Posted on 07/30/2013 2:32:12 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
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.
I think people across the entire spectrum are growing tired of what is starting to look like a generational war that is only proving to create a police state here.
Christie’s major donors are the neo conservative wing of the Republican Party. They abhor the neoisolationism that Rand Paul champions. They fear that it is gaining traction with hard pressed Americans who are tiring of bloody and extensive foreign entanglements that do not benefit the United States. Christie is not the only person who will be attacking Rand for virtually anything he says.
Over the past decade or so, New Jersey has gotten back somewhere between 50 cents and 75 cents for every dollar it sends to Washington DC. Part of that is because New Jersey has a lot of rich people living there and they pay a lot of Federal taxes but an awful lot of money is spent in red states on things like rural infrastructure, farm subsidies, and even welfare and food stamps that are not as obvious in red states as they are in blighted urban neighborhoods in blue states. That’s why the federal money machine is so hard to reduce. It’s been carefully crafted so that even red states have a stake in perpetuating it. If you give every congressional district a slice of the pie, nobody wants to be the one taking that slice away from their district, even the Republicans.
Yeah, Paul’s been there since 2011. It’s 2013. I think all the pork has been pulled in by the other senator, who’s been there since 1985. You know, the minority leader of the senate. I’ll be Christie would back McConnell over Bevin, nevertheless.
Note that I’m not defending Christie overall. I’m not sure I’m going to vote for him the next time and am currently leaning heavily against it. I didn’t vote for Whitman when she ran for reelection, either. I voted libertarian, instead, despite not being all that libertarian on some issues.
Christie is nothing more than a game player. I think he is going to collapse and lose his following. IMHO...He’s a jerk.
KY receives exponentially more military and agro funding
Has a huge chunk of their economy under federal siege....coal
And as importantly does not serve as the worlds largest earning center’s bedroom......much like SW Connecticut will skew things a lot
Its apples and oranges
I’m OK with Paul and dislike Christie very much. And while I agree with your post I must say I think Rand opened the door on his nose with this one. He will need to up his game and know that the counter punch will come and be quick with a response.
So is Christie going to lead the effort to shutoff the federal spending spigot or is he just going to try and redirect the spigot more towards New Jersey?
I am not a Christie fan, but he does fight back which I wish more would do. Kentucky is a drain on society apparently. 1.51 back for every dollar they send. Sheesh what a welfare state. Who knew? And with the Senate Minority Leader in the state no less.
Yeah I’m not particularly thrilled with some libertarian stances but Paul and a handful of others are the only ones who seem remotely interested in the freedom of Americans.
It will only be another 2 or 3 years and we’ll have young people old enough to serve in a war that started before they were born. I hate to think what that’s doing to our society.
In addition to the regular DoD appropriations, a considerable amount of dollars have gone into a chemical demilitarization facility at Blue Grass. To be fair though NJ has their share of DoD facilities as well.
Not often you see a state politician brag about how little pork he and his fellow pols bring home.
If New Jersey gets 61 cents back on every dollar sent to Washington and Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar sent to Washington, then what would happen if every state were to get back 100% of every dollar sent to Washington?
I have one word for Governor Krispy Kreme:
Trenton.
How many billions over what was really required were in the Hurrican Sandy relief? Which governor threw rocks at Republicans for even questioning the amount (alaskan fisheries). Screw the fat boy.
I wouldn't mind it if the game was politics, but this looks more like some kind of personal feud, the sort of thing he should avoid if he's at all serious.
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