Thu Dec 16, 2010 at 04:48:00 PM EST
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| Being unemployed sucks. No one wants to be unemployed. It's a life fraught with stress and financial uncertainly. Usually it means not having health care. Not having a job undermines self-worth and dignity. Unemployment breaks up families. Oftentimes it leads to alcohol and drug abuse. So yeah, basically being unemployed sucks.  Dapper, dandy, DeCroce. Photo: Star LedgerGiven the backdrop of what it's really like to be unemployed, it's shockingly obnoxious that Assemblymen Alex DeCroce would accuse people who are laid out in this shitty economy of "gaming the system" like a sort of "get rich quick" scheme. DeCroce: "I'm one of the few who feel that benefits are too good for these people. Why go to work? If you can go 26 weeks collecting $550/week and then get an extension for another 26, that's close to $27,000/year and a lot of people figure "Why go to work?" Now in real life, most unemployed people are up shit's creek, living hand to mouth. If you're "lucky" you might qualify for unemployment insurance. Most people don't. Fewer still earn the "maximum" annual amount (roughly $27,000.) It's not a fun or pretty or enviable lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination.Keep in mind, this guy DeCroce is the top Republican in the NJ Assembly. He's a tea party wannabe who'd love nothing more than to shrink the government to the size of a toaster then drown it in the bathtub. And while his rhetoric sounds as right-wing as you're gonna find in this state, a closer look at DeCroce and his family reveal him to be less of a small-government ideologue and more of a modern day (suburban, white, male) Welfare Queen. Follow me below the fold for the gory details. If you're a taxpayer, this could hurt. You might wanna bring some Vaseline. |
| Jay Lassiter :: DeCroce Inc. A Tea Party at the Trough |
Now it's not uncommon for Republicans to be detached from the lives of everyday Americans which might explain DeCroce's lack of empathy. But it doesn't explain his colossal-sized hypocrisy. The Good Life. DeCroce Style. The Bradenton, FL seaside golf resort where the Assemblyman has a $600,000 luxury tropical pad.Let's start with a matter of fact: if anyone's an expert at gaming the system it's NJ Assemblyman Alex DeCroce and his wife who've turned your tax dollars into a multi-million dollar lifestyle complete with multiple pensions and a Florida mansion. Thirty years in the making The DeCroces have fed at the the public teat since as early as 1981 when Betty Lou joined the Pine Mill town council. According to her Linkedin page she's spent every day since -- nearly 30 years in the pension system -- drawing at least two public sector paychecks. Consider: 1988-2010 Roxbury twp. Clerk plus Roxbury twp Council clerk.1990-2003 Roxbury Deputy Manager1981-1983 Pine Mill CouncilBetty Lou DeCroce is now making $130,168 annually as Christie appointee at the Department of Community Affairs in Trenton. I'm sure she'd be the first to tell you it's all been worth every penny. As for Assemblyman DeCroce -- leader of the Assembly GOP, small government fetishist and hater of the unemployed -- there's good reason he can't relate to the jobless ranks. He's also been on the public payroll for the past several decades, at least dating to 1984 when he was elected Morris County Freeholder. His time banking (multiple) pension credits has run uninterrupted to this day. According to DeCroce's recent financial disclosure forms -- which also detail his real-estate holdings (see his Wikipedia entry) he's earned over $50k/year moonlighting for the town of Parsippany since at least 2004 in addition to his salary at Assemblyman. (The forms are kinda vague. The box is simply checked $50,000+. For all I know he's making twice that!) Insensitive+Hypocrite=DeCroce The sad thing is, none of the stuff the DeCroce's doing is illegal. Politicians and their families get away with this garbage all the time. But when Alex DeCroce makes mean-spirited and wrong headed cracks about people struggling to find a job, he should stand by prepared for the PR blowback. Hopefully that'll come with some close scrutiny from his colleagues, his voters and the press. Bottom line, Alex DeCroce chose to throw snowballs at the unemployed residents of New Jersey while he and his wife earn several hundred thousand dollars a year as tax-payer funded bureaucrats. The same Alex DeCroce who thought it was cool to suggest uninsured people are trying game the system was gaming the system for the best healthcare access in NJ. And yes, the same Alex DeCroce -- who upon retirement will draw a fat 6-figure tax-payer funded pension -- had the nerve to pick on folks forced to cash out their retirement just to survive because their unemployment benefits aren't enough to make ends meet. What do you call a guy like that? |
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