If Chris Christie is truly one of the better candidates the Republicans can put forward I am going to predict a Democrat wins the 2016 Presidential election (nytimes story on a speech). New Jersey is the second most expensively governed state in the U.S., collecting 12.27 percent of residents’ income compared to a national average of 9.8 percent (Tax Foundation). As New Jersey is a very wealthy state and they spend far more than they collect (e.g., by running up massive pension fund deficits) this means that they spend a crazy high number of dollars per capita. What do taxpayers get for their dollars? Based on my visits to a cousin’s house over the years, I don’t think that they get more than we residents of Massachusetts, with our 10.28 percent tax burden (Tax Foundation). Are the streets of Newark paved with hidden gold?
New Jersey has had some economic success, of course, but this seems to be due to its proximity to New York City and Philadelphia, not due to political or management magic worked by Governor Christie. His claim for consideration as President based on the continued prosperity of a state right next to the cash fountains of Wall Street reminds me of Mitt Romney claiming to be a business genius because he bought companies using leverage during one of the biggest stock market booms in U.S. history. (previous posting)
What do New Jersey-based readers says? Is there something special about Christie that national voters should know?
I kind of like the reductionist approach of voting for presidential candidates based entirely on the tax burden of their states. All In for Matt Mead! (Who has not announced, as far as I know, and whom I readily admit to never having actually paid attention to before.)
Candidates that are already US Senators would, I assume, have to take the *federal* tax burden as theirs instead, which is only just and right.
The great advantage of this reductionist approach for the immediate future is never having to contemplate Christie, Cuomo or Dan Malloy as presidential candidates again, with the additional pleasure of ignoring Joe Lieberman totally.
His biggest claim to fame is some moves toward pension reform, accomplished (such as they were) in the face of fierce opposition from the unions.
Which, I have to say, would be way more impressive if Scott Walker weren’t one of the alternatives to him.
Lelnet: Isn’t Christie’s “pension reform” kind of like a drug addict saying that he is going to smoke crack only four times a day instead of five? Look at http://www.publicsectorinc.org/2014/10/health-care-pensions-equal-insolvent-nj/ and http://www.publicsectorinc.org/2014/05/jersey-pension-system-beyond-saving-at-any-reasonable-cost/ and http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/06/pension_reform_must_be_revisited_opinion.html
I’d imagined that my ambivalence about the seriousness of what he’d accomplished had come through. Perhaps not.