by How did Chris Christie get elected governor of New Jersey? Why would the people elect a bully in a suit who secretly caters to big business while publicly cutting the lifelines of the working class and the less fortunate?
Christie’s first big blunder was losing a massive amount of money from Washington, D.C. for the schools:
After New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration shamefully lost $400 million in Federal education funds for the State because of an error in their application, the school system in the Garden State was looking woefully undervalued and critically underfunded. Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, pledged $100 million of his own money to specifically help the blighted Newark, New Jersey school system.
Now, Christie is refusing to honor a New Jersey promise — HIS promise as governor — to build a transportation tunnel, and he isn’t giving back any of the money sent to the State to build the thing:
The next stop for New Jersey in its debt collection fight with the federal government may be federal court.
On Friday, the Transportation Department flatly rejected the state’s arguments for refusing to repay $271 million that was spent on a project, canceled last year, to build a pair of rail tunnels under the Hudson River. The message to Gov. Chris Christie was blunt: Repay now or we will collect the debt the hard way. Plus interest.
In a letter to New Jersey’s senators and representatives in Congress, Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, warned that his department had “many tools under the Debt Collection Act to recoup the lost federal taxpayer funds, including withholding future state funding from a wide variety of sources.” But “in consideration of the current economic challenges burdening New Jersey,” Mr. LaHood added, he hoped to “develop a workable payment schedule” and avoid having to resort to those collection methods.
What kind of man punishes children and reneges on a deal with the Federal government?
The fact that some conservatives in the media think Chris Christie is presidential material is an absolute guffaw. His bully tactics will not work on a national stage. He has already been revealed, in situ, as a man of little honor — and a nation cannot survive for very long with immoral leadership.
The fact that he is refusing to repay money that was given for a project that he cancelled says it all to me. Quite shameful.
Right! You don’t want to build it, fine — BUT GIVE BACK THE MONEY! It’s simple. Stop pandering to money and do the right thing for the people of your State!
They voted for him. Maybe there wasn’t a good alternative, maybe people voted for stupid reasons (“I’ll show those Democrats!), but they got who they voted for. Don’t like the choice? Next election you get another chance to make a better one. If you really care, work to find someone who would make the best choice – someone who doesn’t renege on promises and work on a secret payroll from big business, all the while telling the working and middle classes they need to sacrifice to save the state. Find someone who really cares about New Jersey (or your own state, do you hear me Wisconsin?) and not those who paid to have him/her elected to do their bidding, or just as bad, someone with a head full of Ayn Rand’s fictional (yes, her books are FICTION books folks) economic theories they can’t wait to use your state and YOU to experiment on.
Hi Barbara —
Christie’s win was definitely because of the South Jersey-ites who wanted lower property taxes. We’ll see if they’re happy in the next election cycle enough to keep him in office. I know North Jersey are ready for a fight next time around — they have finally been awakened.
Don’t get me started on Ayn Rand! SMILE! How she could be used as a template or an inspiration for any human interaction is beyond my knowing. http://sciaes.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-form