Former Highlands Mayor Anna Little will be the guest speaker at the Middlesex Republican Women’s Club meeting on Thursday evening January 27, 7:30 PM, at the East Brunswick Library, 1 Civic Center Dr, East Brunswick.
Little’s topic will be Can TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party and Republicans Change Washington? She will discuss how the principles of smaller government, less spending, constitutionally based government and the new Republican Majority in the House of Representatives will affect the new 112th session of Congress.
The club will also have a discussion of their annual Reagan Day fundraiser, which will be held on February 20, 2PM-5PM at Garvey’s Restaurant in Monroe Township.
All interested parties, including bloggers and reporters, are welcome to meeting. Men and women are welcome.
InTheLobby and Capitol Quickies report that Governor Chris Chrisite told a statehouse rally of pro-life demonstrators, “I stand with you,” adding that he stands “with each and every one of those precious human lives.”
Our old Monmouth County friend Bob Jordan, now a statehouse reporter and blogger, quoted Christie on Capitol Quickies as follows:
“What we need to do each and every day is to live our lives in a way that encourages everyone to understand why this cause is so important,” Christie told those gathered. ”To show that we respect the life of every human being, and that every human being is one of God’s creatures and deserves the love and respect that God gives to all us.”
I was immediately reminded of the last time a governor stood on the statehouse steps and said “I stand with you.” That was back on June 19, 2006, five months into Jon Corzine’s term as governor. It was 11 days before Corzine and the Democratic legislature shut down the government.
That day, Corzine joined a rally of 10,000 public employees and declared, “I’ll stand with you for your pension rights …”
Maybe Trenton really has been turned upside down.
Governor Christie had quite a day today. In addition to his unequivocal remarks at the pro-life rally, the governor conditionally vetoed COAH legislation that failed to reform how affordable housing is provided in New Jersey and increases the unnecessary burden on the State’s municipalities.
In a statement announcing the veto, Christie said:
“If the goal of this legislation is to replace an already broken system for providing affordable housing with a common sense, predictable and achievable process, then this bill sorely misses the mark,” said Governor Christie. “The Senate has presented a considerably different version of the legislation I originally supported in June – one that was simple and sufficiently close to the recommendations contained in the March 19, 2010, report of the Housing Opportunity Task Force. This version perpetuates the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) nightmare by placing further burdens on municipalities and the environment while creating rather than eliminating additional bureaucracies in order to satisfy the needs of special interests. I believe this bill should be amended to return it to its original, beneficial form as passed by the Senate in June.”
The original version of S-1 passed by the Senate in June 2010 called for:
eliminating COAH and the arbitrary affordable housing numbers it assigned to municipalities
requiring that 1 out of every 10 newly constructed housing units be designated as affordable (towns with no growth would have no further affordable housing obligation other than to inventory and rehabilitate its existing affordable housing stock)
limiting State review of municipal housing plans
protection against builder’s remedy lawsuits for municipalities
elimination of commercial development fees, though residential development fees were permitted to be charged if a developer chose not to build affordable units on-site and decided to pay the residential development fee instead
In its current, unacceptable form, S-1:
requires 10% of all the housing units in every municipality in the State to be affordable
necessitates that 25% of the affordable housing obligation be met by inclusionary development, legislating sprawl by increasing the amount of mandated new housing by 500% to 700%.
creates a new regulated entity to review a municipality’s housing plans
causes towns to have to pay for two planners – one to draft the plan, and the other to certify it meets the requirements of the bill
provides no meaningful protection against builder’s remedy lawsuits
requires towns in the Highlands, Pinelands, Fort Monmouth and Meadowlands districts to have 15%to 20% of all new construction as affordable
As if that were not a full day’s work, Christie held a Town Hall Meeting in the Camden County borough of Chesilhurst this afternoon where in touted his pension and public employee health benefit reform package.
The highlights of the Governor’s “fiscal sanity” package are as follows:
Christie Reform Agenda for Public Employee Pensions – At a Glance
The current pension system is underfunded by $54 billion and, unless reforms are enacted, that number will grow to $183 billion by 2041, even if the taxpayers make all statutorily required pension fund contributions.
