from New Jersey’s 21st Legislative District is singing a very different tune, joining a united GOP caucus in opposing Phil Murphy’s request for an extension of his annual budget message from February 22nd to March 8th.
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Munoz cited a widely-circulated Johns Hopkins University study which confirmed that Covid-19 lockdown measures – of the kind imposed by Murphy in New Jersey for most of 2020 and 2021 – made no difference in combating the virus.
“Sadly, Governor Murphy hasn’t dropped the act. He says it’s data-driven decisions, but we just don’t see it,” said Munoz who serves as the ranking Republican member on the Assembly Budget Committee. “Pushing the budget address back has nothing to do with science, it’s political science. Covid has been used as a cop-out for too long. This bill helps the governor politically, while the actions over the past two years have proven not to help the residents medically.”
Governor Murphy and his party are starting to retreat; Murphy is giving up on K-12 mask mandates, and a bipartisan committee is finally coming together to take a look at nursing home policy. Trenton Democrats nevertheless granted Murphy’s extension request on Monday which Murphy alleged was a matter of safety.
A2063 passed the Assembly in a 43-32 party-line vote.
The Senate advanced it, too, with two freshman Republican senators (Stanfield and Polistina) voting with the Democrats. The plexiglass dividers were gone during today’s session.
What we’ll be waiting forever to hear?
An apology – or at least an acknowledgement of having been wrong – from the politicians who peddled the pandemic panic in the first place.
