Dear Editor:
Why waste money investing in the future when there is none? Why bother educating our children? Why bother investing in our infrastructure? Now that the pigs have eaten, they’ve decided that it’s not wise to take on any debt to finance next year’s crop. That’s what they call fiscal prudence.
Most Americans want to work, to fix the things that are broken and make this a stronger country that can sustainably thrive in a global economy, rather than allow it deteriorate into a third-rate impotent wasteland of poverty and desperation. Chris Christie has done everything in his power to make New Jersey a weaker, less competitive state. He wants to prove his right wing credentials so he can someday run for president and do the same for the entire country.
Republicans had no problem throwing money into the Wall St. casino, no strings attached, but the only solution they can come up with for the rest of us is to cut taxes for the wealthy so they can invest in China. It only makes sense if you think the American middle class is obsolete. Or if you’re insane.
The prelude to Christie’s shortsighted, ideologically-driven, anti-working class agenda was to torpedo hundreds of thousands of federal dollars to educate our children. And now he has cost thousands of good jobs doing the right thing for the economy and the environment under the pretense that there might be cost overruns. There might have been, but not nearly as costly as what he’s just done.
New Jersey’s economy is inextricably linked to New York. If you didn’t have functioning public transportation into New York City, our economy would lose millions of jobs. Not just people who work in Manhattan, but every other sector of the economy would be hard hit. If train service was cut, automobile transportation would come to a complete standstill. We rely on tunnels that are 100 years old. What if something happens? This project should have been started decades ago.
The result will be a longer and deeper recession, lower property values, bigger traffic jams, a less attractive business environment, greater vulnerability to disruptions such as terrorist attacks or just plain rot, and so on.
But who needs terrorists when we’re so good at destroying ourselves? I guess this is what Republicans mean when they say “get real.”
Greg Ribot