New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie largely avoided factual claims in a Republican convention keynote address that was heavy on generalities, opinion and platitudes. The pugnacious former prosecutor exaggerated a bit, though, when he bragged about his accomplishments as governor, and he repeated the common but false claim that the president’s health care law interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.

• Christie said he delivered “three balanced budgets with lower taxes.” Actually, he cut the state Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income residents and the popular property-tax rebate program for renters and homeowners. It’s a matter of interpretation whether those are tax hikes or spending reductions. A proposed 10 percent income tax cut hasn’t been enacted.
• He said he took on public-sector unions to reform a pension system “headed to bankruptcy” and “saved retirees their pension.” That’s accurate as far as it goes. But the state is not fully funding the revamped system, and the pension liabilities gap will begin to grow again.
• Regarding teachers, Christie said he ended “the guarantee of a job for life regardless of performance.” That’s correct. Christie worked with a Democratic Legislature to make significant changes to the tenure system — even providing a path to fire tenured teachers with negative evaluations.

On state taxes, Christie said “we have three balanced budgets with lower taxes.” First of all, New Jersey, like many states, requires a balanced budget. But did he balance the budget “with lower taxes”? He did sign into law some business tax incentives, but broad-based income and sales taxes have not changed. He has proposed lowering income taxes by 10 percent across the board, but that measure has yet to pass.

In fact, Christie has cut state payments that his critics say amount to tax increases. He cut more than $800 million from the state’s popular property-tax rebate program in his fiscal year 2011 budget. TheStar-Ledger reported that Christie “eliminated rebates for nearly 103,700 renters and cut rebates for everybody else by 75 percent.” He increased funding for the program in fiscal 2012, but has not fully restored the cuts.

Christie also cut the state Earned Income Tax Credit from 25 percent of the federal benefit to 20 percentin fiscal 2011, and later vetoed a bill to restore it. The left-leaning New Jersey Policy Perspectiveestimates that the $100 million cut over two years has reduced tax credits by $200 per family.

Christie has made some sweeping changes in state pensions and teacher tenure rules in a state with strong labor unions.

The governor said he overhauled the state’s pension system and “saved retirees their pension.” As we have reported before, Christie last year signed a law that required public employees to pay more into the pension system, suspended cost of living increases for retirees, and reduced the state’s growing unfunded pension liabilities.

But four months later, the Star-Ledger wrote — in a story headlined “Christie’s overhaul may not save N.J. pension system” — that the state was underfunding the pension system and, as a result, the unfunded liabilities gap would begin to widen again.

The paper said, “The ‘unfunded liability’ — the difference between how much the pension system has and what has been promised to current and future retirees — dropped from $53.9 billion to $35.4 billion after the law was signed, the state said in bond documents. But because the state won’t be making full pension payments, the gap will swell again to $58 billion by 2019, according to the state’s estimates.”

Fred Beaver, a former state pension director, told the Star-Ledger the governor’s changes were “admirable” but ultimately “paper reform” unless the state makes its payments.

On the other hand, the Star-Ledger called the governor’s overhaul of the state’s tenure laws “dramatic.”

Star-Ledger, June 25, 2012: The bill would make a series of dramatic changes to a law first enacted in 1909. The most important would institute a new system of yearly evaluations for teachers and principals based partly on growth in student test scores — a move that sets New Jersey on the same path as Indiana, New York, Washington, D.C., and others….

But any teacher, regardless of seniority, could be fired after two years of negative evaluations. Disputes would be handled through arbitration instead of administrative law judges, which proponents say would drive down costs for school districts that can get enmeshed in costly battles.

Christie also repeated a false claim about the health care law interfering with doctor-patient relationships.

Christie: Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the debacle of putting the world’s greatest health care system in the hands of federal bureaucrats and putting those bureaucrats between an American citizen and her doctor.

As we just said in our first item on the convention, the Affordable Care Act doesn’t create a government-run system, like that of Britain or Canada, nor does it regulate the work of doctors. Republicans often call the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which would recommend ways to slow the growth of Medicare spending, “bureaucrats” that would ration care. But the IPAB, made up of health care professionals, economists and others, wouldn’t have the power to do that, according to the law.

– Eugene Kiely and Lori Robertson

POSTED BY EUGENE KIELY ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2012 AT 12:24 AM FILED UNDER THE FACTCHECK WIRE. TAGGED WITH CHRIS CHRISTIE

****************************************************************************************************************

Christie vetoed the Marriage Equality Act that would allow Gay people to marry in NJ like NY Gov Cuomo allowed for New Yorkers stating he believes marriage is between a man and a woman and that he is “okay” with civil union. But people who are gay cannot get state tax breaks like other marriage couples do on a state or federal basis.

Hopefully that will change with Obama in the next 4 years. What is significant is that Christie vetoed this bill when all NJ legislature voted for it. That should be unlawful what he did but he does not pay attention to the NJ citizenship; he pays attention to the people who have made him rich. The lobbyist who are against gay marriage and lower-middle class and working class poor to succeed in NJ.

