New Jersey Republican State Chairman Jay Webber Abruptly Resigns

   Assemblyman Jay Webber, the Chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee, has resigned from his position as Chairman. The announcement was an unexpected one which seems to have partially been the result of a number of small disagreements between Webber and Governor Christie. In addition to the Governor being unsettled by a letter concerning the budget of the upcoming State Reapportionment Commission,  the Assemblyman is said to have also  been frustrated with  a level of secrecy surrounding the operations of Reform Jersey Now, a fundraising entity created by Governor Christie’s closest confidants and was uncomfortable with the lack of assistance provided by the Governor on state G.O.P. fundraising efforts during the summer, when the Governor was traveling across the country to campaign for fellow Republican gubernatorial candidates. 

As for the disagreement over the letter that Webber sent out regarding the Reapportionment Commission budget, earlier  today, Assemblyman Webber released the same letter on his Facebook page, leading some to wonder if  he was reinforcing his position despite the Governors sentiments.

In a statement to the press, Webber called his resignation “bittersweet” and stated that the only reason for his early departure was due to his commitment to the once in a decade redistricting process, a process that redraws the new congressional and state legislative districts through a reapportionment commission of which Webber is the Republican delegation’s Chairman to and his commitment to responsibilities in the Assembly as a member of the Labor and ever important Budget Committees.  The Assemblyman felt that now was the most appropriate time for him to step aside as State G.O.P. Chairman, focus on his other important responsibilitiesm and allow for the next NJGOP Chairman to get a head start in giving the critical pre-2011 election operations the attention that they deserve and require in the months ahead.

Jay Webber is probably one of New Jersey’s greatest political assets. He is an outstanding voice for conservatism, an unusually outstanding one for a state like New Jersey. He is additionally a dedicated and responsible representative of his legislative district. He is one of those rare political leaders who emanates a genuine sincerity of purpose and ability to boot. As such, he has been entrusted with the stewardship of many important tasks and therefore does indeed have much on his plate. So Webber’s claim to focus on such things as the ever important state budget and the critical redistricting that will effect elections for the next decade, is quite palatable. But seeing him resign his post as State Party Chairman is a loss and the Governor’s willingness to let Webber leave the post is a disappointing one.

During his less than two years in the position of Chairman, the NJGOP experienced its first statewide victory in 12 years, regained the 3rd Congressional District seat, won over 52% of the Congressional votes statewide in 2010; gained a State Assembly seat and a net gain of 22 countywide seats, regained control of the Bergen and Monmouth County Freeholder Boards; implemented an historic Victory program in 2009 that made over 2.3 million volunteer phone calls, knocked on over 170,000 doors, and recruited more than 3500 volunteers, raised over $4 million for candidates and party operations; and registered more than 42,000 new Republican voters.

While Chris Christie and the nationwide political trends against Democrats, Webber was surely not solely responsible for all of these successes but he most certainly was instrumental in maximizing our gains and organizing the means to take advantage of positive Republican prospects.

Webber’s replacement is expected to be Saddle River Mayor and Christie confidant, Sam Raia.

For his part Raia issued a statement crediting now former Chairman Webber with great success and vowing to build upon that success and to take back the legislature in this year’s elections.

To do so, Raia will have a lot of work to do. For now, considering the big shoes that he has to fill, he will need the support of Republicans throughout the state and the full cooperation of Governor Christie.

Governor Crist: If I Can’t Run As A Republican, I’ll Run Against ‘Em

    Charlie Crist, the one term Republican Governor of Florida who is in the race of his life for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination is prepared to announce on Thursday that he will be running for U.S. Senate as an Independent.

The decision will mark the admission of the fact that he has lost favor among the Republicans whose nomination for the job of Senator he is seeking.

As the establishment Republican in the race, after having physically and politically embraced President Obama and President Obama’s economic policies, Crist has seen a precipitous drop in his polling numbers against his sole opponent for the Republican nomination, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Once considered a shoo in for not only the nomination but the senate seat itself, Governor Crist currently finds himself as much as 25% behind Rubio, a conservative and representative of the next generation of Republican leaders who is largely viewed as the anti-establishment candidate and the choice of those who are tired of politics as usual.

Rubio’s remarkable come from behind story has been inspirational to those who wish to send a solid voice to D.C., a voice that will respect common sense and the Constitution and stand up against the illogic and gimmicks of Washington politics.

The established trend in the Florida Republican primary shows that all the momentum is behind Rubio and as Crist’s numbers plummet with each and every day, the Governor has been increasingly nagged by questions of more when than if, he losses the Republican senate nomination, will he run as Independent?

The question has been an important one to people who want to bring real change to the “change” that President Barack Obama brought to the nation in 2009. The inevitable Democrat nominee, liberal Congressman Kendrick Meeks has nothing but a small liberal base of support. His name ID throughout the state is far lower than either Crist’s or now Rubio’s, and in Congress, Meeks has established a record for himself that is undistinguishable in any area other than being a strong proponent of the most extreme policy initiatives of President Obama. In a one on one race, those facts would leave Meeks with a small base of votes that would be swamped by Florida’s large moderate and blue dog Democrats, Independents and Republican votes.

However, if after having been rejected by Republicans, Governor Crist remained on the ballot in November and ran in a three way race, he could split a substantial amount of moderate and blue dog Democrats as well as Independents, a situation which would make it possible for Meek’s small but loyal pool of supporters to have a chance of eking out a slim majority and send another liberal voice to Washington, D.C. to support the radical agenda of President Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

On previous occasions, when asked about a possible Independent candidacy, Charlie Crist denied any intention of doing so or planning to do so, stipulating that he was going to be the Republican nominee.

