American Aspiration

I realize I've been dormant for a long time on this front.  Since last I wrote, Representative Scott Garrett is still representing the Fifth District, Gov. Chris Christie is still the governor, but Papa Joe was convicted on racketeering.  

I'm writing not because I've moved back into the Fifth district, but because I've published a small book on politics.  I missed writing about politics, and decided instead of a new blog I'd release my thoughts in book form.  American Aspiration: Where We Are and Ways to Get Where We Want to Be is now available in the Kindle Store, with additional formats coming soon.  A little sample of topics and the introduction is below.  Enjoy!

Here's the table of contents:

Introduction. 2

Part One:  Where We Stand. 4

• Facts to Keep in Mind
• Government Deficit & Spending
• Household Wealth and Debt
• Our Lack of Information

Part Two:  Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. 12

• Political Industrial Establishment
• Privatization of Essential Services & No Bid Contracts
• Congress & Our Lack of Participation

Part Three:  How We Begin to Make Things Better. 19

• Vote in the Next Election, and the Next, and the Next
• Get Informed in 10 minutes a Week
• Buy American like Your Job Depends on It
• Take a Breath and Think
• Start Talking To Each Other

Part Four:  Nice Things We Could Have. 30

• Infrastructure
• Vocational Training & Higher Education
• Honoring Those That Serve
• Stuff Others Already Have
• Where Do We Go Now?

Notes. 37

And the Introduction:

Introduction

This began innocently enough as my latest blog creation, and became this collection of short essays.  Like many, I see the direction the country has been moving as troublesome.  Politics has always been a bit of a love/hate relationship for me, I have always believed better things are possible when our system works the way it should, and have rarely seen that happen.  I was a Boys State Senator, ran my county’s Republican office, went to the New Hampshire primaries, ran for Congress as an Independent, wrote a blog visited by the press, as well as staffers in Congress and the White House, and attended President Obama’s Inauguration.  As one of my former Political Science professors noted, I like to get my hands dirty.  

Probably where I felt I had the most impact during my run for office was during my classroom chats.  You got the sense there was optimism and energy in students, despite the cynicism of some of the adults in the room.  Years later, through conversations around the lunch table at work, I realized optimism or even a basic understanding of government is lacking.  It’s not just the millennials, many of my peers and elders have been so overwhelmed by the 24/7 political sniping and institutional ineptitude that they’ve thrown up their hands. 

So, I sat down with the hope/intention of writing something that would make it easy to find the information to make decisions and (hopefully) have readers feel more comfortable participating in the system.  It honestly isn’t that hard if you know where to look, but as I wrote I realized some background and context would probably be helpful.  The idea of telling people to go to such and such a website blind didn’t feel right, so here we are.  The collection is broken into four parts:

• Where We Stand covers some interesting facts like how we’re spending money, the United States ranking 25^th in median income, and how little we know.
• Why We Can’t Have Nice Things reviews special interests, privatization and our lack of participation as it relates to our “leaders” in Washington, our states and school boards.
• How We Begin to Make Things Better dives into voting and becoming informed with an e-mail a week, as well as buying Made in the USA, digesting information and talking politics with others.
• Nice Things We Could Have goes over items many nations ranking higher already have, and asks about the things we could have that we don’t.

 My hope is that you’ll read this, talk about it, and gift it to friends and family on your way to a more involved citizenship.  If you’re already involved, I hope you will recommend or gift it to someone you know is not involved but would be receptive.  While I could have put it up as “just another” blog, the grand experiment is that the insights in this book are enough that it is gifted and paid forward to others. 

While I tried to make it approachable, some of it may seem technical.  I’ve been told by some it’s a quick read, and by others it’s very heavy, so I believe it’s probably just about right.  It’s not intended to be an overly scholarly piece, more of a conversation starter, but I do have lots of end notes for those who may wish to dig deeper.  If nothing else, my hope is that you benefit in some way from reading this.  

Garrett Loves Christie's Budget

The tax credit post is coming, but for those that missed it, here's Garrett's statement praising Governor Christie's budget:

(Washington, DC)– Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) released the following statement praising the bold and necessary moves proposed by Governor Chris Christie in his FY2011 budget proposal.

“It is not an easy task Governor Christie is being faced with but the FY2011 budget proposal is the first commonsense and fiscally responsible initiative a New Jersey executive has taken in years,” said Garrett about Christie’s budget.

In addition to the FY2011 budget, the governor has announced two other initiatives Congressman Garrett supports. First, has initiated a task force to find ways to privatize government jobs and cut government spending. Second, the Governor is proposing an Amendment to the New Jersey Constitution that will restrict property tax increases that are more than 2.5%.

