Rush Holt Laments Debt Reduction

By Art Gallagher

Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) sent the following message in an email to his constituents this afternoon:

Right now, the United States can borrow money essentially for free.  In fact, 10-year Treasury bonds have a negative real yield.  That is, investors are lending the government money with a guarantee that, in a decade, the US will pay them back less in real dollars.  It seems that they are confident that the US is sound over the long term and that the much-decried debt is not the show-stopper some would have us believe.
 
Meanwhile, the US has tens of thousands of needed projects that would create jobs and produce a clear, positive return to taxpayers.  We need to repair crumbling roads and bridges and schools.  We need to modernize old buildings that are wasting taxpayer money on electricity, heating, and air conditioning.  It is not all construction projects, either.  We need to support private companies engaged in research and development.  More than anything we need economic growth now that will create jobs now. 
 
Yet last week with the debt ceiling deal Congress took the U.S. government out of the picture, saying in effect that the government will play no direct role in stimulating the economy or making jobs.  Not only does it prevent Congress from making these sure-thing investments, but it requires government to cut public services and eliminate jobs, and also to throw many states into destitution.
 
As the public and policymakers come to recognize the deal’s devastating effects on our economy and our people, I hope we will begin to work around its restraints.  Yet until that happens, we must do everything possible to create jobs in ways that do not require federal spending.
 
The Senate, for instance, can pass patent-reform legislation that the House passed earlier this year to encourage inventors to create new products.  The president has proposed an idea to restore health to the housing market by encouraging investors to turn foreclosed homes into rental properties.  Congress could also establish an infrastructure bank that would offer low-interest loans to cities and states to invest in public works (but that would take start-up funds).
 
Let me be clear:  measures like these are somewhat indirect and will not be as effective as direct job creation, yet they can be beneficial, and for as long as Congress maintains its self-imposed shackles, they may be the best we can do.

Hmmm, I’m not a rocket scientist, but it seems to me that a negative real yield to investors who buy our debt is not a good thing, for several reasons:

1) It is a sign that investors are not confident enough in the economy to make private sector investments.  Investors are essentially betting that they will lose less by investing in Treasuries that they will if they buy private equity, private debt or commodities.

2) Other than Treasuries, the other “safe” investment over the last few years has been gold. Investors may be realizing that gold is overvauled.  Now that gold is being advertised on cable-TV like buying real estate with no money down used to be advertised, it is a good bet that the burst of the gold bubble is in sight.  When the market wakes up to the fact that the value of gold as a holder of value is perceived and not based upon the demand for the uses of gold, there will be weeping and nashing of teeth.  Investors buying Treasuries at a negative yield now are betting that gold is no longer safe.  Good bet.

3) The negative yield that Holt talks about is a lot more negative than he thinks.  When inflation inevitably kicks in due to all the money that the government has borrowed and spent, and all the money that the Federal Reserve continues to print, the dollar that pays off those 10 year Treasuries in 2021 is going to be worth a great deal less that the dollar borrowed and spent today.

We’re in for a very very long haul of difficult economic times.   Rush Holt doesn’t get that.

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The Real Jersey Shore

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Hillary Clinton Would Have Been A Much Better President Than Barack Obama

By Alan Steinberg

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Christie’s Polling Numbers Rise Significantly

Patrick Murray: Governor May Be Escaping Voters Dissatisfaction With Property Taxes, Managing Expectations

By Art Gallagher

Governor Christie on the Belmar boardwalk with vacationing teenagers from Pennsylvania. Photo credit: NJ.com

Governor Chris Christie’s polling numbers have improved significantly since May. 

A Monmouth University/NJ Press Media(Gannett) poll released this morning indicates that 50% of New Jersey registered voters approve of Christie’s performance while 41% disapprove.   A May18 poll by Monmouth University had the Governor with a 46% approval rating  and a 49% disapproval rating among registered voters.

This is a HUGE 12 point swing in only 3 months.  

Unfortunately, Monmouth Polling Director Patrick Murray’s narrative of the poll, and the subsequent mindless media coverage focused on the respondents dissatisfaction with property taxes and other issues, rather than their increasing satisfaction with Christie’s performance.

To his credit, Murray acknowledged as much in a candid phone interview with MMM. 