Now that it has become clear that the Governor will not be the Republican nominee, he has decided to change his mind on the issue.

So much for being a man of his convictions.

In the past Crist has said he would support the nominee. He claimed to be dedicated to the Republican principles that are at the heart of the Party. Yet apparently Crist only feels that way if the Republican Party revolves around him.

I dare suggest that if Charlie Crist can not support Marco Rubio as the Republican candidate than what Crist is actually doing is casting even more doubt than there already is regarding just how dedicated to the principles of the Republican Party he is.

Marco Rubio is a fiscal conservative, a defender of the Constitution and a small government innovator who has put together one of the greatest compilations of citizen based solutions to the problems that Florida and our nation faces. When he was Florida’s Speaker of the House, he went on a statewide “Idearasier” that allowed Rubio to put all the ideas of state residents all together in a book called “100 Innovative Ideas For Florida’s Future”. To date, at least 57 of those 100 ideas have become legislation. They were people based solutions, not political based schemes and Marco Rubio was responsible for bringing them to fruition.

Rubio is a true, fair and open minded conservative, who reflects the type of approach to government that Floridians support. With the exception of Charlie Crist, who is now about to admit that he is a Republican who believes in the conservative foundation of our Party but only if he is the man who represents those principles.

Many Republicans believe in the phrase “In God We Trust” but for the Governor, it is only in Crist that he trusts. Unfortunately most Florida Republicans don’t agree with him on that. When it comes to who they feel is more in touch with the leadership we need, they trust Rubio over Crist.

As such, if Charlie Crist is really opposed to the Obama agenda and if he really supported conservative Republican policies than he would not take the risk of derailing the chances for a solid Republican to fight the Obama Administration on such things as spending and national defense or Cap-and-Trade and the battle to repeal the government healthcare takeover scheme.

If Charlie Crist believed in the policies of the Republican Party he is a member of, he would accept the decision and do like he originally said, “support Florida’s Republican nominee for Senate” He would not be making it more possible to send the opposition to Washington, and that is exactly what his third Party candidacy could help to do.

There must come a time when every man must believe in something greater than self. Now is the time for Governor Crist to do that. He needs to put aside his personal sense of competition, victory and glory and commit himself to being a dedicated soldier in the fight even if he is not made  a General in the war.

Otherwise he is nothing more than opportunistic, egomaniac, more concerned with having the stage than what he does on that stage.

President Obama; The Great Divider

   “It will be up to each of you to make sure that the young people, African Americans, Latinos and women, who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again”

That is the message that the man who once promised to be a transformative political figure who will unite us instead of divide us, recently delivered.

President Obama once tried to convince us that America was not a mix of red states or blue states but that we were purple states, a combination of both political ideals and he tried to tell us that he opposed this notion of blue states and red states.

But ever since he came to office he has been anything but a transformative political figure who has helped to unite us on common ground.

Instead he has been the leftwing political director-in-chief.

The President has spearheaded an economic policy that is based on class warfare. He has done everything possible to shut Republicans out of the political process in Washington, D.C. and taken every opportunity to demonize them. He has spent more time trying to solidify and motivate the liberal base of his next reelection bid and the 2010 mid-term elections than trying to lead us with policies that unite both sides of the political fence.

Instead of trying to use the Constitution of the United States to unite Americans around a set of principles that create the rationale for proper American domestic policies, the President has been undermining the Constitution with initiatives designed to circumvent its intent. The appointment of czars and adoption of policies that have entities such as the EPA create and implement their own regulations without congressional approval are just a few examples of such deceit.

Now, in his own words, the President singles out certain parts of the electorate and asks them alone to be the backbone of Democrat victory in the future.

It is not unusual for a politician to campaign among a woman’s group or an ethnic based organization. It is not unusual for them to try to address their concerns. But what is unusual is for a President of the United States to single them out and publicly call upon them to be part of a partisan victory, while intentionally leaving out entire age groups, sexes, colors and cultures and insinuating that only certain segments of society should be a part of the election of a President who is suppose to be the President of all Americans.

Had a Republican taped an address that stated “It will be up to each of you to make sure that senior citizens, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants , Italians and men , who powered our victory in 2004 stand together once again,” would there not be a cry of racism and partisanship so loud that every newspaper, every media outlet and every minority group would be calling for a national apology or an immediate resignation?

As President Obama gears up for the midterm elections that he hopes will increase his political parties majorities in Congress, maybe he should tone down the partisanship. Maybe, as President, he should finally start to focus on the nation as a whole, not on the basis of a nation that he can divide into voting blocs that he pits against one another.

Maybe President Obama should try to be President and not just a Party leader. Maybe instead of concentrating on motivating one set of Americans more than another, he should start leading all Americans for the benefit of one nation not for the advantage of one Party, or his next round of elections. It is time for President Obama to start looking at how to inspire all Americans and unite all Americans, not just motivate certain Americans by dividing the classes, sexes and ethinic groups that make up America.

Voters Deal Teachers Union And Endless Spending A Big Blow

      In a sign of changing public sentiments, yesterday New Jersey voters joined with freshman Governor Chris Christie and took a stand against property taxes and school spending.

The traditional springtime school board elections that allows voters to approve or disapprove the approximately 479 school district budgets throughout 19 counties of the state, resulted in the rejection of 260 of 479 school budgets. This is the first time in over 35 years that voters rejected 50 percent or more of the their school budgets. And in one case, one county rejected more than 2/3 of their municpal school budgets.

