LOL: Christie calls millionaires the 'people of New Jersey'

Two of the unfilled potholes on Euclid Avenue, between Prospect and Summit avenues, in Hackensack, where residents say the block hasn't been re-paved in about 30 years.

Big stones that are thrown off can damage car tires.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

New Jersey's faltering economy, soon-to-be bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund and a host of other problems under Governor Christie can be explained in four words.

In response to another attempt to place a tax surcharge on the wealthy, the GOP bully claims millionaires are the "people of New Jersey," The Record says (A-3).

"So the Democrats are once again firmly in the place of raising taxes on [the] people of New Jersey," Christie told reporters in New Brunswick.

Staff Writers Dustin Raccioppi and Melissa Hayes simply quote Christie making the most ridiculous claims, and never challenge him.

For example, he claims his "economic policies" and "reforms," if not blocked by Democrats, would have allowed him to "cut taxes" -- but the reporters don't ask him which taxes he is referring to (A-3).

'Millionaires tax'

Of course, many of the millionaires that would pay such a tax surcharge -- raising more than $1 billion a year in new revenue -- are Christie supporters.

They are part of the 1% and the source of campaign money that elected him governor and, he hopes, will send him to the White House.

They are far from being "the people" he has tried to screw from the outset, whether they ride mass transit, teach in our schools or work for state government.

Just folks

You'll find one of them on the first Business page today -- Goya CEO Bob Unanue, whose billion-dollar Hispanic food empire received an $82 million state tax break to build a new world headquarters in Jersey City (L-7).

Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley, who covered the "dazzling ceremony" to open the building, is a good reporter, but he didn't say anywhere is his report whether the Unanue family or the company have contributed to Christie's campaigns.

Instead, he quotes Christie extensively on the importance of Goya to New Jersey, which has lagged the nation and nearby states on job creation under the conservative's misguided rule.

And another multimillionaire who is just folks to Christie is real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, one of his biggest fund-raisers and a personal friend of the Borg publishing family, owner of The Record. 

Hanson's links to Christie and the Borgs may explain why Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to run an endless stream of boring Charles Stile columns on Page 1, exploring in mind-numbing detail Christie's chances of winning the GOP nomination (A-1).

Vietnam War

Staff Writer Todd South is a veteran of Afghanistan, but he could have turned in a far more complete Vietnam War retrospective than readers find on A-1 today.

Like our second war in Iraq, U.S. government officials may have lied to the American people to justify the invasion.

And South doesn't discuss all of the health problems veterans experienced from the use of Agent Orange and napalm to eliminate hiding places for guerrilla fighters.

When I worked on The Record's copy desk, I often edited the obituaries of those veterans, many of whom died in their mid-50s.

And like returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, the country turned its back on those who fought in Vietnam and their health problems.

Finally, Vietnam was the first war that made the nightly TV news, where the horror sparked protests to bring it to an end, such as the one I attended in San Francisco.