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Chris Christie on Budget & Economy
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Work with Democrats to cut debt and cut unemployment
Gov. Ron DESANTIS: We must reverse Bidenomics so that middle class families have a chance to succeed again.Gov. Chris CHRISTIE: I do agree predominantly with Gov. DeSantis. The difference is that we have to make sure that we sell these ideas.
I was elected as a conservative Republican in a blue state with 61% of the vote, with a Democratic legislature and we brought them around to our point of view. We cut taxes in New Jersey. We cut debt in New Jersey. Each time we were confronted with bad
Democratic ideas, we stopped them. And when there were good ideas, we brought people together to make progress.
Q: When you were governor, NJ had the 2nd-lowest credit rating in the nation, and it was downgraded 11 times.
CHRISTIE: Yes, that's what
happens when you inherit a blue state. But we cut debt, debt that had been left to us by three Democratic gubernatorial predecessors. And cut the unemployment rate in half--and cut pension payments to public employees.
Source: Fox News 2023 Republican primary debate in Milwaukee
, Aug 23, 2023
Biden responsible for inflation: Jimmy Carter of the 2020s
Q: Inflation is creeping down to 3%. Do you think President Biden deserves any credit for that?CHRISTIE: What he deserves credit for is the fact that everything is 17% more expensive today than it was when he took the oath of office on
January 20 of 2021. Interest rates are at our highest level in 25 years, making it much more expensive for people to buy a home, to buy a car, to be able to invest in their business and grow it to create jobs. This guy is the Jimmy Carter of the 2020s.
Source: CNN SOTU interviews on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
, Jul 30, 2023
We must imposing fiscal discipline again in this country
The reason we're struggling to make ends meet is because government spending under Joe Biden has gone completely out of control. The first thing we have to do, and one of the first things I would do as president, is to say,
we are imposing fiscal discipline again in this country. Job one is to get spending under control, because, the more we spend, the less you can spend. And that's what's horrible for families making ends meet.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
, Jun 12, 2023
Hillary is coming for your wallet
Wait 'til you see what Hillary Clinton will do to this country and how she will drown us in debt. We spend 71 cents of every dollar in America on entitlements and debt service. Our plan will save over $1 trillion over the next 10 years and make sure that
Social Security and Medicare are there for those who truly need it. But the bottom line is, believe me, Hillary Clinton's coming for your wallet, everybody. Don't worry about Huckabee or Jindal, worry about her.
Source: Fox Business/WSJ Second Tier debate
, Nov 10, 2015
The Fed should stop maintaining low interest rates
This has been the most political Federal Reserve I've seen in my lifetime. When they cut interest rates during the recession, that was the right thing to do. But they've kept those interest rates artificially low because they're trying to
politically support Barack Obama. The middle class is doing worse than it's ever done before. The wealthy are doing better because of this cheap money from the Fed. If we slide back towards a recession, you cannot lower interest rates below zero.
Source: Fox Business/WSJ Second Tier debate
, Nov 10, 2015
Cut taxes and reduce spending, while creating new jobs
You should have seen what New Jersey looked like when I got there. I mean the fact is that they had 115 tax increases in the seven years before I became governor. We vetoed every tax increase.
There was no net private sector job creation in the eight years before I became governor, zero. We've created 198,000 new jobs in the last five and a half years.And the fact is that we spend $2.5 billion less than we used to.
But here's the bigger thing. What they wanted was something in New Jersey who was going to finally stand up and say no to higher taxes, no to more spending, and more yes to parental involvement,
parental choices. We've done all those things in New Jersey. And so anybody could pick out any kind of statistics they want. But in New Jersey, it's much better today than it was six years ago.
Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls
, Sep 13, 2015
The rich are doing fine; cater to middle-income workers
Christie worked to sway Iowans skeptical of whether he fits the bill in the conservative state. It was his 11th visit to Iowa in five years. "If I was too blunt, too direct, too loud and too New Jersey for Iowa, then why do you people keep inviting me
back?"Christie promised voters, "you'll always know who I am," and spoke about his anti-abortion views.
"The rich are doing fine," he said, adding the party shouldn't cater to the wealthy at the expense of middle-income workers.