The normally lower than usual voter turnout that the annual school board and budget elections produce, saw much higher than average turnout yesterday. This is despite the fact that state teachers union have embarked on a multimillion dollar statewide campaign to win support for increased spending on education as well as high mandatory pay increases and the continuation of even more lucrative state pension plans for teachers.

The New Jersey Education Association union, has been relentlessly attacking Republican Governor Christie ever since he delivered his state budget message and announced precise steps to reduce the size and cost of state government and begin to close an $11 billion dollar budget deficit in what is the most overtaxed and one of the most underemployed states in the nation.

In that address Governor Christie detailed the reduction of every single department of state government and vowed that after previous governors and state legislators raised taxes over 115 times during the past eight years, he will not repeat their mistakes.

In that same address, the Governor took aim at unions and specifically, the all powerful teachers union.

He said that the teacher’s union was repsonsible for creating two classes in New Jersey, “those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them.”He went further and put the teacher’s union on the spot after staing that unions use;

“political muscle fueled by intimidation tactics, political bullying and smears of public officials who dare to disagree.”

He added;

“This conduct has set up an unfair system. Is it fair to have any public employees getting 4-5% salary increases every year, even when inflation is zero %, paid for by citizens struggling to survive? It is fair to have New Jersey taxpayers foot the bill for 100% of the health insurance costs of teachers and their families from the day they are hired until the day they die? Is it fair that teachers have a better, richer health plan than even state workers and pay absolutely nothing for it?

I believe rank and file teachers know this is not fair and that we can no longer afford to burden our taxpayers with these costs and runaway taxes. The union bosses will tell you, as they always have each time their empire is threatened, that they are protecting our children. This tired song has grown old and inaccurate. Is the way our children learn affected by whether the union gets free family health insurance for life for its members? Does a child learn more if the union gets 5% taxpayer funded raises every year for its members? This is nonsensical and self-serving and we all know it.”

This combined with Christie’s across the board budget cuts, has prompted teachers into a frenzy of fear mongering that has tried to paint Chris Christie as a child killer.

But yesterday, in an unprecedented wave of unorchestrated reaction, voters ratified Chris Christie’s position and rejected the notion that in order to educate the children of New Jersey, money must be pumped into an endless education bureaucracy and residents must “foot the bill” for every aspect of every teachers life.

Apparently the teachers union’s campaign to turn Chris Christie into an enemy of children backfired and turned out to be another waste of money by New Jersey educators because their multi million dollar anti-Christie camapign did not convince voters that Governor Christie is wrong and they failed to get voters to buy their excuses for the need of more money, more taxes and more spending. They rejected it.

Liberals To Tea Party Activists “Drop Dead”

   One week after highly demonized former Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin was featured at a Tea Party rally in Harry Reid’s backyard, the politically ailing Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, has begun to kick his Nevada reelection campaign into high gear. But the two events had very different moods. Despite the lefts desire to paint Palin as an unpopular and undesirable figure, at her rally there was an enthusiasm and energy that emanated from the approximately 10,000 anti-Reid protestors in attendance. Yet in one of Reid’s first rallies, there was a sense of desperation from the near 100 hundred people in attendance.

Such small and unenthusiastic turnouts are the best that one can expect when they possess a nationwide approval rating that CBS reports stands at 8%. That’s 3% behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi! Nancy Pelosi……3% behind her! Imagine that. So the small turnout for Reid’s campaign event is no surprise and it is also indicative of his own state polls which have him behind all of his possible Senate opponents by anywhere from 7% to as much as 15%.

These numbers are a reflection of Reid, his leadership, his policies and the process which, as the leader of the Senate, he has manipulated. People are not pleased by any of it and so the polls show it. And in Reid’s case, they are more than dissatisfied, they are angry. All except for the handful of Reid’s loyal supporters.

These supporters are a dedicated portion of the liberal-Democrat base.

These are people who are devout liberals, believe that the federal government is a service industry and rely heavily on the government for their survival. They are people who believe that we need more government, not less. They are largely Democrat forced union voters and they are essentially those liberals who vote the Party line no matter who is on the ballot.

But they are something else too.

These liberal Reid-supporting Democrats are also angry, and they are dangerous, violent, extremists.

How does one reach this conclusion?

Well, at Harry Reid’s campaign event, he began his remarks by referencing Sarah Palin and the anti-Reid crowd in attendance at the rally the week before. As he began those remarks in a way that was meant to belittle them, one of the loyal Reid supporters yelled out “let them drop dead.”

Clearly such a contemptuous outcry from Reid’s followers reflects a deep hatred for those who oppose them and their beliefs. One could say that it is similar to the terrorists of radical Islam. They too harbor the same feeling as the liberal Reid voter who called for those who think differently than her to “drop dead”.

Or is that in and of itself an extreme characterization of all liberals like those who support Harry Reid?

Personally, I think it is extreme. But by the standards of Democrats, it is not.

Last summer when lawmakers went home to their districts and met with constituents who were truly angry with the liberal agenda and how Democrats were ramming it through Congress, Nancy Pelosi stood before the Washington press corps and said that the anger out their worries her and in a reference to the assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California and San Franciso Mayor George Moscone in 1978, claimed that she fears reliving such a climate again.

Then of course you have people like scandal embroiled Congressman Charlie Rangel who claimed that those protesting the government healthcare takeover reminded him of those who protested against civil rights in the 60’s. There is also Bawny Fwanks, who claimed that the people opposing the healthcare scheme spit at him because he is gay. Where he came up with that one bugs the hell out of me because I for one know that given the opportunity, I would not spit on Bawny because he is gay. I would spit on him because he is a disgrace to gays and a despicably corrupt, socialist member of Congress.

