Monkeyboy wrote:It's amazing to see how Jerz and Christie have fallen to the depths they have.

Don't care about Christie being fat. Do care that he's a piece of shit.

traderdave wrote:Here's the thing - as a taxpayer, I don't give a flying #$!&@ whose "fault" the NJ state shutdown is. As far as I'm concerned, everyone in the statehouse is complicit in this CF. The simple fact is that I pay a boatload in taxes every year and if I wanted to go to the Cape May lighthouse this weekend I damn well should have been able to. It is just galling that the politics of a handful of people in Trenton have resulted in the loss of services to millions throughout the state. It is far past time that somebody reminds our representatives that they work for us, not the other way around.

Youseff wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote: It's a high degree of DGAF but to just show up on the beach today is tremendous.

being a troll is what I look for in my politicians, the kek guy says

Youseff wrote:
can you point to me when jersey wasn't a repulsive foot stool?

drsmooth wrote:

Youseff wrote:
can you point to me when jersey wasn't a repulsive foot stool?

his rooting for political creeps can get tiresome, but half the time he's just tweaking numbskulls like you & me

plus he's a Phillies fan, knows a lot about politics stuff, and likes maps

besides, what's so great about you?

Monkeyboy wrote:Sorry, but at this point, I think supporting the GOP is a serious character flaw. The party has been taken over by people who don't believe in democracy or decency or the rule of law. I don't like everything democrats do by a long shot, but at least they seem to care a bit about america.

Youseff wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:Sorry, but at this point, I think supporting the GOP is a serious character flaw. The party has been taken over by people who don't believe in democracy or decency or the rule of law. I don't like everything democrats do by a long shot, but at least they seem to care a bit about america.

& take out the tweets and jersey is 100% in support of the Trump agenda. he'd take a job in his cabinet without a second thought. he's our own Sarah Huckabee basically.

Youseff wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:Sorry, but at this point, I think supporting the GOP is a serious character flaw. The party has been taken over by people who don't believe in democracy or decency or the rule of law. I don't like everything democrats do by a long shot, but at least they seem to care a bit about america.

& take out the tweets and jersey is 100% in support of the Trump agenda. he'd take a job in his cabinet without a second thought. he's our own Sarah Huckabee basically.

jerseyhoya wrote:

swishnicholson wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:There's no good reason for him not to go. Any politician who is thinking about re-election or future office wouldn't go because of the optics. But he doesn't care. It's not his fault the gov't shut down, it's his last year as gov, it's a nice weekend, wgaf. Time to head to the gov beach house.

I wrote a semi-exculpatory post about him a couple days ago, but upon further review I was wrong. It absolutely is his fault the government is shut down. I won't discuss the mixed merits of the legislation he is campaigning for, but the fact is that both are outside of the budget process, are certainly not emergency legislation (neither would raise extra funds necessary to pay for budgeted programs) and are able to be debated in the future on their own merits. The threat that he has used to stalemate the budget process is to slash integral programs, ones that he has admitted he could live with if his favored (and again, extraneous) legislation were to be passed. These are not chosen on their merits, but on their importance and value to Democratic legislators. The legislature is faced with the choice of passing a budget that simply will not end up being the budget they passed or, what exactly? They came up with a balanced budget acceptable to the Governor. I'm not sure what else they can be expected to do. Certainly they've engaged in plenty of petty gamesmanship over the years, but choosing not to do so in this case seems like the adult thing to do.

Again, the Christie legislation is not necessary to pay for anything that is in the current budget-were that the case an argument could be made. But the lottery shift is obviously revenue neutral, and the Horizon taking is to fund additional programs. There's no principle he's standing on other than getting his way. The vacationing on shuttered Island Beach, the plastering of state property with posters pointing fingers; those aren't bad optics, those are just further exposure of a petty, vindictive and selfish character.

I haven't been following every twist and turn, but isn't the gist that he and Sweeney agreed that Christie wouldn't veto a couple hundred million in spending that the Dems want in exchange for these bills being moved along side the budget? A majority of the Assembly also agrees with the plan, just Prieto won't bring it to a vote.

swishnicholson wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

swishnicholson wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:There's no good reason for him not to go. Any politician who is thinking about re-election or future office wouldn't go because of the optics. But he doesn't care. It's not his fault the gov't shut down, it's his last year as gov, it's a nice weekend, wgaf. Time to head to the gov beach house.

I wrote a semi-exculpatory post about him a couple days ago, but upon further review I was wrong. It absolutely is his fault the government is shut down. I won't discuss the mixed merits of the legislation he is campaigning for, but the fact is that both are outside of the budget process, are certainly not emergency legislation (neither would raise extra funds necessary to pay for budgeted programs) and are able to be debated in the future on their own merits. The threat that he has used to stalemate the budget process is to slash integral programs, ones that he has admitted he could live with if his favored (and again, extraneous) legislation were to be passed. These are not chosen on their merits, but on their importance and value to Democratic legislators. The legislature is faced with the choice of passing a budget that simply will not end up being the budget they passed or, what exactly? They came up with a balanced budget acceptable to the Governor. I'm not sure what else they can be expected to do. Certainly they've engaged in plenty of petty gamesmanship over the years, but choosing not to do so in this case seems like the adult thing to do.

Again, the Christie legislation is not necessary to pay for anything that is in the current budget-were that the case an argument could be made. But the lottery shift is obviously revenue neutral, and the Horizon taking is to fund additional programs. There's no principle he's standing on other than getting his way. The vacationing on shuttered Island Beach, the plastering of state property with posters pointing fingers; those aren't bad optics, those are just further exposure of a petty, vindictive and selfish character.

I haven't been following every twist and turn, but isn't the gist that he and Sweeney agreed that Christie wouldn't veto a couple hundred million in spending that the Dems want in exchange for these bills being moved along side the budget? A majority of the Assembly also agrees with the plan, just Prieto won't bring it to a vote.

I'm not totally sure which plans and votes are being referred to, and my post could very well be confusing on that as well, so apologies if this reply doesn't address what you actually said. Prieto actually opened the budget up for a vote, but the large majority of Democrats have not voted. The assembly does [i]]not[/i support the Horizon bill and so this has not been brought up for a vote, since it would be defeated and, per Christie's dictate, the budget would be wiped out of $350 million in largely educational funding in retribution. The lottery bill seems to have disappeared from discussion, so I'm not sure where that stands in terms of support.

There are of course no clean hands here. Sweeney is as self-serving and oily as Christie, with whom he's partnering in this effort. Who knows how much Prieto is indebted to Horizon and whether this has sparked his resistance. It's a strangely un-Republican bill (of dubious legality) which I would tend to support since Horizon is also a bunch of asshats, though then again I know this since I'm a subscriber so I'd probably end up paying for the use of this "excess surplus." And, of course, it's all politics as usual, where the game is one favor is traded for another, and the greater good is of very limited concern.

But it's Christie who continues to play long after bedtime. All he has to do is agree to sign a budget with minimal changes that he has already stated is acceptable. Prieto has agreed to consider the other bills after the budget break (though the Horizon bill would have to encompass other non-profits besides Horizon). There may very well be merit in the bills Christie wants passed, but no one in the public is screaming for their implementation. It's strictly a power play by him (and Sweeney), and everyone in New Jersey is paying the cost.