NJ Governor Chris Christie Sees the Budget Light

This is what needs to happen in every State in our Union. The worlds Governments deficit spending, especially ours, will bring on complete world wide monetary failure. I think sometime that this is by design for the one world system. Some of you may laugh but can the people who run our Government be so stupid as to believe they can spend us into prosperity?

I don't live in NJ or NH but the same thing is happening here in NY. Spending is so out of control, we can't afford to live here anymore. I'm very frightened for not only my future but the future of my children. They will need to get involved, whether they want to or not, in order to protect themselves against an out of control government.

Call me Jim:
Watched the Governor's speech on local NJN channel, and he was very Blunt, and pulled no punches. Opposition was not too happy, and claimed he can't do a lot of what he did by executive order. The Squirming has begun!!!!
At one segment of his talk, he stopped deliberatly speaking for about 30 seconds and Glared to his left. It was obvious he heard something or someone that irked him. My wish was that he would have made a statement at that time,to the offending pary, but he ddn't. There was a brief comment by one announcer, but we never heard or read anything further.

Well, finally a government official not running for office on the strength of giving something to everyone with their hand out. Kudo's to Governor Christie. An earlier post suggested that the speech should be said "in every state in the Union". Well, except mine; Nebraska. Here we have a state law that makes it illegal to borrow money to meet the budget, and makes it illegal to spend more than what is taken in for revenue. No debt, no debt payments. Is it easy? No. But it is the law. We also have a single chamber state house...a Unicameral. You can't imagine how much money is wasted in a two-chamber state legislature...during session and out of session. Think it would save money to have fewer legislators to support while in office and when retired and drawing pensions?

I have read the comments that Gov. Christie made about the retired teacher making so much money from her pension. While she taught she also had full health care benefits as well as dental and vision. I am New Jersey Special Education Teacher and have been for over 30 years.My wife was a Physical Education Teacher for 27 years. She also had the same benefits. She is now reaping the rewards of her labors since she is retired. I can tell you that when we started teaching we were making about $9,000 a year. So logic would tell you that our contribution to our pensions wouldn't be that large. The benefits were compensation for the low salary. As time went by the salaries increased but never kept up with the cost of living. Teachers have to deal with a many problems that others never have to. We deal with disruptive children, uncooperative parents, incompetent administrator and idiots in Trenton who require reams of paperwork that has no purpose other than to justify their jobs. I have had my life threatened by students and parents alike. I have been physically attacked and accused of unbelievable actions. Every time I set foot in a classroom my job is on the line because of the ability of children to make false accusations. Teaching is hardly a stress free job. I am a former US NAVY SEAL and Vietnam Veteran. I spent four years on active duty and 10 years in the reserves. The educational system in this state makes the Navy seem like the most organized and efficient entity on earth by comparison. We earn every penny of our pay and pension. Before someone messes with our pensions and benefits they ought to try teaching in a public school classroom for a week. I promise you they will change their minds.

Good for him. To reform the system both parties are going to have to make sacrifices.

During the 40+ years I have been paying attention to Illinois pension systems, I have witnessed our legislature ignore its responsibilities to pay the agreed upon, statistical amounts, to fully or substantially fund state employee pensions. If the required amounts had been timely paid, the pension systems would have been self sustaining about 20 years ago. Instead, Illinois remained in the ten most underfunded states for decades and our recently impeached Governor took $3 billion out of these funds to balance the state's budget. Of course these "borrowed" funds have never been repaid. Now it is unavoidable that changes in retirement plans have to be made, but it is not because of Cadillac pension plans, it is because of legislators ignoring their fiduciary responsibilities so that their favorite projects would be funded regardless of the consequences.

Without thoughtful changes in future pensions, working for the State will have to be viewed as temporary employment, because substantial cuts to benefits will not permit pensions that people can sustain themselves with even when Social Security (which will also have to be revised) is added. The other risk is that even a severely reduced pension plan can still be underfunded if legislators are allowed to divert required payments to the funds.

In addition to responsible changes in existing programs (not just pensions), legislators should be required to demonstrate how existing, new or expanded programs will be funded over the life of each program, BEFORE legislation and budgets can be signed into law.

The easy way out, according to past and present practices, is to just raise taxes. The current combination of State, County, Township and local taxes makes raising taxes a horrible solution and a guaranteed job killer when it comes to keeping existing jobs or creating new private sector jobs that actually pay the taxes.

