More than 30,000 angry New Jersey residents including union employees and community activists, marched to the state capitol Saturday, delivering a blistering message to the governor in an effort to protect their turf and their paychecks.
The emotions matched the size of the biggest crowd state police had seen in years, with signs calling Governor Chris Christie the biggest loser, a liar, and someone who duped them.
Christie is the crosshairs for a budget that slashes funding for education and aid to cities and towns, while mandating unpaid state employee furloughs.
New Jersey residents already own the highest tax burden in the country, so the governor has taken future tax increases off the table. With a multibillion dollar deficit, he says there’s no other option other than to cut spending.
“I can’t print money,” Governor Christie said.
On Saturday, Christie defended his spending plan and then went on the attack, asking why teachers won’t contribute towards their health insurance or give back raises when the economy is hurting.
“The state can no longer afford this, the localities can’t afford it, and they’re protesting not in anybody’s interest other than their own self-interest,” Christie said.
Back at the rally, there was plenty of rhetoric – but few solutions on funding sources.
The proposed budget is $29.3 billion dollars. New Jersey is required by its constitution to pass a budget by July 1.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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3 Responses
The “union activists” should be demanding pay cuts in order to reduce the deficit abnd prevent layoffs. Everyone else who opposes service cuts should be offering to pay more in taxes (carry a sign saying: raise the sales tax to 20% – the rate in much of Europe). Everyone appears to favor recieving services from the government, but opposes paying for them. How far would they get if they marched on a pizza place and demanded pizza, and also demanded that someone else pay for it?
In America, the government is “us” – it is not “them”. If the “we” aren’t part of the solution, then “we” are the problem.
They feel duped?!? I guess these are the same people who weren’t paying attention to the guy running for president. The difference being that in this case some good should come out of it. We knew he was going to cut spending so that the tax rate in NJ could come down.
The days of entitlements in NJ are OVER! They cannot afford it & there is a governor who understands this.
Now maybe the Jews (78% voted for this President) will vote against the Democratic/Obama administration.