CHRISTIE BELIES HIS “BIPARTISANSHIP”

For Immediate Release:
Monday, May 7th, 2012

In Speech to Right-Wing Think Tank, Christie Shows True Colors

(NEW JERSEY) – On Friday, Governor Chris Christie once again jetted off to speak to a fawning out-of-state audience in his incessant quest to bolster talk about being a potential vice-presidential pick. This time it was at an awards banquet in Washington, D.C. sponsored by The Cato Institute – a right-wing think tank.

The next time Christie tries to tell someone he is bipartisan and there is room on the big boulevard of ideas in New Jersey, just remember these words from his speech:

"I could sit down and negotiate with the Democratic leadership and the Democratically controlled legislature to try to come to an agreement on these cuts, or, thanks to New Jersey's unique Constitutional structure, cut spending through executive order. Now, for those of you who watched me over the past two and a half years, if you believe I chose the former, then it is now time for you to leave. You are note smart enough to be here at the Milton Friedman Dinner." – Governor Chris Christie (5/4/2012)

In Christie’s world, bipartisanship means others simply acquiescing to his desires both politically and policy-wise. The Christie definition of bipartisanship is dictating the policies and getting Democrats to vote for them. This is a stale retread of the “my way or the highway approach,” rather than his lip service of meeting others on the boulevard of ideas.

Here is just a small sampling of Christie’s “bipartisan” leadership:

• Demanding income tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the super-wealthy, rather than more equitable property tax cuts that help middle-class families
• Saying he had better things to do – like re-arrange his sock drawer – than debate a Democrat over New Jersey’s tax plans
• Refusing to even contemplate a millionaire’s tax
• Line-item-vetoing women’s health funding – which traditionally has bipartisan support in New Jersey
• Pushing an ALEC-approved raft of policy proposals
• Rolling back decades of environmental protections via the DEP Waiver Rules
• Pulling New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
• Cancelling the long bipartisan-supported ARC Tunnel linking New Jersey to Manhattan
• Waging war on an independent judiciary
• Degrading defiant Democrats with name-calling – such as “jerk”, “numbnuts” and “liar”

** One more note from the Cato Institute speech that shows how Governor Christie plays fast and loose with the facts is when Bergen Record columnist Herb Jackson noted: “Christie stressed the importance of being honest with the public, but he also used exaggerated figures to make the deficits he closed and the tax cuts he’s enacted and proposed seem larger. For example, he cited the multiyear value of tax cuts.”

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One New Jersey is shining a light on politicians who act against the best interests of New Jersey’s residents and who seek to divide our state for their own political gain. It is giving voice to the important issues that affect our daily lives. One New Jersey will closely monitor policy positions and actions of elected officials and expose their records on the issues that matter. You can follow One New Jersey on Twitter (@OneNJ) or search for “One New Jersey” on Facebook.

One New Jersey: GOVERNORS ONE PERCENT UNITE IN WISCONSIN

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
 

Christie Rushes To Help Embattled Walker in Shared War Against Middle-Class Families

 
(NEW JERSEY) – Today, America’s two most anti-middle-class governors are joining forces, as One Percent Governor Chris Christie heads to Wisconsin to headline two fundraisers for fellow One Percent Governor Scott Walker. By rushing to Walker's aid during this historic recall, it is clear which side Christie stands on in the struggle between middle-class families and corporate interests.


Walker and Christie are cut from the same Koch Brothers cloth. They both do the bidding of deep-pocketed backers at the expense of the middle-class and share the same political D.N.A when it comes to harming the working families who make up the backbone of their states. Just like Walker, Christie demonizes public unions and puts collective bargaining in the crosshairs as the centerpiece of so-called “reform”.