Irresponsible investment practices; the inevitable collapse of the real estate market; and virtually unlimited government spending have created the nightmare that will plague our economy for at least another two years without any identifiable, private sector, employment surge on the horizon that could absorb the millions of unemployed and hundreds of thousands of first time job seekers. This will continue to result in reduced revenue at every government level, so dramatic changes in legislative thinking is vital to our entire population - not just the unemployed. This in turn means that if more people do not see the importance of voting, and if more voters don't pay attention to who and what they are voting for, everyone's quality of life will deteriorate. The United States continues to be envied by the world, but the next decade or two can change that if a majority of our citizens and elected officials do not insist on faithful representation of our goals and realistic expenditures of our resouces.

John---thanks to you and your wife for choosing to be teachers--sometimes it is a thankless job---thanks to you to for your service to our country--if it were not for you brave men and women we would not have the life that we have had in this country. THat being said I must tell you that your job is not the only job that has many trials and tribulations---I am a Psychiatric Nurse in an inner city hospital---we get druggies along with the truly mentally ill---we have all been beatup and too have a very stressful job---will I get those great benefits---no, not at all---I will get a small pension from this hospital and I have been saving in a 401k for many years---slow but steady---and wouldn't you know with the stock market crash I have been wiped out about 45%---I was looking at retirement in 4 years (will be 66) but I guess that is out of the question now--and by the way I will have 0 paid toward my health insurance---So as you can see sometimes life throws us a curveball and it doesn't all pan out for us in retirement---there is no guarantees in life---you win some and you lose some----those city, state and federal job benefits were always outrageously expensive for the city, state and federal government-- but money was plentiful--it is now time to pay the piper---and unfortunately you will pay the price.

So, what is next to correct the "heart" problems?

I'm pro-life from womb to tomb. Yet, in this nation of terminating life for one's continued pursuit of happiness, and the legalizing of assisted suicide, when will the lofty, warped minds of academia or a government czar propose financial incentives to simply end a pensioner's life early? In the country of Columbia, I was told, that for as little as $20 a life can be terminated.

When the Judaic-Christian foundational origins are being usurped by secular humanism, upon what does one base decisions in order to do the right thing to do because that is the right thing? Is Truth a synapse in the mind of the elite?

The corrupt have been raised to leadership in most institutions, and we are reaping what has been sown. Too many people aren't willing to see that you and I are not okay, and haven't been for some time.

Don't request that God bless America, until America repents.

I am retired law enforcement and I agree with the below comments of Randy and Ed Meyers. It is way too easy for politicians to utilize the red herring of "public employees pensions and how they are bankrupting the government." I challenge government and my fellow-taxpayers with this; just try to find someone willing to work at the current prevailing wage to fill these jobs of teaching - hauling your garbage - plowing your highways - fighting your fires - and policing your communities, WITHOUT the promise of an adequate and secure future retirement. If you think pensions are expensive now, just think of trying to pay the wages that would be demanded by these workers if they thought that there would be no future reward if, indeed, you could even find qualified people to fill those jobs! We sacrificed equitable pay during our employment by the government for its promise of the future compensation of a secure retirement. It is not OUR fault that the politicians raped the retirement systems to fund their pet projects. The only reason NJ's governor, and other pols, rail against the 'evil' public sector employee is that we are an easy target being that we are fewer in number, compared to the general population, and without overall numerical clout as voting constituents. PLEASE folks - look beyone this red herring at the REAL reason government is going bankrupt!

Finally...a politician states CLEAR Facts...and makes it obvious what the normal thing to do will be...let's hope they do it in N.J. and all the rest of our states

I have read the comments about Governor Christie's plan to save New Jersey. He wants to change the pension system in order to save money. One of the reasons I became a teacher and have stayed on the job was because of the pension and benefits. I took a lower salary than most people with four years of college receive for an entry level position in order to reap the benefits later. Teachers are unemployed for two and a half months of every year and we don't get unemployment checks during that time. Other people in this state that have jobs that are seasonal are able to collect unemployment. Construction workers who are out of work when a project is completed collect unemployment checks. Teachers pay into the unemployment fund yet they seldom benefit from it unless they get fired. The state of New Jersey makes welfare payments to able bodied citizens. Many of those people who collect welfare don't live in New Jersey. Most New Jersey school districts are top heavy with administrators yet they seldom are let go in time of budgetary crisis. Why do school districts continue to waste money on junior and senior high school sports that only benefit a few students and coaches? I have seen my own district spend money to pay "experts" who come to us with "new methods" of teaching that are just repackaged and renamed gimmicks. The districts and the states mandate requirements that only amount to useless paperwork that takes time away from teaching and wastes more money. New Jersey schools don't have to cost the taxpayer nearly as much money as they do now. Fire some administrators at the local, county and state level and the New Jersey taxpayer will save plenty of money. One last thing. There are districts that have interim superintendents who make Five hundred or more dollars a day and do virtually nothing for that money.