When asked why the Governor’s numbers improved so much Murray said, “I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting such a big swing, we should have asked different questions.”

You’ve got to appreciate Patrick’s candor.

Murray noted that the Governor’s ratings had a similar trend last year, declining during the budget debate and bouncing back after the budget was settled. “It could be that once the crying over the budget cuts is finished, people are more positive.”

Murray speculated that Christie may be able to rise above New Jersey residents dissatisfaction with property taxes and manage their expectations better than his predecessors. “He seems to be managing people’s expectations of how much can be done about property taxes.”

This poll should have been should have been broken up and reported as 1) Voters satisfaction with Chrisite and 2) Voters concerns over the issues that Christie is dealing with.   Voters concerns with property taxes, improving schools and the budget are ongoing issues that every governor deals with.  This poll tells us that voters are responding favorably to Christie, despite their frustration with the issues.  It doesn’t tell us why.

Elsewhere in the media you will read that voters are giving Christie only an average grade and that they are not happy with with how he is handling property taxes, education, etc.  

The media is missing the story.

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Statue Of Liberty To Close

By Art Gallagher

The Associated Press is reporting that the Statue of Liberty is closing in October for “safety upgrades and other renovations” that will cost taxpayers $27.25 million.

Those upgrades are ““code-compliant” stairways and upgrade electrical and fire suppression systems, elevators and bathrooms.”  according to the AP article.

Really?  We need “code-compliant” stairways, elevators and bathrooms in a 150 year old symbol of Liberty?  The Lady will be closed for a year.    I hope no one gets the bright idea of fixing the broken chain at the Lady’s feet during that year.

This closure is a symbol of a loss of freedom for Americans for more than the obvious reasons.

Throughout the history of Lady Liberty its construction and renovations were provided by private fund raising.  In good economic times and bad. While the statute  itself was a gift from France, the cost of construction of the pedestal was provided by citizens private donations.

In 1982 President Ronald Reagan announced the formation of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission which was charged with raising private money to renovate the Lady.  Led by Chrysler Chairman LeeIacocca, the commission raised $350 million for a major renovation.  The renovation started in 1984 and was completed in 1986 when President Reagan rededicated the statute on July 4.

The 1980’s campaign to renovate the statute was a source of pride and patriotism for American.  Donors’ names were engraved in marble on walls in the pedestal.  My father’s name is engraved there.

25 years later we have surrendered our private fund raising for the Lady, as well as for many, many, many, too many charitable endeavors to the  federal government.  The more we let the government be responsible for, the less freedom we have, the less pride and patriotism we have.

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Divided We’ll Stand, United We’ll Fall

By Jordan Rickards

It has been said that democracy operates much the same way as a circular raft, with all participants rowing in a different direction.  Washington’s handling of the latest budget crisis is proof positive of this.  The solution that was ultimately arrived at seeks to solve the crushing national debt by, paradoxically, increasing the national debt, with some vague, non-binding promise to study yet-to-be-identified cuts somewhere down the road.  In other words, our “leaders” punted.

            But because liberals did not get their way and failed to secure tax hikes and military cuts, the headlines that followed often bemoaned the supposed newfound lack of cooperation in Washington. “Congress’ Failure to Compromise Undermines Framers’ Design”, declared the Newark Star Ledger.  The headline of a similar story warned “Political Dysfunction, Factionalization Threaten Our Republic.”

            Of course, when Obamacare was rammed down the nation’s throat despite uniform opposition from the right, with all 178 House Republicans voting against it, and all 39 Senate Republicans voting against it, and the public opposing it by about 53 to 36%, nobody on the left complained about the Democrats’ lack of bi-partisanship.  Nobody on the left called for liberals to compromise with Republicans.  In fact, the only bi-partisanship was the bi-partisan effort to defeat the bill, as 34 Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against it.

            But now that there is actually an opposition party in Washington — by which I mean the Tea Party, not the historically pusillanimous Republican Party — all of a sudden government doesn’t work, and our founders are rolling over in their graves, and the very foundation of our republic is being threatened.

            Good grief.