“Years of reckless spending have caught up with New Jersey and we need to stand together and start thinking of new ways to run our state,” said Garrett. “The days of fixing wounds by raising taxes to unprecedented heights have left New Jersey with the highest taxes in the country, a budgetary deficit and a fleeing population. Governor Christie has said ‘enough’.

“The first step to this process is less government spending, which will lead to a more efficiently run government, a lower tax burden for everyone and better government service to the people of New Jersey.”

While I will be discussing other parts of the budget later, Tod Theise (Garrett's likely opponent) would do well to explain to the voters of Paramus that Garrett supports Christie's efforts to force an end to the Blue Laws.

Christie's Budget: Repeal Blue Laws?

I want to begin this post by praising Governor Chris Christie for putting his budget proposals on-line and seeming to welcome the public's eyes into what is sure to be a difficult process. This sort of transparency is needed more not less.

I'm going to use the resources to really look at what he's planning and do a number of posts, some positive and some negative.

This first one is more of a "And exactly how is this going to work?"

From Christie's budget proposal:

Sales Tax - Repeal of Bergen County Blue Laws 65,000

That's $65 million, actually.

The governor's staff seem to believe the people of Bergen County will simply repeal the Blue Laws that are repeatedly upheld by voters. Or is he going to force that down everyone's throats? Pinning $65 million of new revenue on something that, as far as I know, is completely out of his hands is a little dicey to say the least. He has to know that, because it wasn't highlighted in his budget address.

Christie's said many times he doesn't want to resort to one time gimmicks, but realistically speaking, relying on something completely out of your hands to raise $65 million is a gimmick. If/when it doesn't happen, the budget goes out of balance and we have to go back to borrowing.

To make matters worse, even if it was approved by voters, when would it go into effect and how much money would it raise from that point?

Questions that need to be answered.

My next post will be on the film and high tech tax credits. More to come...

Congratulations Governor Christie

When I voted this morning, and saw that many many more people than usual had voted before me, there was definitely a sense Christie may have done it.




Now, being the eternal optimist, I'm hopeful for this new chapter in our state's governance. Not only was Christie able to ride his corruption convictions to Trenton; his substantial county and local level coattails swept aside the first of Papa Joe Ferriero's hand picked Freeholders here in Bergen.


Regardless of who won the election, we were in for a few tough years ahead while trying to climb out of the mess we're in. Voters clearly wanted a change of direction at the top. Our state simply can't afford for partisanship to get in the way of progress. As Democrats control both Chambers in Trenton, compromise is going to be key if we're to rebound from this mess.

Voters have spoken, now we have to see if politicians will listen. I'm optimistic they will, even if cautiously.

Christie Just Keeps Burying Himself

One has to wonder if Chris Christie is purposely trying to lose, or if his recent issues are reflective of what his management of the state would be like. We're in rough enough shape as it is, this kind of mismanagement won't help us get better.

In case you missed it, there are two issues that he just keeps making worse for himself.

First, Christie just keeps getting deeper in the scandal with Michelle Brown, his former assistant/travel buddy. The NY Times ran a scathing piece, highlighting her alleged interference at the US Attorney's office. Christie's surrogates then tried to deflect the criticism. However, they can't avoid the issue and the more they try and say he didn't do anything wrong the worse they're sounding.

Second, and this really should be first, on whether or not he's going to be a fiscal conservative, Christie himself has been quoted as saying he would allow cabinet officials to put themselves up at expensive hotels. The story was picked up by News 12:



And by WPIX:



You simply can't claim to be a fiscal conservative and then propose to govern like this. As Christie has started to attack Chris Daggett to stop from taking fiscal conservatives, one has to realize it's because Christie himself is not a fiscal conservative. No way, no how.

Daggett Supporter Drops By

As a former Independent candidate myself, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chris Daggett and what his campaign has been able to accomplish to date.

He's earned the endorsement of the Star Ledger, seeks the council of solid centrists like Governor Angus King (quoted under my picture to the right), receives full write-ups in the New York Times, and is currently polling at 16%. Pretty remarkable.

So, as I have spoken about the other two candidates, I figure it only fair to let one of Daggett's folks have a voice here. Here's a comment left on my post yesterday (I took the liberty of connecting the hyperlinks):

Unfortunately politicians in both parties do this. We need to shake up the system by electing Chris Daggett.

That's why The Star Ledger’s endorsement of Chris Daggett is great news. I wish the Republicans would stop the Bush/Rove Fear mongering. There is obviously a consensus that a vote for Daggett is not a vote for Corzine.

Daggett is a viable candidate and there are many of this who are voting for him because we know he can win and is the only candidate who can change this state. The Star Ledger’s endorsement echoes and re-affirms that opinion.

We need people to get involved and spread the word about Chris Daggett.