But between Pelosi, Rangel, Fwanks and Democrats et al, and those sectors of the media that is biased in their favor, all these conspiratorial concoctions are invented and exaggerated in a way that makes for great theater and is meant to marginalize those who disagree with their agenda.

But when is enough, enough?

If the media maintained any semblance of objectivity, they would have been reporting on the Reid supporter who interrupted the Senator at his campaign event to yell out “let them drop dead” and they would have done so with the same vim and vigor that they display whenever Democrats try to depict conservatives or Tea Party members as violent racists.

The truth is that, from the sound of it, the women who yelled out her crude remark at the Reid event, was an elderly women. Granted, she was probably not your typical blue haired, church going grandmother or Mayberry’s “Aunt Bea”, but she was a relatively harmless senior citizen who is not likely to be running with a bat in hand and breaking skulls and windows. But she did call for those who disagree with her to “drop dead”.

That said, should that woman’s remark be swept under the rug as Democrats and the media have done? Had they not tried to falsely paint conservatives and Tea Party protestors as dangerous radicals, I would say “yes”. It should be ignored. However, unless one supports double standards, the remark can’t be ignored.

To apply the left’s standard to this situation, one would have to suggest that Reid voters and the liberal base that make up those supporters are “calling for violence”. You could say they are full of hate and contempt and that they are dangerous extremist who must be stopped.

Furthermore; should we ignore the fact that as the leader of the senate, Reid failed to put an end to that type of conduct and language?

There is no denying the fact that Reid heard the old biddies raspy and shaky voice as she yelled her uncalled for remark. So why did not this leading figure of the Democrat Party pause to say something like, “Now, now. There will be none of that. These are fellow Americans who simply disagree with us and such uncivil and untoward language has no place in political discourse”?

But no, not Harry. In fact you could say that his negative remarks about Sarah Palin and the people in attendance at the protest rally she spoke at, incited the aggressive reaction that he got from the bitter, decrepit spinster who wants all of those who disagree with her to “drop dead”.

The outrageous remarks of some bored old lady who was enticed to come to a Harry Reid campaign event because of free coffee and cookies, should not change the political landscape. It should not have a bearing on how much more debt our nation accumulates, how many I.R.S. agents it should take to implement healthcare or how we can prevent sworn enemies from obtaining the nuclear capacity to wipe sections of society off of the map. And the same should hold true of a handful of malcontents who may infiltrate a crowd of 50,000 or more people who come together to oppose some of the most transformative pieces of legislation we have ever known.

If this cycle of demonizing one another is to ever stop, perhaps liberals should stop printing labels and stop trying to pit white against black, rich against poor, men versus women, gay versus straight and all the other division that they pin their hopes for future success on. And perhaps it is time for them to live by one standard, not a double one. For if you think about, do you really think that a remark for the opposition to drop dread coming from an audience gathered to hear Dick Cheney would have gone unnoticed? Imagine for a moment, how many days such a remark would have grabbed the headlines if it was yelled out at an event featuring Michele Bachmann or Newt Gingrich?

The remark spoken to Harry Reid at a campaign event is less a statement than how it was handled. The fact that the right is not labeling the left as vicious and dangerous because of it, says something pretty decent of them but the fact that the media hasn’t hung it around the left’s neck like they do with Republicans and that Harry Reid did not denounce the remark says volumes of substantially negative political nuances.

Chris Christie’s Bold Budget Makes Him A Leader, Not A Politician

   “Today, we begin doing what we promised we would do. The defenders of the status quo have already begun to yell and scream. They will try to demonize me. They will seek to divide us rather than unite us. But even they know in their hearts, if not yet in their minds it is time for a change.”

That is how New Jersey Governor Chris Christie introduced his first annual budget message to the state legislature.

In its entirety, the stated goals and planned path to prosperity in his proposed budget, stunned me as he spoke in words that I never thought we would hear come out of a politicians mouth.   As such, I found myself, for the first time, proud of a New Jersey Governor and even more surprising, proud of the the kind of Republican New Jersey has leading us.

In both the tone and content, Chris Christie’s speech was a shock to the political establishment that is certain to make him public enemy number one of special interest groups and the political class which feeds from the trough of special interests.

After confirming that New Jersey is both the highest taxed state in the nation and the state with the highest budget deficit in the nation, Christie hammered home the fact  that high taxes are obviously not solving any problems. In making this point, the freshman governor proceeded to unveil an in depth analysis of the problems that brought the Garden State to one of its lowest points in history and the way in which he intends to turn it around. His budget speech revealed a plan that did not use a scalpel to finesse the financial ruin that New Jersey lies in. Instead he proved to be  pulling out not just an axe, but rather a budgetary blowtorch that will scorch the earth that political excess, government waste, abuse, and out of control government growth, stands on.

Chris Christie’s budget slashing plan has no sacred cows and it contains no partisan focus, for even his own Party was called out when he accused both Republicans and Democrats of steeling $4.7 billion from the trust fund that was set up for state unemployment insurance benefits but spent for other purposes.

From there, Governor Christie proceeded to not just touch all of the third rails in politics, he grabbed them with both hands and ripped them from their deeply rooted foundations.

