... What makes the battle interesting is the way Mr. Christie is throwing the old chestnuts back at his critics.
Here are a few examples, culled from his budget address, public meetings and radio appearances:
The children will be the ones to suffer from your education cuts. "The real question is, who's for the kids, and who's for their raises? This isn't about the kids. Let's dispense with that portion of the argument. Don't let them tell you that ever again while they are reaching into your pockets."
Budget cuts are unfair. "The special interests have already begun to scream their favorite word—which, coincidentally, is my 9-year-old son's favorite word when we are making him do something he knows is right but does not want to do—'unfair.' . . . One state retiree, 49 years old, paid, over the course of his entire career, a total of $124,000 towards his retirement pension and health benefits. What will we pay him? $3.3 million in pension payments over his life, and nearly $500,000 for health care benefits—a total of $3.8 million on a $120,000 investment. Is that fair?"...
Isn't your talk of 'stopping the tax madness' just another 'Read My Lips' promise? "[Mine is] much better than 'Read my lips.' I'm sorry, it's just much better. Much stronger. . . . It's gonna be how my governorship will rise or fall. I'm not signing a tax increase."
What Christie has done is to basically combat the old lefty compassion arguments with compassion argument from the taxpayer’s perspective. In doing so, he leaves these special interest groups looking like the unreasonable ones.
When Republicans take control in 2010, they would do wise to follow Christie’s example. The nation has reached the point where all this spending has become quite distasteful, so now is the time to really point out the insanity of it all and go about doing some serious cutting.
I’ll leave you with this interview Chris Christie had yesterday with Joe Scarborough. Listen to what he says and just imagine if this guy was free to run in 2012.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: Wall Street Journal