Posted on 07/30/2013 12:53:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Rand Paul needled him last night on Hannity’s show for taking a “gimme, gimme, gimme” attitude towards federal spending on Sandy relief. Here’s Christie needling him back by accusing Paul and his home state of Kentucky of being a couple of deadbeats:
“I find it interesting that Sen. Paul is accusing us of having a ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ attitude towards federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state and we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington,” Christie said. “And interestingly, Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they send to Washington. So if Sen. Paul wants to start looking at where he’s going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start cutting the pork barrel spending that he brings home to Kentucky…”
David Frum made a similar point this morning before Christie spoke. If you look at this Economist chart of federal spending and revenue per state from 1990 to 2009, New Jersey was the third biggest net exporter of tax dollars while Kentucky was the 13th biggest net importer. Christie, who accepted a temporary (but not permanent) expansion of Medicaid under ObamaCare, ain’t the guy to be attacking Paul on spending, but that’s the point here: He’s trying to inoculate himself from the damaging big-spender charge in the 2016 primaries by arguing that even libertarians like their tax money. The kicker is his dismissal of Paul as a “Washington politician,” which is … not the way most people think of Rand. But that’s strategic too. The rap on Christie two years from now will be that he’s the champion of the Republican establishment (which is true). This is him trying to muddy those perceptions by arguing that even the famously anti-establishment tea-party senator is really just a big ol’ Beltway parasite at heart.
Anyway, the takeaway is that both of these men must run for president. We want these debates. We need these debates. In fact, one X factor with Christie is whether his willingness to throw punches at grassroots heroes will end up helping him or hurting him with the centrists he’s targeting in the primaries. I agree with Dan McLaughlin that the real winners in this brawl are Rubio, Cruz, and Walker because space is being cleared in the center-right between Christie and Paul for one (or more) of them, but who knows? (Here’s a smart counter-take.) An “angry RINO” charging at rivals on the right would be a novel thing for a GOP primary; normally the RINO is a hapless figure like Romney who tolerates being dumped on by grassroots righties because he knows he needs conservatives in the general election and doesn’t want to alienate them by firing back. Christie might figure that he’ll do well enough with centrist Democrats as nominee that he can afford to lose a few stalwart conservatives. I think he’s wrong about that, if so, but either way, these primaries will be dynamite.
Exactly. They always just say that red states receive x amount..they never explain where that money goes.
I wonder how they can figure out which states benefit the most from deficit spending and bailouts. New Jersey must be making a killing.
” Your comment plays into the Fat Boy’s arguement: “
Not at all! Look at the salaries of NJ state employees, and the percentage on permanent disability.
Totally detest Christie, but RP opened the door on his nose with this one.
Did the fat northeastern bastard have to sit down and rest afterward?
Guaranteed.
Exactly. Gov't at all levels spend tons of money on stuff because it gets paid for elsewhere.
Christie’s problem is he is buying into the McCain/Romney syndrome. “Hey the media loves me” will only work until the nomination. Then he will be labeled a neocon to Hillary’s mainstream and we are back to 2008.
I think the RNC finally gets it. Nominate RINOS and they lose the Conservative vote which means the election. Which now explains why they are sucking up to the illegals.
Someone please paint “Goodyear” on Christie’s a$$ and send him up.
These are great. Thank you!
That would be great! Walk up to him, shake his hand and slap a Goodyear sticker on his back.
From the map in Post #30, It looks like Alaska and New Mexico gets the HIGHEST Federal Tax Dollars, with NM getting TWICE more than they pay.
I bet it’s because they have the highest number of FEDERAL EMPLOYEES and FEDERALLY OWNED LAND.
Fat Boy’s response: “Yes, and if the federal gov’t took less from New Jersey taxpayers, then we could keep these high paid do nothings without having to raise taxes.”
Yeah : )
LOL! Good One!!
Better yet, concentrate only on transfer payment spending. However, even transfer payments such as social security are full of inaccuracies since a lot of retirees flee high tax states like California and head to low tax states like Arizona.
But transfer payments alone are still a far more accurate measure than lumping everything together without accounting for the disparate spending in things like defense, National Parks and Forest, Federal prisons and even the Interstate Highway System which has national benefits.
Have you ever seen a real RINO that big?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.