Source: N.Y. Post on 2015 Iowa Freedom Summit
, Jan 24, 2015
Five balanced budgets in a row, without tax increases
Q: You decided to cut payments to pension funds and instead of raising taxes on millionaires and businesses. The credit rating for New Jersey has actually been downgraded 8 times on your watch. What's going on?CHRISTIE: Well, you have to remember
what we inherited five years ago--an $11 billion deficit budget, 10 years of consecutive tax increases at the state level. This was an awful mess. And now, what have we done? We have five balanced budgets in a row. We had $2.3 billion in tax cuts to the
businesses of New Jersey, 143,000 new private sector jobs and unemployment rate that's gone from 9.7% down to 6.5%. So, we still have work to do in NJ, no question. But we've gotten a lot of things done over the course of the last 5 years.
I'm very proud of that record and I'm working every day to make that record even better as go forward. There will always be the naysayers. But I'm there getting the job done every day and I think that's what the people of NJ liked about us.
Source: Fox News Sunday 2014 interview of 2016 presidential hopefuls
, Oct 26, 2014
Let government shutdown occur, until Legislature is ready
Let government shutdown occur, until Legislature is ready
On one occasion, there was a special session to pass a state budget because the July 1 constitutional deadline was not met. In political theater rare for him,
Let government shutdown occur, until Legislature is ready
Later, in mocking Corzine during and after a 2010 showdown with Democrats over taxes, Christie said if the state government ever shuts down because there is no budget he wouldn't drag a cot into his office.
Source: Rise to Power, by B. Ingle & M. Symons, p.128
, Jun 5, 2012
2011: 2% cap on most cities' municipal spending
[In 2010] Christie ordered the legislature into a special session to address property tax reform. The first municipal spending cap votes were held in
April 2011, though few municipalities--only 14 of the state's 566 cities and towns--sought voters' permission to exceed the 2% cap. Christie's plan had worked.
After getting the 2% cap, Christie wasn't done with school spending. He put in place a salary cap on school superintendents' contracts--through a rule, without the legislature's input.
It would mean $9.8 million in savings statewide for school districts, around 10% of the combined $100 million they paid in 2010.
Source: Rise to Power, by B. Ingle & M. Symons, p.198-199
, Jun 5, 2012
Erased $11B in budget deficit via spending cuts
After taking office in 2010, Governor Chris Christie erased an estimated $11 million budget almost entirely through spending cuts. Thanks to Christie's policies, by May 2011 New Jersey's economy was turning around, and the state treasurer projected the
Garden State would rake in half a billion dollars in extra tax revenue.And what was the reaction of the Democrat-controlled N.J. legislature? Did its members hail Christie for his fiscal rectitude? Of course not. In fact, they cited the unexpected
windfall as proof that the state didn't need austerity. "The governor has balanced his budgets on the backs of the middle class, now this gives us an opportunity to undo that," said State Sen. Paul Sarlo. Eventually, the decision on how to use the
extra tax revenue was largely taken out of Christie's hands; the New Jersey Supreme Court, apparently agreeing there was no need for austerity, ordered Christie to increase education funding by $500 million--the same amount as the estimated tax windfall.
Source: The Freedom Agenda, by Sen. Mike Lee, p. 3-4
, Jul 18, 2011
To make budget deal, must get leadership talking in one room
Q: What you're dealing with in N.J. is the big battle here in D.C. too. That is the debt, that is closing the budget deficit. What's the way out of this mess?A: The first thing is that the president had to get involved personally. And what I found in
New Jersey, was there is no substitute for the three leaders in the room having to look at each other and having to hash this out. And everybody's got to put skin in the game. I mean, I gave on things that I wanted. Obviously, the Democratic
Senate president and the Democratic speaker gave on things they wanted, and we came to a compromise that didn't violate our principles. And that's the key. You can't ask people to violate their principles.
And so there has to be a way to find principled outcome where people are also compromising. And what the specifics of that's going to be are going to be up to the president, the speaker and Sen. Reid. But they need to get in the room and finish this off.
Source: Interview on NBC "Meet the Press"
, Jun 26, 2011
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