Posted on 11/28/2010 11:20:21 PM PST by goldstategop
The rarified world of government was recently shaken to its roots by Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey. He cancelled a railroad tunnel that was to be built under the Hudson River to connect New Jersey and New York City. Based on the screams from the left-wing media, you would have thought that life in America had come to an end.
Once Governor Christie made his announcement, the left erupted in its usual, tiresome manner – on the opinion pages of the New York Times – with articles penned by two of its house leftists, Bob Herbert and Dr. Paul Krugman. Mr. Herbert – never a stranger to pointless hyperbole – decried the downfall of America as a great nation. He questioned why a country that built the Erie Canal and the Hoover Dam could not build a rail tunnel like the one that had just broken ground. Funny thing though – not once in his column did he mention anything about cost. Dr. Krugman similarly bemoaned the decline of the country, but at least he mentioned the estimated price tag of the tunnel: $8.7 billion. Of course, he then proceeded to dismiss the impact of this cost on the residents of Governor Christie’s state.
As one would expect in a newspaper written by liberals for liberals, nowhere was there any description of the facts and circumstances that brought Mr. Christie to this decision. The cost of the tunnel, which had been in the works for almost 20 years, had recently risen from $5 billion to $8.7 billion. $3 billion of this was coming from the U.S. government (which certainly can’t afford the money). Another $3 billion was coming from the Port Authority of New York – which they tell us is not the State of New York, but really is – and that state is hopelessly in debt with an out-of-whack budget. The last $2.7 billion was coming from New Jersey. The hitch was that New Jersey was on the hook for any cost overruns after $9.8 billion. Some experts estimate this to be $2 billion right now, with the strong likelihood that the final (overrun) bill will reach $6 billion, all of which would be borne by the 8 million residents of New Jersey. Mr. Christie considered that to be real money.
The elitist left, of course, was apoplectic. It’s not as if the Upper Westside Left really wants to make life easier for the “bridge and tunnel” crowd, who they live to disdain. Perhaps they’re worried that once wealthy New Yorkers realize that New Jersey has a sane Governor, they may start to flee across the Hudson to escape the confiscatory taxes of New York. Or maybe they’ve just never seen a government project that they can’t support, especially one that must be built by their labor union friends.
It’s not as if America works like it did in the mid-20th century. The Pentagon, the largest office building in the world, was built in 410 days. Even more amazing is it took all of four months between conception of the project and the beginning of construction. Now flash forward about seventy years when we have all sorts of improvement in technology. At one of my local parks, three 2-story buildings, a total of about 50,000 sq. ft, are now being built. That is 0.8% of the size of the Pentagon. These buildings were five years in planning and (so far) two years in construction. Egad, our country appears to be regressing.
What are the differences? Certainly not the capabilities of the American people. There are, in fact, three culprits: First, our political leaders have far too little concern for our tax dollars. They think that if the price of a project goes up, they can just throw more money at it. They don’t insist upon realistic cost estimates out of fear that if people knew the real price tag, the project would be rejected. Second, NIMBYs and environmentalists now add enormous time and cost to the development process, an increase magnified by the time value of money. Finally, the requirement that union labor be used on public projects escalates the cost exponentially. It limits competitive bidding and drives costs into the stratosphere.
Governor Christie took a long look at this, and considered the recent history of large public works projects in the Northeast, like The Big Dig in Boston. The cost of that project started at $2.8 billion, ended at $15 billion, and with interest will cost a staggering $22 billion to pay off. He considered the fact that none of the underlying reasons for these cost overruns have ever been seriously addressed. And he realized that if he approved the project now, when they came back asking for another billion and another billion after that, he would have no choice but to approve it. He looked at all these factors and said NO – not on my watch.
Don’t blame the messenger. Blame the people who have caused every project, no matter how small, to be dragged out with study after study. Blame the rules that restrict competitive bidding and require that construction is done by overpriced union labor. Blame the politicians who have allowed this process to descend into this disaster all over our country. Governor Christie was just the first to say no more. For that, he should be declared a hero.
Christie was right about that tunnel.
But he is NO conservative, unless you judge “conservatism” by purely a tight fiscal policy - and New Jersey’s current fiscal mess demands nothing less. Its nearly bankrupt - thanks to a succession of tax and spend liberal Democrats and Republicans.
But on the Ground Zero Mosque, Christie’s position was it was a local issue.
On illegal aliens, he said they were not committing a federal crime by being here.
On the Second Amendment, he appointed an anti-gun Essex County Democrat as his AG.
He campaigned for anti-tea party candidates like Castel in Delaware.
He apparently decided not to join in on the suit against Obamacare.
If Christie is serious about being a conservative standard bearer, he needs to expand his policies from merely cutting back on the Unions and stopping the tunnel project.
Compared to McKean and Whitman and the Democrats who’ve run Trenton, he’s as good as you’re going to get in NJ. A tight fiscal policy is better than nothing.
“he’s as good as you’re going to get in NJ. “
Possibly. RINOs like Christie, Whitman and Kean are loaded - BIG money. They control the NJ GOP. When a real conservative like Schundler or Lonegan comes along and runs or gets nominated, they either refuse to support him, or snow him over with money as Christie did Lonegan (See
http://americansforprosperity.org/new-jersey )
At ANY rate, I sure wish to hell that people would STOP presenting this guy as a possible Presidential Candidate in the future. He’s too liberal for America and too liberal for the National GOP, unless you want to go back to the Liberal Lite Compassionate Conservatism of the Bushes, which helped put Obama in the White House and lost control of both houses to the Dems.
