NJ Gov. Christie (GOP) unveils budget that hits children, the poor, & elderly, but spares wealthy

[brentspeak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/nyregion/17budget.html?src=me

Upending the priorities of his Democratic predecessors, Governor Christie unveiled a budget that would hit the poor, elderly, schoolchildren, college students and inner-city residents hardest, while largely sparing the wealthy and businesses.

snip

Breaking a central campaign promise, Governor Christie called for a suspension of all property-tax rebates, a costly but popular form of tax relief for homeowners, until May 2011.

snip

But the front lines of the battle that is sure to ensue will likely shape up around the so-called millionaire’s tax, an income-tax surcharge on people making more than $400,000 that Governor Christie vowed to eliminate if elected. (Calling Governor Christie’s bluff, Democrats eliminated it shortly before he took office.) If it were renewed, the surcharge would bring in close to $1 billion.

snip

Indeed, Governor Christie’s budget would squeeze those with lower incomes in several ways: eliminating cash welfare for the able-bodied; imposing new $310 deductibles and doubling some drug co-pays for Medicaid patients; and trimming back the state’s earned-income tax credit to 20 percent of the federal benefit, from 25 percent.

[NJmaverick]

1. Christie is an evil corrupt SOB

He has been the worst nightmare for this poor state. I hate this man (I rarely use this term). He is a horrible evil vindictive man that makes Dick Cheney look like a choir boy:grr: :grr:

[njlib]

6. He's disgusting

I still can't believe the people in this state were dumb enough to elect him! I watched his address yesterday, then read local reaction once it was all spelled out online. People are cheering him on, it was very depressing to read the comments. Let's see how they cheer once they figure out what this all actually means for us.

[villager]

2. And I guess this stuff will continue as long as people continue to docilely put up with it..

n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Worse, we've put up with it for so long that our range of options for fighting back has diminished

If we as a nation had woken up and elected better people, some of those might try to help us.

Now, all of Congress is packed with sell-outs, the news media is almost all right wing thanks to no Fairness Doctrine, and our military -- which may get used against us here in the US -- has mass pain projection weapons to handle crowds.

And, of course, there's the "Patriot Act".

Maybe we never had a chance, but it certainly looks bad now. We can take to the streets but will our "leaders" get the message or will they just sic the dogs on us?

Frankly, I'd be encouraged if just a few of my acquaintances would say privately that they're against this. Haven't even seen that!

[UTUSN]

4. K&R #4 n/t

[4_TN_TITANS]

5. Who couldn't see this coming

when NJ put a Republicon in the Gov's mansion? And, this is only the beginning of what lies ahead for NJ.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. No surprises here and as expected.