With the use of a very timely analogy, Christie told New Jerseyans and their legislative representatives;

“We have the worst unemployment in the region and the highest taxes in America, and that’s no coincidence. Is the way to fix that problem to make our taxes even higher? This has been their prescription for the last ten years and the job market in New Jersey is near death”

He continued……

“You changed doctors in November for this very reason now it is time to change medicine, too. Off the temporary high that comes from higher taxes and greater spending. Back to the hard, difficult medicine of fiscal discipline, lower spending and less debt which in your heart you know will lead to the greater long term health of our state.”

Where he powerfully discussed generalities, Christie made it clear that there was a new sheriff in town and that things will in fact be different. But in specifics, Chris Christie sounded as though he was keeping his promise to govern as if he planned on being a one term Governor unconcerned with winning the favor of the power brokers and the political establishment.

In that vein, the Governor proceeded to aim his words at every leading figure of every leading group that is draining the life out of New Jersey. And with sniper like precision, his words struck those entities right between the eyes.

To the state senators and assemblymen gathered before him in Trenton, Christie said;

“Ladies and gentlemen, I was not sent here to approve tax increases; I was sent here to veto them. And mark my words, if a tax increase is sent to my desk, I will veto it. It is time for the tax madness to end. The point is, we have tried that route. And it has failed. Previous administrations and legislatures have raised taxes 115 times in the last eight years alone. Raising taxes again on the people of New Jersey, the highest taxed citizens in the country, would be insane.”

To members of his Cabinet and the heads of state agencies, the Governor said;

“Every single department of state government will be reduced: Agriculture, down 24%; Banking, down 12%; Children and families, down 4%; Community affairs, down 35%; Corrections, down 7%; Environmental protection, down 2%; Education, down 8%; Health and senior services, down 6%; Human services, down 4%; Labor, down 6%; Law and public safety, down 7%; Military affairs, down 2%; The public advocate, down 25%. State, transportation and treasury, down 11, 3, and 39%, respectively.”

Those measures will close the existing budget gap by 2.9 billion dollars in savings.

In reference to state workers and unions, there too, the Governor failed to tip toe around their desires and demands and stated that in his budget…..;

“$3 billion in savings results from recognizing that our pension system must be reformed before we can or should fund a broken, out of control system. The pension system has been so generous that it has created a flood of liabilities. From 2002 to 2008, pension payments to retirees grew 56%, triple the inflation rate. Our benefits are too rich, most public employees contribute too little, and the taxpayers have had enough — enough of out of control pensions to public sector unions while they are losing their own jobs, enough of losing their homes, and then being told by the union bosses that they must pick up the tab for rich pensions at the same time.”

Christie even directly addressed one of the states biggest union, the teachers union.

In no uncertain terms he accused them of setting up two classes of citizens in New Jersey “those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them.” But he did not stop there. He continued to give the all powerful teacher’s union, a long overdue reality check and tongue lashing as he publicly put them on the spot;

“Political muscle fueled by intimidation tactics, political bullying and smears of public officials who dare to disagree. This conduct has set up an unfair system. Is it fair to have any public employees getting 4-5% salary increases every year, even when inflation is zero %, paid for by citizens struggling to survive? It is fair to have New Jersey taxpayers foot the bill for 100% of the health insurance costs of teachers and their families from the day they are hired until the day they die? Is it fair that teachers have a better, richer health plan than even state workers and pay absolutely nothing for it?

I believe rank and file teachers know this is not fair and that we can no longer afford to burden our taxpayers with these costs and runaway taxes. The union bosses will tell you, as they always have each time their empire is threatened, that they are protecting our children. This tired song has grown old and inaccurate. Is the way our children learn affected by whether the union gets free family health insurance for life for its members? Does a child learn more if the union gets 5% taxpayer funded raises every year for its members? This is nonsensical and self-serving and we all know it.”

 The scathing remarks prompted television cameras to scan the audience in the assembly chambers balconies and focus on the President of the New Jersey Education Association union president. Once fixed on her, the shaking of her head to the left and right and a tight lipped grimace were clear signs of her discontent with the Governor’s remarks.

But the Governor’s words rang true and they were perhaps the most brutally honest and aggressively critical language that any elected official has ever extended to any of the states over inflated wings of organized labor. They were the words of a leader not seeking political favor from special interests, but seeking to do what is best for the people who are abused by special interests.

And so in the Christie budget proposal school district employees will be required to pay for a reasonable portion of their health care costs in a way that according to Christie, is “just like every other New Jerseyan.”

He punctuated his proposal by stating;

 “If we do not end this dual system, state and local government will have to raise taxes endlessly to pay for it. Teachers are not the problem, they get it. Trenton special interests are the problem and we must stand up to them.”

There were many more powerful, verbal punches thrown by New Jersey’s new governor. But what they all amounted to was a budget for the fiscal year that does something that the budgets of few, if any other political leaders in America, do………..it stops playing politics with numbers and the state treasury and starts adding the numbers up responsibly and using taxpayers dollars sparingly and wisely.

Chris Christie’s budget and his budget speech confirmed something that he said when he took office just eight short weeks ago…..“change has come to New Jersey.” He promised that his time in office would not be business as usual, and so far, it is easy to see that he was not lying.

The Christie budget seeks to cut $445 million dollars in various forms of municipal, a proposal made after he told municipal governments to “get [their] acts together” because the state will no longer reward irresponsible spending. The Governor made it clear that only those municipalities that are showing transparency and cutting their budgets will be receiving state aide. All others will have to suffer the consequences of their own wasteful spending.

On this note, the Governor not only proposed a budget that addresses the immediate fiscal problems facing New Jersey, but also the long term problem. His contention is that the out of control spending and growth of state and local government got us to this point and to help curtail the problem from repeating itself, Christie proposed a “toolkit to protect taxpayers from property tax increases”.   That tool kit includes what he referred to as Proposition 2½ — a constitutional amendment to cap the growth of property taxes at no more than 2½% per year and also contains a constitutional amendment that caps the growth of state spending at 2½ percent per year.