Christie will never bite the hand that holds the cheeseburger and fries.

In the summer of 2011, Chris Christie waited until July to throw people that depend on Medicaid and Medicare (the elderly & disabled) under the bus by switching out the federal programs for the state to run and placing these patients under the auspices of HMOs who were also not told in advance that he was planning to do this.

It took 2 years for my disabled partner to get another doctor for her pain medicine plan. 2 painful disruptive years that threw our lives into total disarray and disorganization.

2 years of confusing and conflicting data and information not known by doctors or HMO staff. 2 years of bullshit that remain a grudge now harbored by myself, my partner and millions of other New Jersey citizens who think Christie is a disgrace as a Gov and leader.

I’m not the only person who hates Chris Christie. He is a fair weather friend who goes where the money trail leads. He doesn’t care who serves him.  He respects no other opinion but his own and his own is not researched or should be considered sound.  He rules by an iron fist and by being a big fat bully. No lie!

After that medical debacle, he has currently refused to raise the minimum wage to $1.25 for lower income families and workers who are poor. The minimum wage in NJ is $7.25 as it is in most of the states in America. We can’t afford to give a $1.25 raise to our most basic workers? How can that be?

He has also refused to instate a medical exchange for Obama’s Affordable Care Act of 2010 and how does that translate to being a good governor? He claims until the White House tells him how much it’s going to cost the state he has “tabled” the discussion for a medical exchange in NJ.

I’m not sure the Gov is in touch with his constituents and in FACT I’m sure he is totally out of touch with everyone who is below the $1 Million dollar salary line.

The man weighed far less before he became gov and now he’s a whopping BIG MAC SIZE 450 POUNDS. I know fat. My late cousin died of it at 66 in 2008. He could have lived a longer life had it not been for his being overweight. It kills you slowly and Chris Christie’s fat is a killer for anyone who has to look at him for any long period of time.

Being fat and being a politician are two things that do not jive. It is considered by most to be an “oxymoron” – to say “fat politician”.  One would think if the politician is working his butt off, nervous energy, he would be thin. Always on the move, forever thinking, writing, dictating, helping others.

Newark Mayor CORY BOOKER is one of those types of politicians that people relate to. He lives with them. He works for them. He is a man of the people. He doesn’t live in a mansion; he has an apartment in the city he mayors. He saves people’s lives at the risk of his own. He goes to Washington to talk for the people of his town. Just like Bloomberg does for New Yorkers.

Gov Chris Christie does not do anything for anyone unless he is paid to do so.

During his first term in office there were 3 storms; the latter being HURRICANE SANDY. The first storm he was down in Florida with his family and didn’t return. He was labeled a putz who didn’t care. The 2nd storm was IRENE and all he did was tell people who did not evacuate to “get the hell off the beach”. HURRICANE SANDY happened in a political pickup year – 2012 – and Chis was very visible to the country. He was being touted as a possible Republican candidate for the Right.  He was extremely vocal against House Republicans who did not want to help a stricken Southern NJ to rebuild. He was a pit bull towards them so much so the right winged extremist in the GOP have denounced him. You can read the BLAZE (Glenn Beck’s rag of an online newspaper) to find out just how much they hate Christie.

But Chris Christie is no saint. He helped Southern NJ during Sandy because he could gain from it politically and that is all.

America needs a president who wants to help all the people; not just the people who voted him/or/her into office. Potus Obama is that kind of POTUS. CORY BOOKER would be that kind of POTUS.

Chris Christie is not that kind of man. He is one of the most selfish, pigheaded, blow  hearts I have ever had the displeasure of having to represent me and he does not represent me well at all.

I voted for him once – never again.

If Chris Christie continues to alienate the right and the left, who hate him for being a Republican; he will have to run under the Independent ticket and I doubt highly he will win. I am also hoping he loses his Governorship this year 2013 and we get a Democrat into NJ Gov office who represents ALL THE PEOPLE – ALL THE WE, THE PEOPLE

********************************************************************************************************************

 ARTICLES:

By Kaye Foley

Jan 27, 2013 1:28pm

 Facebook Co-Founder Scolds Chris Christie Over Gay Marriage Stance

Meanwhile FOUNDER MARK ZUCKERBERG IS HOLDING A FUNDRAISER FOR GOV CHRISTIE FOR HIS BID TO STAY AS NJ GOVERNOR FOR 2013 – MARK ZUCKERBERG CAN GO SUCK AN EGG. HE’S NOT EVEN LIVING IN NJ! HE LIVES IN PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA – THIS IS EXACTLY THE TIME OF FUNDRAISING THAT SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL!      CATHERINE HAIG

ABC

How does Chris Hughes, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic and Facebook Co-founder, feel about Mark Zuckerberg hosting a fundraiser for Republican Governor Chris Christie?  Hughes joined ABC News in a web exclusive to discuss viewer questions from Facebook about Christie, his career successes, The New Republic, and his contributions to Facebook before the “This Week” roundtable on Sunday.

