Chris Christie Was In Town Today
I was at work, but evidently other folks were able to go
MIDDLETOWN — New Jersey cannot succeed unless it follows fiscal discipline and enacts education, health-care and pension reform, said Gov. Chris Christie to over 200 people who weathered Wednesday’s snowstorm to attend a “town hall-style” meeting in the township.
Rather than nibble at smaller problems that will not solve New Jersey’s fiscal woes, Christie told the crowd at VFW Post 2179 that he believes it is important to find a solution to the high cost of benefits for public employees.
“Other politicians made you promises they couldn’t keep,” Christie said. “I’m the guy who has to be here when the party is over.”
The reality is ugly. What the politicians have saddled us with is criminally obscene.
And they get public works projects named in their honor.
Paid for by us, naturally.
Quote of the clip:
Policeman: “My salary went up 2%. And after the increase in my healthcare costs went in, do you know how much my check went up Sir? $4. How am I supposed to live on that?”
Gov. Christie: “Here’s the difference. You’re getting a paycheck. And there are 9% of the people in the state of NJ who are not.”
Nanny State, People, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
January 26, 2011 8:26 pm
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The military pay raise this year was 1.4%.
Unions were needed when employers were risking their employees safety (ie: mining)for their own profit.
Since Gov now regulates employee safety, they should be disbanded.
As a Gov employee I detested the union I was FORCED to join, as they ONLY protected the weak & stupid!
I agree with the ones who said no on Christie for POTUS in 2012. NJ needs him too much. Maybe 2016 for VP and 2020 for Potus. But we do need a Christie-like POTUS. Someone who tells it like it is.
Never mind the speech writers, just tell the truth.
I just wanted to post a quick comment to the union basher. First of all, I cant disagree with you in that unions do unfortunately protect the weak and stupid, but that’s only because they are legally bound to. Eventually, the weak and stupid will find their way into the unemployment line and thats fine. But don’t think that it was out of the kindness of your employer’s heart’s that you earned a decent wage or have a decent benefits package. If it was up to them they’d pay you just enough to keep you from quitting and they’d contract your job out to china the moment they could get away with it if it would save them a buck. Its because of unions that we still have a middle class in this country, and its because of unions that there are labor laws. Not out of the kindness of Gov. Christie’s heart. Unions are still necessary to level the playing field. Without them, corporations would run rampant over workers rights the middle class in this country would all but disappear.
RJM,your talking points are old and tired. We’ve been hearing that same old schtick about the “value” of unions for so long that it takes on the essence of a dial tone. How do you know that those evil corporations and employers wouldn’t have been forced by the free markets to treat their employees properly? Let me help: you don’t, and neither do any of the other union members desperately trying to justify the pillaging that unions do to our economy and society. By the way; can your kids read?
union bashing is not bashing at all. It is an observance to modern day reality when anyone is around a job or project where union workers are performing there is always noticable and obscene wasting of time while union workers take full advantage of their inflated salaries, benefits, and position. COmpared to merit shop workers who can easily lose their jobs without appropriate performance. As a corporation owner I employed over 200 peaople in a construction enviornment and always paid employees well and provided great benefits. Because the employees would go to the next company who was also paying these. Today if you do not provide good wages and benefits, employers will not be able to keep quality employees. That is the REALITY. It’s not a matter of having a kind heart it’s how one run’s their business. SO please stop all the retoric…yes the unions of long ago were necessary to establish better labor laws and level unfair working environments but we are not in the 20’s and 30’s any longer when it was necessary. I can assure you the middle class is alive and doing very well in regards to your analogy.
Thanks DMG.
The problem is both sides, labor and management do not work together, in realizing that it takes two to tango (succeed). Union leaders do not relate reality back to their rank and file members…..they only know management is rich, and is the enemy. Sure management is greedy in many cases, but should understand the nature of their business, what it takes to sustain for themselves and for their employees, better than a elected union leader. Government employees in positions of management for the most part are no better qualified. Takes both sides qualifications and understanding the constraints.
Gov. Christie, Thank you for having the guts to say it like it is. When you get NJ cleaned up, how about coming to CA?
