How Not To Balance The Budget, Christie Style

by: vmars

Sat Oct 10, 2009 at 06:48:45 AM EDT

Let's say you and your husband are facing the loss of income to the tune of 25 percent of your annual take.  You decide that you need a financial adviser to help you find a way through the thickets and weeds until things improve.

So you get recommendations from two large groups that are involved in financial advice, and you interview them.  Here's the advice you get:

Adviser D says that you need to tighten the belt on some necessities like school clothes, reading materials, paving the driveway, retirement account, etc.  He also recommends that you look to restore some of your income by continuing a part time home business that brought in about three percent of your annual income for another year until things stabilize.

Adviser R says that he would do most of what Adviser D suggested, but he suggests that you cancel the part time home business so that your customers will have more money to spend and stimulate the economy so you'll get a job faster.  Also, he suggests that you start spending more on buying books and clothes for school.  Essentially, by taking in less revenue and spending more money you'll be able to get through the hard times.

Which financial adviser would you pick?  It seems like a no-brainer that D is the way to go, and that Adviser R is on some sort of a voo-doo kick.

Well, that's exactly the choice we have facing us in the gubernatorial race.  As most of us here know since we read a lot of this stuff, New Jersey is facing an $8 billion deficit for next year, which is about a quarter of our entire budget.

Jon Corzine has proposed a temporary reduction on school spending, some capital improvements, etc., while extending a tax on the richest one percent of the state until things stabilize.

Christie, however, proposes this:

He will reduce income taxes on the state's wealthiest households by roughly $1 billion, reversing the surcharge that Gov. Jon Corzine put into effect this year. And he will restore at least a portion of the nearly $600 million in property tax rebates that were rescinded this year.

How he will find the money to cover even that remains a mystery.

"We're digging out of a hole," Christie said.

Apparently we're digging out of a hole by making it deeper and hoping we come out the other side.