This week, Hughes launched a redesign of The New Republic, kicking off with a dynamic interview with President Obama.  Before ABC News’ Abby Phillip asked Hughes about the sit-down with Obama, she broached the topic of the Christie/ Zuckerberg alliance.

“I, for one, have a lot of questions about Chris Christie, particularly because less than a year ago he vetoed a marriage equality bill in the New Jersey state legislature. Which for me personally, I got married to my husband last June, [it] was just really personally frustrating. I mean, there are tens of thousands of couples in New Jersey that can’t share their love and be recognized under the law because of that decision. I’m not a single issue voter, and I think most people aren’t either, but for me personally, it would raise serious concerns about supporting someone like him.”

=====================================================================================

Christie kills the minimum wage

Bill Holland, NJ Working Families Alliance via bounces.salsalabs.net	2:02 PM (48 minutes ago)
to me

Dear Catherine, Does this look like a man who knows what it’s like to live on $7.25 an hour? Chris Christie just sank to a new low. This afternoon he vetoed the legislature’s minimum wage hike and took money directly out of the pockets of half a million of New Jersey’s poorest residents. Christie and his friends in the business lobby may think that $1.25 an hour is just too rich a raise, but a whopping 82% of New Jerseyans say he’s dead wrong. [1] Fortunately, Christie’s not the last word. The legislature can either override his veto or put the raise on the ballot so the voters can decide. Tell the legislature to raise the wage now! The proposal was simple: raise the wage from an inadequate $7.25 an hour to $8.50 and provide for an automatic increase each year so that the wage doesn’t fall behind New Jersey’s rising cost of living. The raise would have brought nearly half a billion in economic activity to the state and created 2,500 new jobs. [2] Governor Christie knows that raising the minimum wage is supported by New Jerseyans by a five to one margin and by over 60% of Republicans. So he didn’t shut the door entirely. Instead he countered with an offer to raise the wage by $1.00 over three years. But the 540,000 workers and their 220,000 children who rely on the minimum wage to survive don’t need a 33 cent increase. They need a real raise. Even worse, Christie said no to yearly automatic increases, which means that those 33 cents will quickly fall behind the cost of living. The legislature shouldn’t take him up on his deal because there are other, better options. First they can and should attempt to override his veto. Christie has done a great job of keeping Republican legislators in lockstep and used them to hold the line on proposals that would ask more of the 1%. But raising the minimum wage commands such broad support that each legislator will feel the pressure if we raise our voices and let them know we’re watching. Go on record: tell the legislature to raise the wage! If they fail to override his veto we still have good options. There’s a proposal in the legislature right now that would put a minimum wage hike and an annual increase on the ballot for the 2013 elections. That will take the power away from the special interests and business lobbyists who cut checks for politicians and put it directly in the hands of working families. We can raise the minimum wage this year. We just need legislators to say no to the Governor’s bad deal and fight for New Jersey’s workers by any and all means. Tell your legislators to reject Christie’s deal and pass a real minimum wage hike. Thanks for all you do, Bill Holland Executive Director, NJ Working Families Alliance Sources: [1] http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-centers/polling-institute/new-jersey/release-detail/?ReleaseID=1834 [2] http://www.epi.org/blog/increasing-jerseys-minimum-wage-helps-economy/

 

IN 2016 WE WILL AGAIN VOTE FOR ANOTHER PRESIDENT as our current POTUS, Barack Obama ends his term in office.

Republican Chris Christie, current Gov of NJ, will be throwing his big pants into the 3 ring circus that promises to be another fiasco in the ruining of America – the 2016 race for the White House.

But be aware, the people in NJ were LIED TO BY THEN ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NJ, CHRIS CHRISTIE who became NJ Gov on a list of lies like no other candidate before him.

Talk about corruption – Chris Christie embodies “THE BIG BULLY” Theory as if he wrote the theory himself.

These are what Chris Christie promised NJ: He promised not to raise taxes or allow property taxes to go over a 2% cap however it was a SOFT CAP which allowed Municipalities to skirt the percent and ours went up to 8% giving us a whopping $6000 dollars a year to pay for what exactly? We don’t have kids, we are gay, we have two dogs and a house that is valued $65 thousand dollars lower than what we paid for and now we have to pay $6000 a year in property taxes?

How is that not raising taxes, GOV Christie?

This is from a website called FACTCHECK.ORG – About Christie’s record:

Christie’s Fact-Free Keynote

Posted on August 29, 2012

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie largely avoided factual claims in a Republican convention keynote address that was heavy on generalities, opinion and platitudes. The pugnacious former prosecutor exaggerated a bit, though, when he bragged about his accomplishments as governor, and he repeated the common but false claim that the president’s health care law interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.