While raking in the right-wing money for Walker, Christie will undoubtedly tout his self-serving and factually-challenged “Jersey Comeback” - while conveniently neglecting to mention that New Jersey consistently lags the rest of the nation when it comes to unemployment. Considering how he shares the same warped worldview as Walker and the donors who support them both, Christie should have little trouble finding red meat to offer fawning audiences in Milwaukee and Green Bay. For once, Christie can rely on the truth – that he and Walker are kindred spirits in promoting the interests of the powerful and politically-connected ahead of the well-being of seniors, children and middle-class families. Tonight, Christie can easily clasp Walker’s hands as, together, they wave the banner of corporate interests while demonizing cops, firefighters, teachers and other public workers.

In New Jersey, Christie has championed rolling back environmental protections, union contracts and health benefits. He’s claimed fiscal discipline in cutting services, while giving handouts, bailouts and tax breaks to casino moguls, mall developers and the wealthiest One Percent. Christie refuses to even contemplate a millionaire's tax, while his much-ballyhooed income tax plan won’t help middle-class families in any meaningful manner. If Christie had his way, a family earning $50,000 would save a piddling $80.50 and a family earning $100,000 would get back just $275. Of course, millionaires will benefit most - by getting back a whopping $7,265.

In taking his swagger to Wisconsin, Christie is clearly embracing both Walker’s regressive policies and his politics of divisiveness. This is no surprise to anyone who has followed Christie’s record in New Jersey – where he has showered the super-wealthy with benefits and freebies, while hammering middle-class families. With a Walker-like reputation of his own, it will only be a matter of time before the people of the Garden State come to the same obvious conclusion against Christie as Wisconsin voters have against the out-of touch governor in the Badger State.

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One New Jersey is shining a light on politicians who act against the best interests of New Jersey’s residents and who seek to divide our state for their own political gain. It is giving voice to the important issues that affect our daily lives. One New Jersey will closely monitor policy positions and actions of elected officials and expose their records on the issues that matter. You can follow One New Jersey on Twitter or search for “One New Jersey” on Facebook.

DGA Video: Will GOP Governors ‘Stand with Scott’ Walker’s Power Grab?

A new ad by the Democratic Governor's Association features Republican Governors distancing themselves from Scott Walker and asks if they back Walker’s latest efforts to ram through anti-worker agenda. Featured prominently in this video is non other than our Governor, Chris Christie.

Washington, D.C.—Today, the Democratic Governors Association released a video calling on Republican governors to say whether or not they stand with Governor Scott Walker’s union-busting power grab in Wisconsin.

“Many Republican governors understand that the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose Governor Scott Walker’s brazen power grab and they have abandoned him in droves,” DGA Communications Director Lis Smith said. “Now that Governor Walker has resorted to underhanded tactics to subvert the will of the people in Wisconsin and strip workers of their rights, voters in Republican-governed states need to know whether their governor will stand with them or with Scott Walker and his destructive, ideological agenda that will do nothing to create jobs or improve opportunity.”

Daily Show Video: Daily Show: Crisis in Dairyland - Apocalypse Cow

The video below is from last night's Daily Show with Jon Steward, it talks about how the Republican's in Wisconsin used a loophole to vote without Democrats in the budget standoff with Governor Scott Walker over the right for public employees to collective bargain.

The segment then quickly segways into who the real villains are in Wisconsin and across the country, they are the " Teacher, the greedy, chalk dusted succubi, who so cavalierly drain Wisconsin and the rest of the country dry and continue to laugh in our faces..." .

A report by Sam Bee show us what it is really like to live the teacher's dream.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland - Apocalypse Cow
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Sunday Must Reading

I've come across a few articles posted on different websites over the past couple of days that should be must reading for those that support the rights of union members, both public and private, to engage in collective barganing.

They deal with what is going on in Wisconsin and public opinion on what's happing, not only in Wisconsin , but also across the country. These posts can be found on Forbes.com's Policy Page blog by Rick Ungar, ThinkProgress.org and from the Washington Post's Plume Line blog by Greg Sargent.

