NEW JERSEY’S FISCAL ISSUES. PER CHRISTIE, “DON’T BLAME ME!”

 

…The oversize Governor of New Jersey

 

According to the New Jersey Governor Christie, the state’s financial problems, “Not my problem!”

I have pretty much stayed away from the Chris Christie “Bridgegate” brouhaha, as the individuals that count are only now finally testifying under oath.

But what is becoming a bigger issue for the over-size governor isn’t the issues brought on by Bridgegate.  It is instead, the governor’s reputation for his poor running of the state of New Jersey.

Christie was interviewed on-stage by CBS News’ Bob Schieffer, last week at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s annual “fiscal summit” in Washington DC. 

Now, Bob Schieffer has to be the nicest interviewer that Christie could ever have asked for.  But I’m afraid that numbers are numbers, and that isn’t very good for the results of Christie’s governorship.  As an example of the bad news, there is an $807 million New Jersey budget shortfall; six consecutive downgrades of the state’s credit-ratings; and worry that the state can’t pay its pension obligations.  Add to this, very slow job growth in the state.

The interviewer had also mentioned, “Not so long ago, people were talking about the New Jersey miracle, now suddenly the news is not so good about New Jersey.”

So, the governor did what any good, strong, Republican governor of today’s GOP would do; He blamed the economists. “They overestimated our revenue,” he said. “When I asked them, ‘How could you be so wrong?’ ” he commented, “they said, ‘We just missed it.’ You know, the great thing about economists is that’s all they have to say: ‘Governor, I'm sorry, we missed it.’ Yeah, I'm sure you are, but I'm the one who has to fix your miss.”

I find it interesting that for a governor that is supposed to have his hand directly on the throttle of running his state, the governor then did for the state, just what he did in his response to Bridgegate. He said he was not the one to blame. It was his staff that let him down.  Nope, no blame here for this governor!

The reality is that Christie’s state will possibly not be able to pay that $1.6 billion dollar pension-plan.  As expected, this is also no fault of Christies, and he again just blamed his predecessors. “A billion of it is for the unaccrued liability that my predecessors didn't pay for increased benefits.  Christie Whitman, Jim McGreevey, Dick Codey, Jon Corzine made no pension payments. None. Zero.”

When Schieffer asked how Christie was going to deal with the big pension liability, Christie replied, “Bob keeps asking me these questions as if I’m actually going to answer……you're ruining my reputation.”

It was probably just more bad luck that following the Christie interview, was a presentation by the former president,  Bill Clinton. 

As compared to Christie, Bill was relaxed on stage as he made his latest salvo at Karl Rove.  Bill’s casually blew-off the latest Karl Rove comments about Hillary’s health and he then took a direct shot at Rove by saying, “Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”  There was no question as to who Bill thought had the “little mind.”

As compared to the former president, Christie had been very nervous and stiff on-stage, especially when he was asked about “Bridgegate.” Christie then kept straightening his tie and he eventually grabbed his coffee mug, turned it upside down showing that it was empty. “It’s a prop, obviously,” Christie said.

When Christie was asked as to what impact Bridgegate would have on his political future? "I think it will have none because I didn't do anything," Christie said.  Then he blamed everything on the "circus" of Washington. "A couple of staff people do something that they shouldn't have done, I fire them, and all of a sudden this becomes the biggest story in the country for a couple of months, because I guess you guys weren't doing anything else down here. The bridge will be a footnote. My future is going to be based upon my record."

If that’s the case, to rely on his record as governor, perhaps Mr. Christie should rethink his obvious lack of concern.

Copyright G.Ater  2014