• Christie said he delivered “three balanced budgets with lower taxes.” Actually, he cut the state Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income residents and the popular property-tax rebate program for renters and homeowners. It’s a matter of interpretation whether those are tax hikes or spending reductions. A proposed 10 percent income tax cut hasn’t been enacted.
• He said he took on public-sector unions to reform a pension system “headed to bankruptcy” and “saved retirees their pension.” That’s accurate as far as it goes. But the state is not fully funding the revamped system, and the pension liabilities gap will begin to grow again.
• Regarding teachers, Christie said he ended “the guarantee of a job for life regardless of performance.” That’s correct. Christie worked with a Democratic Legislature to make significant changes to the tenure system — even providing a path to fire tenured teachers with negative evaluations.

On state taxes, Christie said “we have three balanced budgets with lower taxes.” First of all, New Jersey, like many states, requires a balanced budget. But did he balance the budget “with lower taxes”? He did sign into law some business tax incentives, but broad-based income and sales taxes have not changed. He has proposed lowering income taxes by 10 percent across the board, but that measure has yet to pass.

In fact, Christie has cut state payments that his critics say amount to tax increases. He cut more than $800 million from the state’s popular property-tax rebate program in his fiscal year 2011 budget. TheStar-Ledger reported that Christie “eliminated rebates for nearly 103,700 renters and cut rebates for everybody else by 75 percent.” He increased funding for the program in fiscal 2012, but has not fully restored the cuts.

Christie also cut the state Earned Income Tax Credit from 25 percent of the federal benefit to 20 percentin fiscal 2011, and later vetoed a bill to restore it. The left-leaning New Jersey Policy Perspectiveestimates that the $100 million cut over two years has reduced tax credits by $200 per family.

Christie has made some sweeping changes in state pensions and teacher tenure rules in a state with strong labor unions.

The governor said he overhauled the state’s pension system and “saved retirees their pension.” As we have reported before, Christie last year signed a law that required public employees to pay more into the pension system, suspended cost of living increases for retirees, and reduced the state’s growing unfunded pension liabilities.

But four months later, the Star-Ledger wrote — in a story headlined “Christie’s overhaul may not save N.J. pension system” — that the state was underfunding the pension system and, as a result, the unfunded liabilities gap would begin to widen again.

The paper said, “The ‘unfunded liability’ — the difference between how much the pension system has and what has been promised to current and future retirees — dropped from $53.9 billion to $35.4 billion after the law was signed, the state said in bond documents. But because the state won’t be making full pension payments, the gap will swell again to $58 billion by 2019, according to the state’s estimates.”

Fred Beaver, a former state pension director, told the Star-Ledger the governor’s changes were “admirable” but ultimately “paper reform” unless the state makes its payments.

On the other hand, the Star-Ledger called the governor’s overhaul of the state’s tenure laws “dramatic.”

Star-Ledger, June 25, 2012: The bill would make a series of dramatic changes to a law first enacted in 1909. The most important would institute a new system of yearly evaluations for teachers and principals based partly on growth in student test scores — a move that sets New Jersey on the same path as Indiana, New York, Washington, D.C., and others….

But any teacher, regardless of seniority, could be fired after two years of negative evaluations. Disputes would be handled through arbitration instead of administrative law judges, which proponents say would drive down costs for school districts that can get enmeshed in costly battles.

Christie also repeated a false claim about the health care law interfering with doctor-patient relationships.

Christie: Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the debacle of putting the world’s greatest health care system in the hands of federal bureaucrats and putting those bureaucrats between an American citizen and her doctor.

As we just said in our first item on the convention, the Affordable Care Act doesn’t create a government-run system, like that of Britain or Canada, nor does it regulate the work of doctors. Republicans often call the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which would recommend ways to slow the growth of Medicare spending, “bureaucrats” that would ration care. But the IPAB, made up of health care professionals, economists and others, wouldn’t have the power to do that, according to the law.

– Eugene Kiely and Lori Robertson

POSTED BY EUGENE KIELY ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2012 AT 12:24 AM FILED UNDER THE FACTCHECK WIRE. TAGGED WITH CHRIS CHRISTIE

*************************************************************************************************************

Christie vetoed the Marriage Equality Act that would allow Gay people to marry in NJ like NY Gov Cuomo allowed for New Yorkers stating he believes marriage is between a man and a woman and that he is “okay” with civil union. But people who are gay cannot get state tax breaks like other marriage couples do on a state or federal basis.

Hopefully that will change with Obama in the next 4 years. What is significant is that Christie vetoed this bill when all NJ legislature voted for it. That should be unlawful what he did but he does not pay attention to the NJ citizenship; he pays attention to the people who have made him rich. The lobbyist who are against gay marriage and lower-middle class and working class poor to succeed in NJ.

Christie will never bite the hand that holds the cheeseburger and fries.

In the summer of 2011, Chris Christie waited until July to throw people that depend on Medicaid and Medicare (the elderly & disabled) under the bus by switching out the federal programs for the state to run and placing these patients under the auspices of HMOs who were also not told in advance that he was planning to do this.

