Couch-Potato-in-Chief

Cross-posted from BlueJersey.com


Recently, Governor Christie has parroted the right-wing talking points where he warns of a “paternalistic entitlement society” and people sitting on a couch “waiting for the next government check.”

This is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. Chris Christie has been a lazy governor and eschews the hard work for which he was elected.

Take, for example, the ARC Tunnel fiasco. Christie cancelled this job-creation and much-needed infrastructure project with nary a finger lifted to perform as an executive should. He did not consult the legislature. He did not work to find a compromise solution. He did not assess the impact on New Jersey’s jobs situation. He did not come up with an alternative solution to meet the needs of New Jersey and eastern seaboard train riders. In short, he was too lazy to do his job.

That laziness has been a continual characteristic of Christie’s approach to governing.  Another example is his damn-the-torpedoes approach to the takeover of Rutgers-Camden by Norcross Rowan University. In the business world, any CEO who attempts a hostile takeover without performing due diligence would be summarily fired. But Christie was too lazy to do his homework to develop the financial business case for this takeover. Sloth, thy name is Christie!

Other examples where our governor was too lazy to do his homework come to mind – the Race to the Top failure and the vetting of his Supreme Court nominee’s financial shenanigans, for example.

So who are the real couch potatoes? Many of them are in Christie’s camp: People who sit around and collect capital gains while not producing any value-added items for the economy. Wall Street bankers and a certain Willard Romney come to mind.

And who are the people who need what Christie calls the “paternalistic entitlement[s]”? They are people like my friends Mike and Kathy, owners of a small business who drew the short straw in the game of life and struggle to navigate the mess that our governor created in Medicaid. They are the hard working public school teachers who have received the brunt of Christie’s kowtowing to the anti-union privateers.

So, Mr. Governor, if you want to label folks as couch potatoes, gather your friends and supporters and collectively look in the mirror. Espousing cheap political rhetoric is easy. Governing is hard.

Comments on this post are encouraged, but references to the governor’s weight are not welcome. Such comments take away from substantive discussion of the real issues.