Many unions which were badly needed at one time have passed the point of diminishing returns. In a down economy where small business owners are barely money & laying off employees only as last resort
[…] if you’re a union person asking him a question. It is me or does Chris Christie mine is absolute purest commentary gold (and to be clear: he […]
Only 12% of the US workforce belongs to a union anymore. The health and safety issues that unions forced Gilded Age employers to institute are now enshrined in law. We also have a minimum wage by law. Groups with professional standards (teachers, law enforcement) should dump the union model, which forces all members to be treated the same regardless of competence or specific job responsibilities. The only purpose of a union is for very-low skilled and easily replaceable people to get some employment protection and higher wages that the pure market for their work does not justify. Fast food workers, agricultural laborers, etc. would be justified in unionizing if they can. But unions for skilled, college-educated professionals are a joke. I have to laugh when I hear some of my pampered unionized colleagues talking about their job conditions as if they are spiritual kin to the Triangle Shirt Factory girls. Such a spoiled lack of awareness of their own privilege is really astounding.
@Step’n: If you believe that the Gov. truly looks out for the safety and health of the working man then you may be the weak and stupid person you referenced in your post. Our Gov. said the air at Ground Zero was safe to breath yet the men and women who responded are dying now from what they were exposed to.
Unions have out-lived their usefullness. They are nothing but a collection party for organized crime to buy-off politicians. Unions are the worst run companies in the world.I’ve moved out of states that wre Closed-shop” unions-only work places…and they are all starving right now. Let them eat thier union-cards–NO BODY DESERVES AUTOMATIC pay raises….
Why would anyone pay a “Union-wage” to a worker who consistently performs “sub-standard’ work, poor craftsmanship, when and/if they even show-up on time for the job n the first place? I pay top dollar for top work…nothing more and nothing less. A good day’s pay and benefit for a good day’s work. If I don’t sell the product or service; HOW can I pay a union worker–or any worker? Simple economics–or common sense.
…and I a NEWSFLASH for you too: What you see and hear on this video is going to happen at a national level for the same irresponsible spending….”GOVERNMENT CAN’T CREATE JOBS or WEALTH.” (but they sure can lose them.)
The governor is correct about the former politicians who made promises that they could not keep. This accumulated sick leave and vacation issues were give-aways when they could not give out raises. They told the employees that we can promise you this and promise you that and give you Cadillac health care coverage when those promises cost next to nothing. Things have changed. Get used to it.
I agree with all the comments about unions outliving their purpose. In this day and age we no longer need them. I have two friends that are forced to belong to unions. One is a mason and the other an electrician. They tell me when they work on private jobs everyone puts in a good day’s work. When they work on union jobs they are told to slow down so the job lasts longer and the union has to hire more men. It is fraud how unions, especially the trades, are ripping off those that give them work.
And, when I hear people that work for the school system complain because they have a $5 co pay it makes me sick to my stomach. Big corporations that have multi million dollar bottom lines ask their employees to not only pay co pays much larger than $5 but also they pay into their benefits. How do these teachers think tax payers can continue to absorb the cost of lifetime medical benefits for the employee and family without asking them to pay at least a third of the cost of health benefits. Also the salaries of the administrators in some school systems are ridiculous. Some get paid more than CEO’s of major corporations. All of us not on the gravy train get it and I applaud Gov. Christie for telling it like it is.
As for the Unions standing up for their workers, we had a refinery fire in WA state last year. The safety conditions were known to be bad. Did the Union threaten to strike? No and five people died.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36146392/ns/us_news-life/
How about the 29 dead miners in the Upper Big Branch mine? Union shop, known dangers. Did the Union shut the mine down until those dangers were addressed? No.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36183425/ns/us_news-life/
The litany goes on and on. The Unions are all about concentrating power at the top of their organization and they throw the rank and file worker under the bus.
Jerry Pournelle has this Iron Law about bureaucracies:
…in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions…
I lived in NJ for 10 years when I was coaching with the Eagles – raised my kids there – you have a great Governor in New Jersey and looks like we are going to have another great one in Georgia Nathan Deal
>>I have to laugh when I hear some of my pampered unionized colleagues talking about their job conditions as if they are spiritual kin to the Triangle Shirt Factory girls. Such a spoiled lack of awareness of their own privilege is really astounding.