·Governor Christie’s reforms will reduce total pension underfunding from $183 billion in 2041 without reform to $23 billion in 2041, and
·Increase the aggregate funded ratio from the present level of 66% to more than 90% in 30 years.
A PDF of Governor Christie’s Reform Agenda proposal for pensions is attached to this release.
Christie Reform Agenda for Public Employee Health Benefits – At a Glance
Today, New Jersey’s unfunded liability, or future costs expected in the health benefits system, is $66.8 billion. New Jersey spends $4.3 billion annually on public employee and retiree health care costs, and the problem is only getting worse.
The cost for operating the health care benefits program for public employees and retirees is slowly sapping New Jersey’s budget to the point where it is becoming impossible for state and local government to fund critical priorities and bring rising deficits into line.
·Without immediate action, costs will increase by more than 40 percent over the next four years. By contrast, the average cost to an active public employee will increase by less than 10 percent over the same period.
·The cost of health benefits, as a percent of New Jersey’s annual budget, has grown from 4.5 percent in 2001 to more than 9 percent today.
Governor Christie’s reforms will restore fairness to the system by:
·Transitioning the cost-sharing in the system to a more realistic model,
·Offering more options for employees to choose from, and
·Switching to a system requiring employees to pay a percentage of their premium rather than a percentage of their salary.
Personally, I don’t think the pension reforms go far enough, but that will be the subject of a future post. For this post, I just appreciate how far we’ve come in one year under Christie’s leadership.
Governor Christie will be holding a Town Hall meeting in Middletown on Wednesday morning, 11 AM, at the VFW on Route 36. The doors open at 10:30. Seating is first come, first seated.
Governor Chris Christie will attend a Rally for Life on the steps of the statehouse in Trenton today.
The rally, sponsored by NJ Right to Life, is scheduled for 11:00am through 1:00PM.
Thanks to the MMM reader who pointed out how the Star Ledger chose to frame the news of the rally and Christie’s participation. Rather than refer to NJ Right to Life and Christie as “pro-life,” they said both are “anti-abortion rights.”
I’ve been following the governor pretty closely for the last two years. I never heard him say, “I’m anti-abortion rights.” I have heard him say, “I am pro-life.” I heard him tell of how he became pro-life during one of his wife’s pregnancies. Perhaps this is a matter of semantics. The Ledger’s choice of words is revealing.
Since the Roe vs Wade decision 38 years ago the “life question” has been at the heart of political and cultural divisions within our great country. The Supreme Court defined human life based upon “viability” outside of the womb. The court found, or invented, “privacy rights” in the U.S. Constitution, and declared that a life that is not viable has the unjust power to violate a woman’s privacy rights by growing inside of her, but that once it becomes viable, based upon an unscientific timetable, the rights of the unborn exceed the privacy rights of the mother.
As medical technology has advanced over the last four decades, the “life choice” has become less and less abstract. Technological advances have made the choice to terminate or nourish less a matter of faith or morality. It is a matter of science. The choice is ultimately no longer a matter of lifestyle, economics or convenience. It is a choice of life and death.
I received this letter from the Highlands Republican Club this afternoon.
Oh well.
1/21/11
To: Art Gallagher
Highlands N.J. 07732
From: Louis Croce
President, Highlands Republican Club
Dear Mr. Gallagher,
Please be advised that due to your recent actions following your attendance at the Highlands Republican Club meeting of 1/17/11, that effectively immediately, you are no longer welcome to attend such meetings. The reason(s) for this are as follows: Specifically, that after your attendance at this meeting, you knowingly and intentionally posted comments of former Highlands Mayor Anna Little on your online internet blog.
Please note that comments made by those present at Highlands Republican Club Meetings are not for, or intended to be, for public consumption, publication, or posting on the internet. You did at no time represent at the 1/17/11meeting that you were there as a member of the media. It was assumed that your attendance was solely as a member of the Republican Party. Additionally, you did not request permission to quote any person in attendance at this meeting, including former Highlands Mayor Anna Little.