If fiscal conservatism is being RINO, then who’s a conservative? No nation has ever spent its way to prosperity. And no state is going to do it.
Fiscal conservatism is a PART of conservatism.
REAL conservatism comes from an understanding of, and commitment to, the basic principles of government laid out by the Founding Fathers, not merely an ability to recognize an empty purse.
If you believe in those, fiscal conservatism, small government and belief in the basic rights of Americans as enshrined in the Bill of Rights will follow. It includes the concept of strict constructionism in the courts.
I’ve lived in New Jersey for many years and seen many of these “fiscal conservative” RINOs. A lot of them restrict their conservatism to purely not spending more than they have, or taxing us to pay for what they want.
Check out the link I sent you.
He is no Whitman or Kean, either. He is much further to the right than either of them. For starters, he's solidly pro-life and shut down Planned Parenthood in NJ. Sadly, this hasn't stopped some of Lonegan's more jealous supporters from continuing to spread false rumors that Christie is "pro-abortion".
As for Presidential prospects, Christie says 2012 is too soon for him, and I agree. We need him to stay in NJ and clean up the mess there. But I would rate him far better than many of the media-approved "conservatives" like Mitt Romney.
You're tired of him being touted as Presidential material? Fair enough. I'm tired of conservatives touting John Thune as Presidential material. His sole accomplishment is "beat Tom Daschle in 2004", and that doesn't entitle him to a promotion 8 years later. He's been a disappointment in the Senate and if I had to rate whether "RINO" Chris Christie or "true conservative" John Thune was better on fiscal issues, it would be Christie by a mile.
He's not perfect, but he's got balls and he knows how to hardball with the RATs better than 95% of the Republicans out there today. We need more Chris Christie's in office, not less.
Agreed. We need Republicans in office who can stand up to the Democrats and tell them we can’t afford what you want. That’s why conservatives admire Christie even when they don’t agree with him on everything. I mean when was the last time a politician said, “hell, no.” I think its a good thing when people are treated like adults who can take it than like children who have to be bribed to put up with it.
mrkd
I’m with you Billy Boy. ZULU’s hat is on too tight. I just took the trouble to listen to all 64 minutes of Christie’s’ speech to the Goldwater Club in AZ. I’d take him in a heartbeat over either of the Bushes and I voted for both of them. I’m as conservative as they come, but I am also pragmatic enough to see that 80% of a loaf is better than no bread at all. Somewhere in the thought process has to be the fact that while we wait for the next Ronald Reagan, the place is on fire! Further, with the country sadly split practically down the middle politically (at least that’s how they vote) Christie would be a good start by just getting our fiscal house back in order. Yes, I am a strong supporter of the Constitution including the Second Amendment, but while I’d like to carry a gun on occasion, I rather have unemployment back down to 5% or less more than a gun in my pocket. All this pontificating about this guy or that is what’s lead us to where we are today. Christie could take any one of a dozen Republican Senate seats and it would be a net gain. For now, let’s just sit back and see how Christie does, and leave the armchair quarterbacking to when we have a substantial record on which to base our thinking.
Christie said NO but then tried to get more federal dollars for the project.
Guess he has no clue that federal dollars are the same as state dollars.........TAXPAYER DOLLARS.
DITTO on your statement !
Christie eats Thune’s lunch.
You forgot Thune’s other “accomplishment”. He’s “handsome” like a certain former Senator from North Carolina.
Slogan:
“Thune 2012, I beat Dashcle and the ladies want me!”
Headline in tabloid:
“Chocolate or Vanilla? Has the GOP found the answer to Barack’s sex appeal?”
You’re both right: Christie’s not a conservative and he’s as good as you’ll get statewide in NJ. Saying ‘no’ to this tunnel, asking for incredibly minor concessions from the teachers unions, and a piddling cut in state government (something like 1200 people to be laid off) is actually no great fiscal conservative in an overgrown and overtaxed state like NJ.
What Christie is good at is sounding tough and intelligent at the same time. That’s got too many people falling for him as a national leader at the moment. In my book, however, he’s not even half a Giuliani on conservative substance—and that’s not much.
I agree with most of what the author says, but he really should get his facts straight. The agency in question is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and it gets none of its revenue from the budgets of either state. It gets its revenue from the toll bridges/tunnels, airports, marine port facilities, etc. it owns and operates.
of interest ping
CC is trying to address the pension bomb before it explodes. This more than anything is the biggest problem that many blue states face. This includes all public employees including cops. I know there are some on the FR board that don't want to hear this but I can assure you cops in the state of NJ are not underpaid. Most cops make well over $100k a year and that doesn't include benefits and all the OT they lard on in addition to their salary. The overwhelming majority of them work in middle and upper middle class suburbs where there is no violent crime. They are not pounding the pavement in the hood.
CC has stated that binding arbitration in contract negotiation needs to be done away with and I couldn't agree more with him. The state arbitrators rule in favor of the unions approximately 93% of the time. Even if a town wants to fight the unions they will probably lose (ie pay up) in the end.
In my book, however, he’s not even half a Giuliani on conservative substance—and that’s not much.
Bingo!!!!!!
Bush was a Commutarian, Christie is probably a Libertarian. Polar opposites.
Christie is FAR from a libertarian.
He is an autocrat. Read about his background.
Aside from fiscal issues, he isn’t a dime’s worht of difference from a Democrat - and he even considered running as one in his past.
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