Is that anything like tea partiers crying about tyranny as if today’s conditions are anything like the the founders complaints detailed in the Declaration of Independence:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/doi/text.html
And for the second year in a row, us military retirees and those on Social Security get a BIG FAT ZERO PERCENT raise.
@RJM “But don’t think that it was out of the kindness of your employer’s heart’s that you earned a decent wage or have a decent benefits package. If it was up to them they’d pay you just enough to keep you from quitting and they’d contract your job out to china the moment they could get away with it if it would save them a buck.”
Precisely. Unfortunately, you think this is a bad thing, and have screwed everything up trying to change it. Please stop before you kill us all.
Christie hit the nail on the head. 75% of most municipality budgets are labor and benefits. It’s the 900 lb. gorilla in the room that no one wants to deal with. Here in Oregon, where the unemployment rate is 12% and the underemployment rate is probably close to 25%, the solution to our budgetary problems is to cut services (like close schools and release prisoners!) It’s not going to take very long for the public to figure out the municipalities are monopolies. If the unions don’t want to face reality, fire the members and outsource the “project”. Believe me, you would have an army of qualified candidates waiting for that opportunity at half the employment package.
All this teacher union bashing
is just envy. We have negotiated fairly w/ out holding a gun to antones head. It was a level playing field and we are put down because we have good salary and benefits. Other workers are losing theirs (misery loves company)so come after the ones that have it. Its funny that we did not want to take other professionals benefits from them we just worked hard to negotiated an average of 4-6% every year when other professionals got much more. Now we are the bad guys because we have a steady wage and good benefits. The Gov. wants to change what we bargained for fair and square, but because we are in tough economic times attack us we are easy targets. They (Corrupt Gov) want to change the bargaining rules in mid-stream. How un American!
Its good to see that there are only a couple of stupid people still defending the unions and unwilling to recognize that the past is over and so is the need for unions. Unions raise costs, are the cause of our failing education system and our fiscal crisis and are the principal driving force for jobs going elsewhere. Normal evolution and change are inevitable and unions like so many other entities that went out of existense when their time arrived will also disappear in the not too distant future. Can’t happen soon enough for me!
savcol: Lets get Mr Trump in the white house.
It is easy for this fat guy to say all of this …why doesn’t he give up his salary like Corzine did?!..all talk and no action if it comes to his own bank acct. Also it is easy for him to bash public schools when he sends his own kids to private.
May I point out for your own edification, since you seem a little light on background, Corzine was a “gazillionaire” and ran for the job more as a vanity project? Christie’s a working stiff, like most of the rest of us. Kind of a silly statement to make, all things considered.
Christie is what we need in NJ…has my support 100%+
[…] View this video of Christie discussing the hard realities of New Jersey’s budget situation, the burden the state’s taxpayers are enduring, and how everyone needs to contribute to solutions to health care and other priorities. “Other politicians made you promises they couldn’t keep. I’m the guy who has to be here when the party is over.” […]
I love this guy!!!!
More gov’t leaders at all levels need to have the guts(like Christie) to deal with the reality that we are faced with currently. More voters need to recognize the difference between politicians who merely tell you what you want to hear versus voting for the ones who will deal with reality. We have ourselves to blame when politicians get away with saying anything to get your vote… and we buy it. Christie is a great leader for these tough times – we need more like him.
What is his salary & his cronie salary?? I vote for you, now I am sorry. I think our public school are among the best. I had children in private school and took them out, and put them in public school. Teachers are better qualified. And the way parents are raising their children with no matters or respect for adults or others, Teachers have alot to deal with, and don’t need cuts. And No I am not a teacher , nor do I work in the system.
And with Firemen and Police, they need insurance too. They are putting themselves out there !!!!
I didn’t read all the comments, but 1/30 Nancy, you’re right. But don’t you also think that all levels of our Gov’t employees (Congress included) should pay at least 30% of their benefits too. I agree a $5 co-pay is a joke.