It took 2 years for my disabled partner to get another doctor for her pain medicine plan. 2 painful disruptive years that threw our lives into total disarray and disorganization.

2 years of confusing and conflicting data and information not known by doctors or HMO staff. 2 years of bullshit that remain a grudge now harbored by myself, my partner and millions of other New Jersey citizens who think Christie is a disgrace as a Gov and leader.

I’m not the only person who hates Chris Christie. He is a fair weather friend who goes where the money trail leads. He doesn’t care who serves him.  He respects no other opinion but his own and his own is not researched or should be considered sound.  He rules by an iron fist and by being a big fat bully. No lie!

After that medical debacle, he has currently refused to raise the minimum wage to $1.25 for lower income families and workers who are poor. The minimum wage in NJ is $7.25 as it is in most of the states in America. We can’t afford to give a $1.25 raise to our most basic workers? How can that be?

He has also refused to instate a medical exchange for Obama’s Affordable Care Act of 2010 and how does that translate to being a good governor? He claims until the White House tells him how much it’s going to cost the state he has “tabled” the discussion for a medical exchange in NJ.

I’m not sure the Gov is in touch with his constituents and in FACT I’m sure he is totally out of touch with everyone who is below the $1 Million dollar salary line.

The man weighed far less before he became gov and now he’s a whopping BIG MAC SIZE 450 POUNDS. I know fat. My late cousin died of it at 66 in 2008. He could have lived a longer life had it not been for his being overweight. It kills you slowly and Chris Christie’s fat is a killer for anyone who has to look at him for any long period of time.

Being fat and being a politician are two things that do not jive. It is considered by most to be an “oxymoron” – to say “fat politician”.  One would think if the politician is working his butt off, nervous energy, he would be thin. Always on the move, forever thinking, writing, dictating, helping others. The reason why so many writers refer to Christie’s weight is because they, like me, don’t understand how anyone can actually gain weight in a position of such importance. If he was NOT doing his job he would become fat.

Do you understand now that Gov Christie is fat because he is NOT DOING WHAT THE PEOPLE HAVE ELECTED HIM TO DO!?

Newark Mayor CORY BOOKER is one of those types of politicians that people relate to. He lives with them. He works for them. He is a man of the people. He doesn’t live in a mansion; he has an apartment in the city he mayors. He saves people’s lives at the risk of his own. He goes to Washington to talk for the people of his town. Just like Bloomberg does for New Yorkers.

Gov Chris Christie does not do anything for anyone unless he is paid to do so.

During his first term in office there were 3 storms; the latter being HURRICANE SANDY. The first storm he was down in Florida with his family and didn’t return. He was labeled a putz who didn’t care. The 2nd storm was IRENE and all he did was tell people who did not evacuate to “get the hell off the beach”. HURRICANE SANDY happened in a political pickup year – 2012 – and Chis was very visible to the country. He was being touted as a possible Republican candidate for the Right.  He was extremely vocal against House Republicans who did not want to help a stricken Southern NJ to rebuild. He was a pit bull towards them so much so the right winged extremist in the GOP have denounced him. You can read the BLAZE (Glenn Beck’s rag of an online newspaper) to find out just how much they hate Christie.

But Chris Christie is no saint. He helped Southern NJ during Sandy because he could gain from it politically and that is all.

America needs a president who wants to help all the people; not just the people who voted him/or/her into office. Potus Obama is that kind of POTUS. CORY BOOKER would be that kind of POTUS.

Chris Christie is not that kind of man. He is one of the most selfish, pigheaded, blow  hearts I have ever had the displeasure of having to represent me and he does not represent me well at all.

I voted for him once – never again.

If Chris Christie continues to alienate the right and the left, who hate him for being a Republican; he will have to run under the Independent ticket and I doubt highly he will win. I am also hoping he loses his Governorship this year 2013 and we get a Democrat into NJ Gov office who represents ALL THE PEOPLE – ALL THE WE, THE PEOPLE

***************************************************************************************************************

 ARTICLES:

By Kaye Foley

Jan 27, 2013 1:28pm

 Facebook Co-Founder Scolds Chris Christie Over Gay Marriage Stance

Meanwhile FOUNDER MARK ZUCKERBERG IS HOLDING A FUNDRAISER FOR GOV CHRISTIE FOR HIS BID TO STAY AS NJ GOVERNOR FOR 2013 – MARK ZUCKERBERG CAN GO SUCK AN EGG. HE’S NOT EVEN LIVING IN NJ! HE LIVES IN PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA – THIS IS EXACTLY THE TIME OF FUNDRAISING THAT SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL!      CATHERINE HAIG

ABC

How does Chris Hughes, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic and Facebook Co-founder, feel about Mark Zuckerberg hosting a fundraiser for Republican Governor Chris Christie?  Hughes joined ABC News in a web exclusive to discuss viewer questions from Facebook about Christie, his career successes, The New Republic, and his contributions to Facebook before the “This Week” roundtable on Sunday.

