Born to cut: The big man's solo in N.J.
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Born to cut: The big man's solo in N.J.
Actually Springsteen fanatic Chris Christie's first solo in Trenton is a downbeat number, a little bit like the end of Thunder Road. Of course, it may be the end of the road for some New Jersey residents:
A mother of two who is getting a divorce, Ferlazzo said she received a check last year for about $4,000 through the earned-income tax credit, a program for low-income workers, along with a property-tax rebate check for $1,000.
Christie has proposed cutting the state's earned-income tax credit from 25 percent of the federal benefit to 20 percent and essentially slashing property-tax rebates by 75 percent for the fiscal year that begins July 1. If the budget is adopted, Ferlazzo estimated, she could lose from $1,000 to $2,000 through cuts to both programs.
For Ferlazzo, who has two sons, 9 and 22, that translates into necessities such as paying credit-card bills and repairing cars when they break.
Proposed cuts to child-care and after-school programs also worry Ferlazzo, because her 9-year-old relies on a free program where children can work on homework in a supervised environment until 5 p.m. each weekday.
So when thousands of regular middle-class citizens like Ferlazzo stop all their discretionary spending -- deepening the recession and leading to more private-sector layoffs, which will be on top of the thousands of public-sector employees losing their jobs -- are Republicans doing to be screaming "Where are the jobs?!" at Christie like they do now at Obama? You should note that the steepness of the cuts on the middle-class are partly a factor of Christie's promise to not renewl a tax on above-$400,000 earners -- who probably don't need an afternoon day-care program to get to work every day. To me, what the new governor is doing here is the most repugnant kind of class warfare: Crushing the have-littles to benefit the have-a-lots.
As a fellow citizen, it pains me to read stories like Ferlazzo's. Analyzing the situation politically, you have to wonder if the GOP backlash against Obama, the Democrats and "big government" peaked too soon, because now folks like Scott Brown and Chris Christie have to govern and make the kind of difficult decisions that others -- trying to clean up the mess that was left by the lack of leadership in places like Trenton and Washington from the 2000s -- have been dealing with. Now, some Republicans actually have to offer a product along with their brand -- and I don't think November 2010 voters will be racing out to buy it.
I thought this was going to be a story on TPS but I guess the title for that would be "Born to Cut (and Paste)" {{--snip--}}— bird11
Who is John Galt?— DreamShake- Nice work, bird.— RG
- "Now, some Republicans actually have to offer a product along with their brand -- and I don't think November 2010 voters will be racing out to buy it." You mean pubbies should offer up some big government alternative? Funny, that's partially what got them into trouble in 2006 and 2008. The global sovereign debt crisis is crying out for fiscally responsible leaders - and the public is learning more and more that the Dems seek to pour gasoline instead of water on that fire. If the GOP runs true to their platform, they will win in November.— db_cooper
- I guess New Jersey having the HIGHEST taxes in the country isn't high enough for our resident bleeding heart. ONE REASON why New Jersey is in this trouble IS the high tax rate for high income earners. THEY LEFT THE STATE due to high taxes. When they leave, the state collects NOTHING. Lower rates will keep them there paying a large amount of taxes notwithstanding any non renewel of over $400,000 earners! MORE tax collected from LOWER rates!! I find,however,that liberals cannot understand this simple math. See what's going on in California? Same thing. The people with money are LEAVING Cal. for low tax states east of the Golden State! And Wilbur, tell Mrs. Ferlazzo to have Mr. Ferlazzo pay for all the things she "needs", okay? NOT ME.— WriteWinger
- The rhetoric about people who earn over $400k is nonsense. They pay the highest income tax rate, likely have the highest property taxes and probably pay the most sales taxes. Unrealistic people like Will Bunch only offer criticism but never propose a solution. the people of NJ have finally awakened - we don't want bigger government, more entitlements and higher taxes.— jfc
WriteWingnUT - and the high income people left the state???? Man, you dont believe that do you? Can you cite some statistics on that? NJ has the highest per capita in the nation. The highest income state in the entire UNITED STATES. Moron.— Les Ismore- And here is the link wingnut! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_the_United_States_of_America_by_income— Les Ismore
- WriteWingnut: Sheesh, i can spend all day debunking each of your sentences. People are leaving California for the quality of life issues you moron. Overcrowding, a state that cannot govern because of ballot initiatives.— Les Ismore
- "a state that cannot govern because of ballot initiatives." Yeah, if only the pols could steamroll the citizens into giving up more of their tax dollars.— RG
- While I agree that Christie is doing the right thing, I'm not all that sure that Will is wrong to say it can hurt Republicans in November, 2010 and into the future if Republicans stay true and do try to bring some fiscal responsibility back to the government. We may have hit the point where more Americans want the nanny state then want to be fully responsible for their own lives. The constant give aways have made us soft and sacrifice is a foreign concept to many - we want what we want and we want it now. Somebody needs to put the brakes on it but whoever does will not be very popular but sometimes the right thing isn't popular - IMHO this is one of those occassions.— bird11
- Where does it say that a government needs to give taxpayers money from taxpayers so they can have discretionary spending? Are you kidding me? When I don't have enough money to spend on fun things, I don't buy fun things. Simple arithmetic.— frankfj
- jmc, great point. You really offered up concrete policy instead of talking points and personal attacks. It convinced me that your party should be in charge. Simple economics though, you can't cut spending during a recession.— HandNik
- "Simple economics though, you can't cut spending during a recession." So if I don't have any money, I should just borrow stuff to keep spending, instead of cutting back? Brilliant.— RG
- Those special interests Obama whines incessantly about? Looks like Big Pharma is solidly behind health care reform, since they helped shape the bill. More taxpayer funded profits for corporations, cortesy of Obama. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Dems-tap-drugmaker-millions-for-PhRMA-friendly-bill-87852997.html#ixzz0iRmMn5ZI— RG
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