            The problem in America is not that the framers did not envision factionalism.  The framers were acutely aware of factionalism, realizing as they did that America would be a geographically, demographically, and culturally diverse nation, which is precisely why they created a federalist system with a large degree of state autonomy.  They understood that Americans could live best together if our legal systems were largely kept apart.  What the framer’s did not envision was the loss of federalism, and the nearly outright eradication of state sovereignty in favor of a giant, overreaching federal government, collapsing under its own weight, that forces dissimilar people to find often non-existent middle ground on the issues that matter the most to them.

            If anything is causing the founding fathers to roll over in their graves, it would be our President grumbling that he has not been endowed with the powers of an autocrat.  In just the last few weeks, President Obama has lamented, with an arrogance unseen since Napoleon, that it “would be easier if [he] could do this on [his] own,” even though nobody contributed less in terms of ideas to the budget debate than did he.  He has complained of having to deal with our “messy democracy.” He even admitted in a speech to La Raza, the taxpayer funded illegal alien anarchy group, that “The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting,” and his effete press secretary whined that it’s “Unfortunate we don’t control all levers of government.”

            Actually, what’s unfortunate is that for two years Obama did control all levers of government, and instead of creating jobs, or reducing the deficit, or, heaven forbid, reigning in spending, he focused on his vainglorious Obamacare, which will destroy jobs, raise the deficit, and is perhaps the greatest power-grab overreach since FDR’s “Pack the Court” plan.

            Getting back, it’s true, of course, that if not for the Tea Party, the recent budget negotiations would have gone more smoothly.  And so what?  The negotiations would have gone smoothly because there would have been an obvious lack of responsible lawmakers demanding a government that operates within its means.  It was the Tea Party Republicans — who, by the way, just won the most recent election with a landslide the magnitude of which had not been seen since before World War II — who demanded spending cuts and an end to irresponsible borrowing, even in the face of opposition from within the Republican Party.  The Tea Party Republicans did precisely what they promised voters, and it was not to compromise, it was to stand their ground against an ever expanding, fiscally irresponsible, out-of-control government.

            Yet, now that they’re doing exactly that, the left tells us that Americans want compromise.  Nonsense.  People want things their own way.  The only time anyone wants to compromise is when they’re losing.

            Besides, certain issues simply do not have a compromise position.  There is no compromise position between larger and smaller government.  There is no compromise between more and less spending.  There is no compromise between higher and lower taxes.  There is no compromise between war and peace.  There is no compromise between legalized abortion and the outlawing of abortion.

            Compromise is good for passing legislation, but that doesn’t mean the legislation passed is itself any good.  In fact, it almost always means the legislation is less than ideal.  Remember that by definition, to compromise something is, literally, to weaken it.  If an army’s defenses are compromised, it means the soldiers are vulnerable.  If a ship’s hull is compromised, that means it’s sinking.  When a government compromises its laws, the result is no different.

            Still, there has become a generally accepted narrative that our political spectrum has two crazy extremes, with sanity residing soundly in the middle.  Moderation has become synonymous with virtue.  While moderation undoubtedly has merit when it comes to, say, alcohol consumption, it does not always follow politically.  Sometimes, indeed, oftentimes, the right idea is on one side of the spectrum, with the intermediate position simply being less wrong than one extreme, but also less than right when measured against the other.  This is problematic not just because it creates a flawed law, but also an entropic, downward spiral of increasingly worse laws.  Think about it.  Take pure water and compromise it with unclean water.  That water is less clean than before.  Then take that new bowl of water, and compromise it again.  Every time the water is compromised it becomes dirtier.  It’s no different in the law.  Take a good law and compromise it, it becomes flawed.  Compromise it again and it becomes inadequate.  Continue to compromise, and before you know it all you’ve done is spend a lot of money on ideas that did not work.

            Make no mistake about it: our budget crisis is the result of generations of unchallenged compromises.

            There is a time for compromise, yes, but for the most part, ours is not a system of compromise, but of majority rule.  And that’s more the reason that the most important issues should not be the province of the federal government, but should be left to the states and local communities, where people have more direct access to their government, and cultural, demographic, and geographical differences are kept to a minimum.  A one-size-fits-all government fits nobody.