Please be advised that the executive board has determined that your actions are not only inappropriate, but in direct violation of the Bi-laws governing the operation of The Highlands Republican Club including but not limited to Article IV Section 7.
It is regrettable that this action has to be taken. However your actions following the meeting of 1/17/11, and those in the past, are counterproductive to the positive growth of the Highlands Republican Club, and of the Highlands Republican Organization in general. We would appreciate you abiding by the wishes of the Executive Board of the Highlands Republican Club. Should you wish to disregard these wishes by attending Highlands Republican Club meetings in the future, appropriate measures will be taken to have you removed.
Pennsylvania State Agencies Ignored It Too, For Years
By Art Gallagher
Last week a Philadelphia Grand Jury recommended that Kermit B. Gosnell, MD be prosecuted for multiple counts of murder, the murder of babies born alive by severing their spinal cords with scissors, violations of the controlled dangerous substance act, theft by deception and other serious charges. The Grand Jury report was released the day before yesterday. You can read all 281 pages here. Here’s a preview:
“This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy — and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels — and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths. Over the years, many people came to know that something was going on here. But no one put a stop to it.”
Congressman Chris Smith referred to the charges against Gosnell during his press conference yesterday. Smith said a Philadelphia CBS-TV affiliate had a report. Good for them. Where is the rest of the media? Where is the Associate Press? The Philadelphia newspapers, the South Jersey newspapers? The national media?
The media seems to be following lead of Pennsylvania authorities who have been ignoring Gosnell’s deadly enterprise for years. According to Milken’s summary of the Grand Jury report (I didn’t want to take the time to read all 281 pages to get this news to you) :
– The Pennsylvania Department of Health knew of clinic violations dating back decades, but did nothing.
– The Pennsylvania Department of State was “repeatedly confronted with evidence about Gosnell” — including the clinic’s unclean, unsterile conditions, unlicensed workers, unsupervised sedation, underage abortion patients and over-prescribing of pain pills with high resale value on the street — “and repeatedly chose to do nothing.”
– Philadelphia Department of Public Health officials who regularly visited Gosnell’s human waste-clogged offices did nothing.
– Nearby hospital officials who treated some of the pregnant mothers who suffered grave complications from Gosnell’s butchery did nothing.
– An unnamed evaluator with the National Abortion Federation, the leading association of abortion providers that is supposed to uphold strict health and legal standards, determined that Gosnell’s chamber of horrors was “the worst abortion clinic she had ever inspected” — but did nothing.
Maybe no one is paying attention because the victims are poor, black and except for the mothers who died at the hands of Gosnell, did not have birth certificates yet.
Government funding for abortion and legislative plans to stop it were the topics of a bipartisan press conference today by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), co-chairs of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, and Rep. Joe Pitts, Chairman of the Health Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce and the Values Action Team.
Specifically, the lawmakers focused on two bills introduced today prohibiting government funding for abortion—the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which will be introduced as H.R. 3, and the “Protect Life Act.”
Congressman Smith (NJ-04) said of the bills: “Today with the full and unequivocal support of Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor, more than 150 Members of Congress have joined us to introduce the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act—a government wide prohibition on taxpayer subsidization for abortion and conscience protections with durable remedies. President Obama has said he wants abortion to be rare.To Mr. Obama I say, ‘here is a bill for you.’ Even the Guttmacher Institute, the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, confirms that taxpayer funding bans are a proven abortion reduction method. According to Guttmacher, studies show that when abortion is not publically funded, abortions in the covered population are reduced by roughly 25percent.” Click here for Cong. Smith’s statement.
The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” will eliminate the need for numerous, separate, annual abortion funding prohibitions (called riders) and ensure that no other program or agency is exempt from this important safeguard. The bill also codifies the conscience clause known as Hyde-Weldon.
The “Protect Life Act” will amend the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (PPACA) to ensure there is no funding for abortion or abortion coverage. The law currently does not include a comprehensive prohibition on such funding. Instead the bill contains accounting gimmicks that explicitly allow funding for abortion coverage. The Obama Executive Order reiterates those accounting gimmicks. Without the “Protect Life Act,” PPACA will become the largest expansion of abortion funding since Roe v. Wade.