Here, Christie put the Democrat led state assembly and senate on the spot again and urged them to pass these amendments so that the people could vote on them.

Christie’s presentaion was fearless and his lack of fear never dissipated at anypoint during his address. His budget speech called for civil service reform that will give all levels of local government, the choice to opt out of civil service. “That tool alone will save an untold amount of taxpayer dollars and make management of our towns better and more professional”, said Christie.

Among the governor’s other bold moves are the creation of a privatization board that will eventually take New Jersey state government out of the business of running things like the parking garages it currently owns and operates and turning its state run New Jersey television network (NJN) into an independent, not-for-profit network. Other goals include achieving savings by identifying other state operations that can be contracted out to “competent” outside firms.

Additional cost saving measures include the implementation of electronic benefit transfer cards instead of paper. A measure that would, among other things, crack down on Medicaid fraud, and in the case of state employee salaries reduce the cost of the process by going to a direct deposit system.

By the time Governor Christie finished his address, there were no stones left unturned and no government entity, state subsidized institution or old school economic political practice that was spared from his call for government to tame itself and for special interests to realize that the well is dry.

Chris Christie’s first major plan of action for New Jersey was a far cry from politics as usual. He did not try to ingratiate himself with powerbrokers or indicate to state lawmakers that he will not govern by trying to go along with them  to get along with them. He made it clear that the economic crisis that confronts us, leaves no time to play political games and leaves us with no opportunity to put off what must be done today, for another day.   Christie made it quite obvuiuosit that today is New Jersey’s day of reckoning and unlike state leaders of the past, this Governor did not place the burden on the people. He placed the burden on the people’s government.

In his budget, gone are the politics gimmicks that rob from Peter to give to Paul. And gone are any traditional attempts to continue pumping an unsustainable, unethical, illogical, and inappropriate, bloated, government by resorting to taxing the most overtaxed people in the nation even more.

Governor Christie proved himself to be just what New Jersey, as well as the nation needs. He stepped up to plate and showed himself to be not a politician but instead, a true leader.

His brand of fiscal leadership represents all that I as a Republican understand more Republicans must adhere to. It was more than just ideological economic policies. It was true fiscal responsibility based on true fiscal facts, not theory. The Christie budget plan adds and subtracts real numbers. Numbers untainted by political favors or promises or cloaking tactics.

The blunt and brutal truth underscored in Christie’s remarks amounted to a profile in courage of a an elected official who has finally decided to be a leader, not a politician. And in the end, it offered a ray of hope to those who have lost faith in government and come to believe that there are no longer any people of true character, courage and leadership, who are willing to challenge the political establishment.

It is becoming more and more evident that Chris Christie is such a person.

Click here to view the entire Christie budget address.  You will be impressed.

Using Stimulus Money For The Troubled Reelections of Democrats

The Obama Economic Policy........Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money!!

    One year after President Obama’s historic, pork filled stimulus package was passed by the Democrat controlled Congress, the liberal regime claims that it saved us from economic ruin, created jobs and grew the economy. President Obama claims that this is the “view of economist from across the spectrum”. What President Obama doesn’t tell you is that is a lie. Not only do a majority of economists not agree, the actual numbers all indicate the exact opposite of what the President is trying to have us buy.

Despite his claims, unemployment has risen, self sustaining private sector jobs have not been created and even the number of temporary tax payer funded jobs that were created with stimulus money have been faked. This was made evident when recovery.gov, the federal website that shows how stimulus money was being spent, claimed to have created far more jobs than it actually did. It even claimed that stimulus money created hundreds of thousands of jobs in congressional districts that did not exist.

Established facts like these are common knowledge and most Americans understand that the one year anniversary of the so called economic recovery act is hardly an anniversary to be celebrated. Celebrating the one year anniversary of the stimulus package makes about as much sense as Hallmark producing Happy 9/11 day cards.

So while most of us understand this and realize that we can’t spend our way to prosperity, what many of us have left on the backburner is the more than $500 billion of stimulus money that still has not been spent.

That is about two thirds of the entire stimulus package, and it is still sitting there.

If spending taxpayer, debt inducing, federal money, is so critical to job creation, economic growth and the prosperity of our nation, why has most of it still not been spent? With unemployment far exceeding the level which President Obama promised the stimulus package would keep it below, why have we not spent more of the existing stimulus money? It is in the budget and it is not as though a country like Saudi Arabia or China is borrowing it from us. In fact, in the case of China, it’s just the opposite. So what is the President waiting for?

He is waiting for the few months before the midterm elections kick into high gear.

President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, the Democrat National Senate and Congressional Committees, along with the DNC, are all waiting to sit down and target the states and districts where they are going to have uphill reelection battles. The stimulus money will help boost the reelection chances of those whose reelections are in doubt. People like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, will see lots of that remaining $500 billion plus in stimulus money sent to his state of Nevada. Troubled senators like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas will also see a large portion of stimulus money sent to her state at the last minute. Many of the 60 to 80 congressional districts that are the home to Democrats congress members who are facing uphill reelections will also be seeing lots of stimulus money.

This is essentially what the Obama stimulus package was originally meant to do. It was meant to buy your support and that is exactly why so much of this money has been held back. It is a Democrat National Committee slush fund.