Rick Ungar's post over at Forbes is titled "The Wisconsin Lie Exposed - Tax Payers Actually Contribute Nothing to Public Employees Pensions" informs us that public employees in Wisconsin fully fund their own pension system... the state adds no tax payer money to the fund contrary to what people have been hearing.

"Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining
agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans.
Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the
impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from
taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and
health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state
workers. "

Over at ThinkProgress they post, "Top 10 Disastrous Policies From The Wisconsin GOP You Haven’t Heard About" where they talk about how:

"...Walker’s assault on public employees is only one part of a larger political program that aims to give corporations free reign in the state while dismantling the healthcare programs, environmental regulations, and good government laws that protect Wisconsin’s middle and working class. These lesser known proposals in the 144-page bill reveal how radical Walker’s plan actually is..."

And Finally Greg Sargent's Plume Line post over at the Washington Post, "Public employees not such an easy scapegoat after all" informs us that according to recent Gallup Poll "...Public employees are turning out to be far harder to scapegoat in the public mind than many predicted..."

* Among those who make less than $24,000 annually, 74 percent oppose the proposal, versus only 14 percent who favor it.

* Among those who make $24,000 to $59,000, 63 percent oppose the proposal, versus only 33 percent who favor it.

* Among those who make $60,000 to $89,000, 53 percent oppose the proposal, versus only 41 percent who favor it.

* Among those who make $90,000 and up, 50 percent favor the proposal, versus 47 percent who oppose it.

Sargent concludes:

"...For all the attention being lavished on the likes of Chris Christie and his supposedly successful formula of targeting public employees as the new "welfare queens," the bigger and more interesting story is that they aren't turning out to be such easy targets, after all."

Take a look at these articles and see what you think, I really believe they are must reads. If the radical right-wing and the GOP are successful in stripping public workers of their rights, it wont be long before they attack private sector worker looking to eliminate overtime, health, pension and other long standing rules.

Green Party To Rally In Solidarity In Trenton With Wisconsin Workers Friday

Greens will meet at new Trenton HQ

Look for The Green Party Banner!

Friday, February 25, 12pm noon at the State House, Trenton

Wisconsin workers have been fighting on the front lines against Governor Scott Walker's assault on working families and collective bargaining rights. At the Trenton State House on Friday, February 25, 2011, at 12:00 noon, a group of Wisconsin workers will be welcomed by the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, hundreds of our union brothers and sisters and community partners.

At this rally, we will stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity and speak out against the attacks on working families and assaults on collective bargaining rights which are taking place in Wisconsin and other states around the country. We will also send a message to Governor Christie that he bargain in good faith and not balance the budget on the backs of middle class families. We urge all affiliates and community allies to join us at the Trenton State House on Friday and to hear first-hand about the events that are taking place in Wisconsin. Wisconsin workers are depending on strong demonstrations of solidarity in states across the nation to help them sustain their efforts back home.

The attacks in Wisconsin are not just isolated to one state or one sector of our labor movement. These are overt attacks on collective bargaining that are relevant to all working people. What we need now in these difficult times, is to work collectively as one labor movement and understand that we need to improve the quality of life for all workers and not dismantle it.

We look forward to standing in unity with you at the State House.

In Solidarity,

Charles Wowkanech, President, NJ AFL-CIO
Laurel Brennan, Secretary-Treasurer, NJ AFL-CIO

President Obama's Weekly Address 1/29/11: "America Will Win the Future by Out-Innovating, Out-Educating, and Out-Building Our Competitors"

WASHINGTON – In this week’s address, President Obama called Orion Energy Systems in Manitowoc, Wisconsin an example of how America can win the future by being the best place on Earth to do business. Orion was able to open with the help of small business loans and incentives that are creating demand for clean energy technologies. By sparking innovation and spurring new products and technologies, America will unleash the talent and ingenuity of American workers and businesses, which will lead to new, good jobs.