This week, Hughes launched a redesign of The New Republic, kicking off with a dynamic interview with President Obama.  Before ABC News’ Abby Phillip asked Hughes about the sit-down with Obama, she broached the topic of the Christie/ Zuckerberg alliance.

“I, for one, have a lot of questions about Chris Christie, particularly because less than a year ago he vetoed a marriage equality bill in the New Jersey state legislature. Which for me personally, I got married to my husband last June, [it] was just really personally frustrating. I mean, there are tens of thousands of couples in New Jersey that can’t share their love and be recognized under the law because of that decision. I’m not a single issue voter, and I think most people aren’t either, but for me personally, it would raise serious concerns about supporting someone like him.”

=====================================================================================

Christie kills the minimum wage

Bill Holland, NJ Working Families Alliance via bounces.salsalabs.net	2:02 PM (48 minutes ago)
to me

Dear Catherine, Does this look like a man who knows what it’s like to live on $7.25 an hour? Chris Christie just sank to a new low. This afternoon he vetoed the legislature’s minimum wage hike and took money directly out of the pockets of half a million of New Jersey’s poorest residents. Christie and his friends in the business lobby may think that $1.25 an hour is just too rich a raise, but a whopping 82% of New Jerseyans say he’s dead wrong. [1] Fortunately, Christie’s not the last word. The legislature can either override his veto or put the raise on the ballot so the voters can decide. Tell the legislature to raise the wage now! The proposal was simple: raise the wage from an inadequate $7.25 an hour to $8.50 and provide for an automatic increase each year so that the wage doesn’t fall behind New Jersey’s rising cost of living. The raise would have brought nearly half a billion in economic activity to the state and created 2,500 new jobs. [2] Governor Christie knows that raising the minimum wage is supported by New Jerseyans by a five to one margin and by over 60% of Republicans. So he didn’t shut the door entirely. Instead he countered with an offer to raise the wage by $1.00 over three years. But the 540,000 workers and their 220,000 children who rely on the minimum wage to survive don’t need a 33 cent increase. They need a real raise. Even worse, Christie said no to yearly automatic increases, which means that those 33 cents will quickly fall behind the cost of living. The legislature shouldn’t take him up on his deal because there are other, better options. First they can and should attempt to override his veto. Christie has done a great job of keeping Republican legislators in lockstep and used them to hold the line on proposals that would ask more of the 1%. But raising the minimum wage commands such broad support that each legislator will feel the pressure if we raise our voices and let them know we’re watching. Go on record: tell the legislature to raise the wage! If they fail to override his veto we still have good options. There’s a proposal in the legislature right now that would put a minimum wage hike and an annual increase on the ballot for the 2013 elections. That will take the power away from the special interests and business lobbyists who cut checks for politicians and put it directly in the hands of working families. We can raise the minimum wage this year. We just need legislators to say no to the Governor’s bad deal and fight for New Jersey’s workers by any and all means. Tell your legislators to reject Christie’s deal and pass a real minimum wage hike. Thanks for all you do, Bill Holland Executive Director, NJ Working Families Alliance Sources: [1] http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-centers/polling-institute/new-jersey/release-detail/?ReleaseID=1834 [2] http://www.epi.org/blog/increasing-jerseys-minimum-wage-helps-economy/

 

IN 2016 WE WILL AGAIN VOTE FOR ANOTHER PRESIDENT as our current POTUS, Barack Obama ends his term in office.

Republican Chris Christie, current Gov of NJ, will be throwing his big pants into the 3 ring circus that promises to be another fiasco in the ruining of America – the 2016 race for the White House.

But be aware, the people in NJ were LIED TO BY THEN ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NJ, CHRIS CHRISTIE who became NJ Gov on a list of lies like no other candidate before him.

Talk about corruption – Chris Christie embodies “THE BIG BULLY” Theory as if he wrote the theory himself.

These are what Chris Christie promised NJ: He promised not to raise taxes or allow property taxes to go over a 2% cap however it was a SOFT CAP which allowed Municipalities to skirt the percent and ours went up to 8% giving us a whopping $6000 dollars a year to pay for what exactly? We don’t have kids, we are gay, we have two dogs and a house that is valued $65 thousand dollars lower than what we paid for and now we have to pay $6000 a year in property taxes?

How is that not raising taxes, GOV Christie?

This is from a website called FACTCHECK.ORG – About Christie’s record:

Christie’s Fact-Free Keynote

Posted on August 29, 2012

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie largely avoided factual claims in a Republican convention keynote address that was heavy on generalities, opinion and platitudes. The pugnacious former prosecutor exaggerated a bit, though, when he bragged about his accomplishments as governor, and he repeated the common but false claim that the president’s health care law interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.