Now I know liberals will hem and haw and try to deny this. I know you will all claim that those fake congressional districts where hundreds of thousands of stimulus jobs were created are real jobs, and I know you will say that it is all George Bush’s fault, but you know what? You have been saying all this for more than a year now and its getting tired.

In the mean time, the stimulus package that still has not been fully spent has cost American a trillion dollars and still not prevented 3 million more Americans from losing their jobs.

Now anyone who would still vote for President Obama will try to deny all these facts. They will insist that having lost only three million jobs was actually an increase in the employment numbers because we could have lost five million jobs. However; that type of liberal mathematics is no longer seen as legitimate and real people do not consider a loss to be a gain. That type of new math has gone the way of ebonics and is not accepted as reliable teachings.

Liberals will continue to deny the entire economic dark age that they are throwing us into and reigning over but they will have a very difficult time trying to deny the way that the remaining stimulus money is spent during the 2010 midterm elections.

Mark my words, any Democrat facing a tough reelection battle will see large sums of the remaining stimulus money poured into their districts and states like a Bill Clinton dolling out dollars in a whorehouse.

So rest assured that President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid will be carefully targeting certain troubled Democrats and issuing stimulus money to them in a way quite similar to that of how they tried to buy the votes of Blanche Lincoln, Byron Dorgan, and Mary Landrieu, during the failed attempt to pass their government run healthcare scheme.

Obama Administration Is Sending Us Into An Economic Dark Age

    On Tuesday, in a televised interview, President Obama’s top political economic advisor, Larry Summers, unintentionally explained why the current liberal regime in Washington, D.C. is setting the United States up for a prolonged economic dark age.

Summers told Fox Business News that the administration’s economic agenda and their planned rate hikes on Americans earning $250,000 a year, will strengthen the economy and he did so by claiming that

“Almost all economists who studied these things have that kind of view,”.

Not only was Larry Summer’s claim an exaggeration, it was a downright lie.

The American Economic Association has 22,000 registered, professional members. More than 90% of them oppose tax increases and approve tax cuts. But liberal spinmiesters like Summers claim that “almost all economists” have the view that increasing taxes on those who are investing in the sustainable free market and fueling it and our economy , should be penalized and have the government take more of their money and do the investing instead of them.

Summers is not an economic advisor, he is an economic terrorist who is blatantly trying to plunder the source of America’s real economic survival……, the overburdened American consumer. What Summers fails to point out is that by taking more money from those who earn $250,000 a year we are insuring that these people, the ones who invest in business and industry, the ones who start up small business and create jobs, will have less to invest and less to start those business or keep them going with.

The economic strategy of Larry Summers and the Obama regime, is not an economic strategy at all. It is a political strategy. Democrats know that there is mileage to be gained by continuing to wage class warfare. They know that middle and lower class Americans who are hurting will always have a bit of resentment for those who are wealthy or relatively wealthy. Last year, the New York Times reported that 74% of all Americans favor taxes on people who make more than $250.000 a year. They also reported that in the same poll 51% of all Americans would support those same higher taxes even if it “hurts the economy”. Even if it hurts the economy!

Well that is exactly what the Obama regime is doing……hurting, not helping the economy. And they are willingly doing so because they know that they can get, even some quiet support, from those who want to ‘stick it’ to those who are better off than them. The economic policies of President Obama are not based on the future prosperity of this nation. It is based on trying to maintain a 50 plus 1 percent electoral strategy that allows them to be competitive in elections. This is not leadership, it’s cowardice. This is not policy, it’s politics.

It works like this.

Back in 2003, when liberals were trying to oppose the Bush tax cuts, they obtained signatures from 400 economists who opposed the tax cuts and then ran with headlines like

“”Economists Blast Bush Tax-Cut Proposal” and “Bush Tax-Cuts Come Under Fire from Economists.”

With 22,000 members in the American Economic Association, 400 of them amounts to 1.8% of American economist. So while 1.8% opposed the cuts, Democrats tried to convince you that since four hundred professionals supposedly in the know oppose it, it must be bad.

What liberals did not tell you is that 98.2% of those ‘in the know’, support tax cuts.

Flash forward to today when Larry Summers, the President’s chief economic political strategist is telling us that “most economists” agree with the Administration’s punishing tax increases.

The President’s lack of willingness to provide true leadership on the issue is plunging us into an economic ‘Dark Age’.

While he is proposing more and more historic levels of government spending, his tax increases on those he calls “the rich”, will absorb the flow of money and the growth of any sustainable American economy.

Look at nothing but the facts. Despite trillions of dollars in new spending designed to create jobs and grow the economy, few if any private sector jobs have been created. These are sustainable jobs, work that finances itself through the free market and private sector. Work that does not require government funded taxpayer dollars to keep them viable. The only jobs that may have currently been created by all the new government spending are government jobs that provide the type of employment which requires taxpayers to pay for. They are not sustainable jobs.

Add to that a well over trillion dollar deficit, the lack of a growing economy or sustainable job growth, the lethal combination of shortfalls in long term federal entitlement programs, a near tripling of the national debt, and tax increases on those who pump money into the economy and what you have is a bus that is headed toward the end of the cliff that we are precariously traveling on.

Between increased government spending on unsustainable government jobs and government programs, and tax increases on sources that create sustainable jobs and economic growth, and what we are seeing is the epitome of liberal hypocrisy.

During tough economic times, the left insists that the government must spend our way out of it and into prosperity. Yet when the economy is running strong, liberals insist that it is our government’s moral obligation to still spend more money. This have your cake and eat too economic policy that legitimizes government spending under all circumstances, does not suffice. Not anymore.

