What Jindal and Christie said, and how it matches the facts

While Gov. Christie spent most of Tuesday's undercard debate attacking Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal went after the New Jersey governor.

Trying to make the case that Republicans should nominate a hard-line conservative like himself, Jindal attacked Christie's fiscal record in New Jersey.

Jindal was right on many points, and some of Christie's responses lacked context.

At one point, Jindal said, "Chris, I think records matter. I think the way we govern matters. Under your leadership in New Jersey, your budget's gone up 15 percent."

Spending, Jindal added, was up $5 billion, and New Jersey has suffered nine credit downgrades.

Jindal was comparing fiscal years 2011 and 2016. During the first year in which Christie introduced his own budget (fiscal 2011), New Jersey spent $29.4 billion. Spending for the current fiscal year is budgeted for $33.8 billion, an increase of 15 percent, as Jindal said. However, that's not quite an increase of $5 billion.

Jindal also was correct about the credit downgrades. Each of the three major Wall Street ratings firms has downgraded New Jersey's general obligation bonds three times since 2010.

Christie deflected the criticism and kept his focus on Clinton. He later defended his fiscal record.

"I've cut spending $2 billion, except for our pension and health care in New Jersey, which is driven predominantly by Obamacare," Christie said.

Christie frequently cites this number, usually saying that minus pensions, health care, and debt service, he has cut spending by $2.3 billion since fiscal 2008.

That year, the state spent $27.66 billion on everything but those three items, according to Treasury data. For the current fiscal year, the state is scheduled to spend $25.27 billion on "discretionary" items such as education and municipal aid.

These numbers support Christie's claim of cutting spending by $2 billion since 2008, when Democrat Jon S. Corzine was governor, though he neglected to mention debt service.

However, discretionary spending has actually increased since Christie's first full budget in fiscal 2011, when the state spent $24.1 billion on such items.

Moreover, Christie's definition of "discretionary" is a bit misleading. He doesn't count pension funding in that category, but he has nevertheless cut state contributions to the pension system for public workers.

Christie said during the debate that he had "reduced the number of employees we have on the state payroll by 15 percent."

Christie has cut the state workforce, but not by as much as he claimed. In December 2009, the month before he came into office, there were 153,100 state employees, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In August 2015, there were 143,600 employees, according to seasonally adjusted figures.

That matches the campaign's claim on its website that Christie reduced the state workforce by 9,400 jobs. But it's a decrease of only 6.2 percent, not 15 percent as Christie said Tuesday.

His claim that Obamacare is driving the increase in health-care costs also isn't entirely accurate.

Christie's pension and health benefits commission wrote in a September 2014 report that the cost of state health plans is "far above average by any measure."

The commission offered a number of reasons: "Some of the increase in costs over time is due to the general rise in medical care costs nationally. Some of the difference in state and national costs is driven by the generally high cost of obtaining medical care in New Jersey. A large part of the high and increasing costs of the state health programs, however, appears to be due to the extensive benefits and relatively low cost to employees of the plans most frequently selected by state health program enrollees."

A fourth driver, the commission said, involved Obamacare, saying the excise tax on so-called Cadillac plans is "looming on the horizon."

Starting in 2018, a 40 percent tax will kick in on what the Obama administration deems the most generous plans. The commission projects this will cost the state an additional $284 million by 2022.

This fiscal year, the budget includes about $3.3 billion for employee health benefits.

Later, Jindal said to Christie, "You caved in to Obamacare; you expanded Medicaid."

It's true that Christie expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Some states, including Jindal's Louisiana, have opted not to do that.

Christie's treasurer said in February that 390,000 New Jersey residents had signed up for Medicaid since the state expanded the program in 2014.

Christie didn't argue about Medicaid, but later responded that "we've stopped Obamacare in New Jersey because we refused to participate in the federal exchange."

This isn't accurate. As of February, 250,000 New Jersey residents had gained health insurance through the federal health-care marketplace on www.healthcare.gov, according to Treasury.

This saved the state about $150 million last fiscal year.

However, Christie did veto legislation that would have established a state exchange.

Christie expanded on that point in an interview with CNN Wednesday. "We absolutely said no to Obamacare's desire to have the state government take responsibility for everything that happens in Obamacare but have no say over the cost and no say over the management," he said.

"I said no to that, and that's how we put a stop to having our state participate in Obamacare, but the federal government is free to have anyone participate if they want, and that's what they're doing in New Jersey."

aseidman@phillynews.com

856-779-3846 @AndrewSeidman

Inquirer staff writer Jonathan Lai contributed to this article.