• Christie said he delivered “three balanced budgets with lower taxes.” Actually, he cut the state Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income residents and the popular property-tax rebate program for renters and homeowners. It’s a matter of interpretation whether those are tax hikes or spending reductions. A proposed 10 percent income tax cut hasn’t been enacted.
• He said he took on public-sector unions to reform a pension system “headed to bankruptcy” and “saved retirees their pension.” That’s accurate as far as it goes. But the state is not fully funding the revamped system, and the pension liabilities gap will begin to grow again.
• Regarding teachers, Christie said he ended “the guarantee of a job for life regardless of performance.” That’s correct. Christie worked with a Democratic Legislature to make significant changes to the tenure system — even providing a path to fire tenured teachers with negative evaluations.

On state taxes, Christie said “we have three balanced budgets with lower taxes.” First of all, New Jersey, like many states, requires a balanced budget. But did he balance the budget “with lower taxes”? He did sign into law some business tax incentives, but broad-based income and sales taxes have not changed. He has proposed lowering income taxes by 10 percent across the board, but that measure has yet to pass.

In fact, Christie has cut state payments that his critics say amount to tax increases. He cut more than $800 million from the state’s popular property-tax rebate program in his fiscal year 2011 budget. TheStar-Ledger reported that Christie “eliminated rebates for nearly 103,700 renters and cut rebates for everybody else by 75 percent.” He increased funding for the program in fiscal 2012, but has not fully restored the cuts.

Christie also cut the state Earned Income Tax Credit from 25 percent of the federal benefit to 20 percentin fiscal 2011, and later vetoed a bill to restore it. The left-leaning New Jersey Policy Perspectiveestimates that the $100 million cut over two years has reduced tax credits by $200 per family.

Christie has made some sweeping changes in state pensions and teacher tenure rules in a state with strong labor unions.

The governor said he overhauled the state’s pension system and “saved retirees their pension.” As we have reported before, Christie last year signed a law that required public employees to pay more into the pension system, suspended cost of living increases for retirees, and reduced the state’s growing unfunded pension liabilities.

But four months later, the Star-Ledger wrote — in a story headlined “Christie’s overhaul may not save N.J. pension system” — that the state was underfunding the pension system and, as a result, the unfunded liabilities gap would begin to widen again.

The paper said, “The ‘unfunded liability’ — the difference between how much the pension system has and what has been promised to current and future retirees — dropped from $53.9 billion to $35.4 billion after the law was signed, the state said in bond documents. But because the state won’t be making full pension payments, the gap will swell again to $58 billion by 2019, according to the state’s estimates.”

Fred Beaver, a former state pension director, told the Star-Ledger the governor’s changes were “admirable” but ultimately “paper reform” unless the state makes its payments.

On the other hand, the Star-Ledger called the governor’s overhaul of the state’s tenure laws “dramatic.”

Star-Ledger, June 25, 2012: The bill would make a series of dramatic changes to a law first enacted in 1909. The most important would institute a new system of yearly evaluations for teachers and principals based partly on growth in student test scores — a move that sets New Jersey on the same path as Indiana, New York, Washington, D.C., and others….

But any teacher, regardless of seniority, could be fired after two years of negative evaluations. Disputes would be handled through arbitration instead of administrative law judges, which proponents say would drive down costs for school districts that can get enmeshed in costly battles.

Christie also repeated a false claim about the health care law interfering with doctor-patient relationships.

Christie: Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the debacle of putting the world’s greatest health care system in the hands of federal bureaucrats and putting those bureaucrats between an American citizen and her doctor.

As we just said in our first item on the convention, the Affordable Care Act doesn’t create a government-run system, like that of Britain or Canada, nor does it regulate the work of doctors. Republicans often call the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which would recommend ways to slow the growth of Medicare spending, “bureaucrats” that would ration care. But the IPAB, made up of health care professionals, economists and others, wouldn’t have the power to do that, according to the law.

– Eugene Kiely and Lori Robertson

POSTED BY EUGENE KIELY ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2012 AT 12:24 AM FILED UNDER THE FACTCHECK WIRE. TAGGED WITH CHRIS CHRISTIE

****************************************************************************************************

Christie vetoed the Marriage Equality Act that would allow Gay people to marry in NJ like NY Gov Cuomo allowed for New Yorkers stating he believes marriage is between a man and a woman and that he is “okay” with civil union. But people who are gay cannot get state tax breaks like other marriage couples do on a state or federal basis.

Hopefully that will change with Obama in the next 4 years. What is significant is that Christie vetoed this bill when all NJ legislature voted for it. That should be unlawful what he did but he does not pay attention to the NJ citizenship; he pays attention to the people who have made him rich. The lobbyist who are against gay marriage and lower-middle class and working class poor to succeed in NJ.

Christie will never bite the hand that holds the cheeseburger and fries.

In the summer of 2011, Chris Christie waited until July to throw people that depend on Medicaid and Medicare (the elderly & disabled) under the bus by switching out the federal programs for the state to run and placing these patients under the auspices of HMOs who were also not told in advance that he was planning to do this.