But to this, the Obama regime and his comrades on the left fire back with the charge that Republicans are not offering any alternatives. According to Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and even the President, they claim that the G.O.P. is “just the party of ‘no’.”

What they don’t tell you is this.

Last year House Republicans proposed a budget that did provide an alternative to the Obama political economic strategy. It did the following.

It Kept federal spending at just above 20 percent of the gross domestic product, called for a temporary moratorium on earmarks and a cleaning up of the process that promotes earmarks, borrowed $3.6 trillion less than the President Obama’s budget, simplified the existing arcane tax code and had ‘NO’ tax increases, attempted to reform the unsustainable costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and created $23,000 less debt per household than President Obama did.

These were alternatives that Republicans in the House put forward. But they were not the only ones House Republicans proposed. They also sponsored efforts to takes back the stimulus money that will be spent in 2010 and the years to follow once the recession is expected to be over. And one other notable proposal was a freeze on non-defense, non-veterans spending at the existing level for five years.

Sound familiar? It should.

One year later, in his State of the Union address, Supreme Czar Obama proposed a similar spending freeze for this year. It is an idea that, had President Obama been willing to work in the bipartisan manner that he is now calling for, he could have considered and enacted with Republican support.

A real “economic advisor” would have told the President to take that offer and run with it. He would have told him that it is a way to get Republican votes for the budget, show a sign of bipartisanship and perhaps begin to allow the government to get a handle on its out of control spending. But Larry Summers is not an economic advisor, he is a political strategist who is not working for the Commander-In-Chief, he is working for the Candidate-In-Chief.

Former President Clinton Rushed To the Hospital

    Reports are sketchy at this early time, but apparently former President William Jefferson Clinton has been rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan for an emergency heart procedure.

The exact condition of the problem as well as the procedure he is receiving under emergency conditions is not yet know.

Several years ago President Clinton recieved major pulmonary surgery that helped resolve a pre-existing heart problem.  His recovery was slow but steady and up to now he has been in perfect health.

Garden State Gays Are Tired of Democrats Blowing Smoke Up Their Skirts

`    Gays in New Jersey are finally waking up.

After Democrats in the assembly, state senate and governor’s office promised to pass gay marriage legislation for more than four years, their failure to do so has finally made gays realize something. It finally dawned upon them that they are being taken for a ride by Democrats.

Year after year, former Governor Jon Corzine told gay activists that same sex marriage was a top priority for him. So did the Senate President, Dick Codey. And Speakers of the Assembly did as well.

For many people their promises offered reason to be happy. Democrats have controlled New Jersey for over eight years. They have held the majority in both state houses and the governor’s mansion under three different Democrats, Jon Corzine, Acting Governor Dick Codey and Jim McGreevey, who oddly enough announced that he himself was gay and then resigned. Talk about your profiles in courage.

So with all these Democrats holding all this power and promising to do what the gay community wanted, you’d think Democrats would deliver. And they almost did. Almost.

After Governor Corzine promised to make same sex marriage a top priority during his first, second and third year in office, he reiterated that in his fourth year in office, he would do it. But as Jon Corzine found himself in a tough reelection year, that promise, well, it fell to the back burner.

The same thing with the Assembly Speaker and Senate President. Although they spoke of their desire to see marriage equality legislation, they just couldn’t seem to find a way to bring it up for a full legislative vote.

In the mean time, Republicans have been urging that the issue of same sex marriage be put on the ballot for the people to decide on.

But Democrats failed to allow that too.

It wasn’t until Governor Corzine lost his reelection bid and became a lame duck, that outgoing Senate President Dick Codey brought it up for a vote in the State Senate. Governor Corzine stated that if the Senate and Assembly passed same sex marriage, he would sign it into law.

How brave of him.

Since he now had nothing to lose after already losing the election, now he was willing telling the legislature that if they pass it, he will sign it.

Meanwhile, the only reason Dick Codey brought the bill up, was to put the incoming Senate President in a tough position.

Like Corzine, Codey had nothing to lose either. He was defeated by State Senator Steve Sweeney for his leadership position as Senate President. So the outgoing Codey put the incoming Sweeney in a tough position that would have either the majority of voters angry at Sweeney for voting for same sex marriage, or have gay activists angry at him for not voting for it.

So Codey’s revenge took place. He called a vote on same sex marriage.

The measure failed.

This despite the fact that Democrats hold the majority of votes. And as for Sweeney, the incoming Senate President, ………he abstained.

Now wasn’t that an act of courage.

As for Garden State gays, they were mortified and infuriated.

As is the case with most gay men and women, New Jersey gays do nothing but swoon over everyone and anything associated with the Democrat Party. If their was a Democrat to donate time or money to, they were there. If there was a rally a Democrat needed bodies for, gays were there. The gay community also went to the polls and voted for any candidate who was a Democrat in near unanimity. They view voting for Democrats in an election as more of a tradition, than a decision. They just pull the lever for the column that says Democrat. No matter what, they vote Democrat. They have some sort of blind faith in them, believing that they are on their side and have their backs.

Well now they have finally woken up.

Steven Goldstein, President of Garden State Equality, the largest gay political organization in New Jersey, has come out and told its more than 65,000 members to stop donating to the Democrat Party.

According to Goldstein, Democrats waited to act on gay marriage until after the election when they should have instead acted on the issue long before the election. And so now Goldstein understands the game that was played and that he was just one pf the unwitting players. He now also understands that Democrats have taken support for them from the gay community for granted.

But no more says Goldstein. He declares that the “gay ATM machine is closed” and he wants the gay community to stop blindly supporting Democrats.

Well its about time!