Learn 15 ways to help and get started now.

Even if your not from NJ you can still cyber volunteer. Go here to get Html and Text code to post on the web or in an email!

Christie's Room(s) at the Inn

Update: Hotwire lays out the trips; Blue Jersey promoted a thoughtful comparison between Christie and Sharpe James.

I'm going to flat out say it, Chris Christie is not the sharpest politician in the world.

From the AP:

On trips in 2007 and 2008, his top deputy, Michele Brown, also exceeded the guidelines after Christie approved her requests for rooms in the same five-star hotels where he was booked.

The vouchers show Christie and Brown stayed at the NineZero Hotel in Boston on Oct. 16, 2007 and each billed taxpayers $449 plus taxes and fees for their rooms, more than double the government allowance for a Boston hotel room at the time, according to a General Services Administration travel reimbursement table.

You can't claim to be fiscally conservative, and then act like it only applies to everyone else. To make matters worse, in addition to Christie taking taxpayers for a ride, Christie approved his assistant doing it, too.

In fairness to Christie, he's said he couldn't find a room. Although the Red Sox were playing in the playoffs that night (was he there?) and Tori Amos was in town (or there?), it's unlikely every affordable hotel in Boston was booked on a Tuesday night. In fact, Christie has a demonstrated history of this sort of blatant waste, exceeding federal limits on 87.5% of his trips.

Then, going back to things you should think about, the AP article points out some interesting timing:

Christie made a mortgage loan to Brown five days after they returned from Boston, on Oct. 22, 2007. He failed to report the loan on federal ethics forms and on his 2007 federal income tax returns, omissions he later described as a mistake. Brown has since resigned and joined a private law firm.

While no one is saying that Christie and Brown have had an affair, he should have realized at some point in time, such a coincidence in timing would sow seeds of doubt in the public's mind.

So not only does he abuse taxpayer dollars, he doesn't think.

New Jersey has a long and sorry history of politicians who don't think, which is part of the reason we're in the mess we're in. While people are already seem burned out over the campaign, it will be interesting to see how the public reacts.

Christie Vs. Christie on Mammograms

While I've written about whether or not Representative Scott Garrett supports the elimination of mammogram coverage for women before, the argument is getting a fresh look in our Governor's race.

Tom Moran of the Star Ledger has a must read piece on what Chris Christie is saying about mammogram coverage now, versus what he said in the primary:

"He’s saying under my plan women would not be able to get mammograms,” Christie says.

Really? Corzine’s television ads are careful on this point. They charge only that Christie would allow insurers to sell policies without mammogram coverage. That happens to be true.

And Christie could not point to even a campaign stop where Corzine went overboard and made a phony accusation.

There have been many times that I've argued that on paper, many conservative ideals are very appealing to many people. However, soundbites of the appealing nature generally have real world implications and many times cease to be practical. This happens to be one of those times.

This should be an interesting test case of the argument for whoever ends up running against Garrett next year. Take what he's said, and explain to people what it means in the real world.

Nearly 10% of NJ's Lost Jobs Are Back

Correction: It was pointed out that the 150,000 jobs lost was total, not simply private sector. Therefore, with the public sector losses, the overall gains are actually about 5%.

In a conference call that just finished up a little bit ago, Governor Jon Corzine touched on something that probably is getting lost in all of the press about Chris Christie's apparent violation of the Hatch Act and the overall politicization of our Justice Department under Karl Rove and George Bush.

We here in NJ gained 13,000 private sector jobs last month. Since 2007, we've lost about 150,000, so we've gained 8.6% back. It's still a long way to go, but 9% in a month is progress.

Since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, New Jersey has lost 150,100 jobs (-3.7%). Nationally, employment has declined by 6.7 million jobs (-4.8 %).

Considerable over-the-month job gains occurred in the leisure and hospitality (+6,200), construction (+3,400), professional and business services (+3,200), and manufacturing (+3,100) supersectors. Hiring in the arts, entertainment and recreation component (+5,300) was responsible for the gain in leisure and hospitality, while most of the growth in professional and business services employment was due to gains in the administrative support/waste management/remediation segment (+2,900). In construction, the job gains were mainly due to hiring by specialty trade contractors.

So not only did we add jobs, we've lost fewer jobs as a percentage than the nation. As someone who regularly reads the reports, and chastised those who ignore them, the fact we actually added manufacturing jobs is, well, shocking. When you consider that since the recession began in 2007 as a nation we've lost 2 million, and in New Jersey we've been losing them for months, the gain is definitely a positive sign.

With Christie's ethics armor getting dented (daily at this point), if New Jersey can get a few months like this before the Election, Corzine will definitely be in a stronger position.

It's good to have some good news for a change.