It took 2 years for my disabled partner to get another doctor for her pain medicine plan. 2 painful disruptive years that threw our lives into total disarray and disorganization.

2 years of confusing and conflicting data and information not known by doctors or HMO staff. 2 years of bullshit that remain a grudge now harbored by myself, my partner and millions of other New Jersey citizens who think Christie is a disgrace as a Gov and leader.

I’m not the only person who hates Chris Christie. He is a fair weather friend who goes where the money trail leads. He doesn’t care who serves him.  He respects no other opinion but his own and his own is not researched or should be considered sound.  He rules by an iron fist and by being a big fat bully. No lie!

After that medical debacle, he has currently refused to raise the minimum wage to $1.25 for lower income families and workers who are poor. The minimum wage in NJ is $7.25 as it is in most of the states in America. We can’t afford to give a $1.25 raise to our most basic workers? How can that be?

He has also refused to instate a medical exchange for Obama’s Affordable Care Act of 2010 and how does that translate to being a good governor? He claims until the White House tells him how much it’s going to cost the state he has “tabled” the discussion for a medical exchange in NJ.

I’m not sure the Gov is in touch with his constituents and in FACT I’m sure he is totally out of touch with everyone who is below the $1 Million dollar salary line.

The man weighed far less before he became gov and now he’s a whopping BIG MAC SIZE 450 POUNDS. I know fat. My late cousin died of it at 66 in 2008. He could have lived a longer life had it not been for his being overweight. It kills you slowly and Chris Christie’s fat is a killer for anyone who has to look at him for any long period of time.

Being fat and being a politician are two things that do not jive. It is considered by most to be an “oxymoron” – to say “fat politician”.  One would think if the politician is working his butt off, nervous energy, he would be thin. Always on the move, forever thinking, writing, dictating, helping others.

Newark Mayor CORY BOOKER is one of those types of politicians that people relate to. He lives with them. He works for them. He is a man of the people. He doesn’t live in a mansion; he has an apartment in the city he mayors. He saves people’s lives at the risk of his own. He goes to Washington to talk for the people of his town. Just like Bloomberg does for New Yorkers.

Gov Chris Christie does not do anything for anyone unless he is paid to do so.

During his first term in office there were 3 storms; the latter being HURRICANE SANDY. The first storm he was down in Florida with his family and didn’t return. He was labeled a putz who didn’t care. The 2nd storm was IRENE and all he did was tell people who did not evacuate to “get the hell off the beach”. HURRICANE SANDY happened in a political pickup year – 2012 – and Chis was very visible to the country. He was being touted as a possible Republican candidate for the Right.  He was extremely vocal against House Republicans who did not want to help a stricken Southern NJ to rebuild. He was a pit bull towards them so much so the right winged extremist in the GOP have denounced him. You can read the BLAZE (Glenn Beck’s rag of an online newspaper) to find out just how much they hate Christie.

But Chris Christie is no saint. He helped Southern NJ during Sandy because he could gain from it politically and that is all.

America needs a president who wants to help all the people; not just the people who voted him/or/her into office. Potus Obama is that kind of POTUS. CORY BOOKER would be that kind of POTUS.

Chris Christie is not that kind of man. He is one of the most selfish, pigheaded, blow  hearts I have ever had the displeasure of having to represent me and he does not represent me well at all.

I voted for him once – never again.

If Chris Christie continues to alienate the right and the left, who hate him for being a Republican; he will have to run under the Independent ticket and I doubt highly he will win. I am also hoping he loses his Governorship this year 2013 and we get a Democrat into NJ Gov office who represents ALL THE PEOPLE – ALL THE WE, THE PEOPLE

****************************************************************************************************

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a Democratic bill to raise the minimum wage and instead proposed hiking it by $1 an hour over the next three years.

On the last day he could take action on the minimum wage bill, Christie said the state economy was too weak to handle the Democrats’ proposed $1.25 increase, a 17 percent jump, all at once. He also rejected a provision in the bill that would have mandated automatic yearly increases in the minimum wage.

————————————————————————————————————————————

But it’s okay for him what he did to seniors and the disabled in 2011 that left many people without benefits or their doctors – which was a jump into hell for most of the people he screwed who had voted for him based upon promises he never meant to keep. – He is a shameful person to have represent our country in any capacity – CH

 

Related articles

• Facebook’s CEO To Host Fundraiser For Chris Christie (philadelphia.cbslocal.com)
• Do Not Believe One Word Nj Gov Chris Christie Says in 2013-he Has Done Zero for Nj (bonjublog.com)
• Gov. Christie rejects minimum wage increase, offers alternative (nj.com)
• Gov. Chris Christie … in 3/2011 (point4counterpoint.wordpress.com)
• N.J. property taxes rise slightly in 2012; Christie pushing for lower bills (nj.com)
• Gov. Chris Christie … on 3/2011 (point4counterpoint.wordpress.com)