            When it comes to the pressing issues that are invariably national in scope, we need leaders who will take a principled stand against the left, who will resist at all costs bigger government and more spending, who will defend capitalism against the command economy, and who will draw a line in the sand and declare that government has come this far but it will come no farther.  That is the only way America will remain solvent, to say nothing of prosperous.  There simply is no middle road.  To compromise with the left is simply to move slowly in their direction, down the path to insolvency and the destruction of capitalism.

            And so it is that divided we will stand.  United we’ll fall.

Jordan Rickards is a Middlesex County based attorney and the publisher of The Rickards Review, which he bills as “The Internet’s Preeminent Conservative Blog.”  (MMM readers know better).  Jordan is the Republican nominee for State Senate for New Jersey’s 17th Legislative District.

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Will Christie Meet Snooki? That Would Be Quite A Situation!

Mayor Matt Doherty and Governor Chris Christie walk the Belmar boardwalk. Photo Credit: Tim Larson, Governor's Office

By Art Gallagher

Governor Christie had such a good time in Belmar today that he’s going back to the beach tomorrow to promote New Jersey’s clean beaches and water.

Christie will be making a stop in Manasquan at 2PM with remarks to the press and then head to the Boardwalk and Dupont Ave. in Seaside Heights at 3:45PM.

Christie spokesperson Michael Drewniak hasn’t responded to my email asking if there are any plans to meet or avoid the cast of Jersey Shore during the Seaside Heights visit.

You never know what Snooki will do!

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Real Jersey Guys And A Pennsylvania Woman On The Radio

If you missed the LaRossa and Gallagher Radio Show yesterday, no worries, here’s a recording:

Former Long Branch Councilman Anthony Giordano was a great guest. It was very interesting to hear his perspective on the New Jersey economy, eminent domain and the ongoing redevelopment of Long Branch.

Thanks to James/Shamus for calling in twice.

During the second half hour we were joined by Laureen Cummings, the founder and President of the Scranton Tea Party.  Cummings is considering a race for the GOP nomination to challenge U. S. Senator Bob Casey in Pennsylvania.

Next Tuesday from 5PM-6PM the former “3rd Jersey Guy” will be joing the “Real Jersey Guys” on the radio.

Gannett columnist and best selling co-author of The Soprano State, Bob Ingle will be our guest for what promises to be an entertaining, informative and infuriating hour….just like Bob’s book and movie.

Bob and I will be doing to show from WIFI AM 1460’s studio in Florence rather than calling in so that the phone lines will be freed up for your calls to 609-447-0236 and 609-447-0237.  My co-host, former Senator Dick LaRossa will be live on the line.

Our show is broadcast every Tuesday from 5PM-6PM on WIFI AM 1460 and on the Internet here.   Repatriot Radio is our sponsor.

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Unions To Dems: Shut Up About Port Authority Toll Hikes

By Art Gallagher

Politickernj is reporting that New Jersey’s construction unions are leaning on Democratic lawmakers not to criticise Governor Christie over the proposed 50% toll and fare hikes by the Port Authority of NY/NJ. Yet.

The labor unions want New Jersey commuters to fund the $33 billion in NY and NJ infrastructure projects, including the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, that the toll hikes will support.

Trenton Democrats and U.S. Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg had initially come out strongly against the toll hikes.   Governors Christie and Cuomo claimed they were caught off guard by the toll hike proposal and would review it.  Most observers expect Christie and Cuomo to approve lower toll increases than the Port Authority has proposed.

Trenton Democrats are now holding their powder on criticising the proposed hikes, figuring that Christie will look good politically if he responds to the criticism by scaling back the increases.  Instead they will attack Republicans after the final hikes are approved.

Christie has blamed the need for toll hikes on years of mismanagement  in the Port Authority and has claimed that the people he has appointed are improving the operations and finances of the mega agency.  Cuomo said that the proposed toll hikes don’t work for him.

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Lobbyists Still Getting State Pensions

By Art Gallagher

The Record is reporting that even after New Jersey’s pension system has been reformed that employees of the NJ League of Municipalities, the NJ School Boards Association and the NJ Association of Counties are eligible to collect state pensions.

As of 2009, retirees of those lobbying groups were collecting pension of $1.3 million annually, according to The Record.

Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver say they are working on the problem.

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