Thoughts on Corzine vs. Christie

So the field is set for yet another very expensive, very nasty campaign here in New Jersey. Governor Jon Corzine against former US Attorney Chris Christie. The gloves definitely came off during Corzine's rally.

Corzine is down in the polls, and it's going to be a heck of a fight. Bad economy, an inherited mess worsened by the Mess, and some high profile issues and missteps (selling the Turnpike?) are working against the Governor.

Christie's biggest problem, aside from the multi-million dollar no-bid contracts, is the Republican brand itself. Biden and Corzine hit on it in a couple ways, but Corzine became impassioned to the point I thought he was going to levitate off the stage when delivering this part of his speech:

Our opponents disagree. They say that government should be small ... Small enough to slip under your bedroom door. Small enough to root for a new president to fail ... Narrow enough to divide us by gender and ethnicity over a Supreme Court nominee ... Self-righteous enough to dictate their own religious beliefs to the rest of us ...on stem cell research ... family planning ... and even science curricula. We must be bigger than that.

Distilled into a few moments, Corzine's delivery of this characterization that Republicans have earned over the last few years was impressive. As part of his effort to pump up the troops, Corzine's personal passion on this point was palpable.

It will be interesting to see how Christie's campaign deals with this earned image of Republicans, and if voters can accept it or not.

Oh , this is going to be fun.

Pictures of the rally in the next couple of days.

Same As the Old Boss?

Well, in a statement re-posted on Blue Jersey, the Real Bergen Democrats have called for the resignation of BCDO Chairman Joe Ferriero and Attorney Dennis Oury:

The time is now for the Bergen County Democratic Organization to remove Ferriero and Oury from any positions of authority within the party's structure. We're calling upon the Chairman and the Party's chief counsel to put the integrity and the good name of all Democrats ahead of their individual personal and professional agendas of wielding their positions of power for their own gain.

For those with a memory of Bergen County politics, this isn't the first time a party chairman has been faced with calls for his resignation. BCRO Chairman Berek Don was forced to resign following his involvement in a money funneling scheme to former Senator Torricelli.

From the NY Times circa 1997:

Mired in personal and professional scandal, the leader of New Jersey's largest county Republican party has resigned, party officials said.

[snip]

The county Republican vice-chairwoman, Rita Kirk, said that Mr. Don, who resigned Monday, wanted to avoid bringing negative publicity to the county organization.

Unlike Don who pled guilty in 1999, it's important to mention, again, that there have been no indictments in the Ferriero situation.

However, US Attorney Chris Christie seems to have been more prudent when issuing his subpoenas since the Menendez debacle. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Another Corruption Indictment

For those who don't know, United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie is waging a huge battle against corruption in our State. Yesterday, he got another indictment against a bribing power broker.

The charges against Howard Schoor, 67, of Colts Neck stem from a long-running federal investigation into corruption in Monmouth County that has snared two dozen public officials. The firm Schoor founded in 1968, Schoor DePalma, has been involved in high-profile projects in the public and private sector and has showered New Jersey politicians with millions of dollars in campaign cash over the years. The firm's engineers have been involved with everything from the Asbury Park waterfront redevelopment to Jersey Gardens mall and the Turnpike's Interchange 13A.

In addition to his local activity, a quick search of the FEC's website shows just how much he's given to Federal candidates, in both parties. His donations were largely to Democrats, but he'd occasionally sprinkle in a few thousand to the Republicans. He was effective at getting what he wanted and became a very rich person by spreading cash to politicians and raking it in on the single-bid contracts he received at taxpayer expense. He faces 20 years and I hope he fights the charges, loses and they throw him away.

By contrast, former State Senator John Lynch will likely be sentenced next week to as little as 33 months, as part of a plea deal reached in September. People are pleading for the judge to go easy on him, but based on what he admitted to, I'd like to see him get a minimum of 5 years.

After an FBI investigation that spanned nearly two years, the three-term senator and longtime Democratic Party boss from New Brunswick pleaded guilty in September to fraud and tax evasion. He admitted failing to report more than $120,000 in consulting fees and said he secretly accepted at least $25,000 to write letters of support for Dallenbach Sand Co., which wanted to mine state parkland in South Brunswick.

Unfortunately, as noted yesterday, we the taxpayer still have to pay for his pension and health benefits. So Lynch can continue ripping us off while he's in jail. It's really unfortunate for us that people like Lynch and Schoor get away with what they do for as long as they do. No jail sentence or fine can begin to repay the amount this kind of corruption costs taxpayers.

Eventually, whether it's Christie throwing everybody in jail or Trenton getting a clue or voters revolting, we may be clean enough to lose our stature as the most corrupt state in the nation. It will take a while, but here's to hoping.