Trump's trickle-down economics revisit old GOP disaster

The cover of today's New York Post claims it's a "tax revolution," but GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump's plan recalls the trickle-down economics President Ronald Reagan tried more than 30 years ago with disastrous results. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Desperate to save his sinking GOP presidential campaign, wacko racist Donald J. Trump is promising to cut taxes for "workers and businesses."

The Record's headline writers were sold:

"Trump touts tax

reform in Detroit"

That awkwardly worded headline ran over a brief on Page 1, but Trump was speaking in Detroit, not promising to reform taxes in the Motor City.

The full Associated Press story on A-5 quotes Democrat Hillary Clinton predicting Trump would trigger another recession.

"His tax plans would give super big tax breaks to large corporations and the really wealthy," Clinton said, labeling the proposals more "trickle-down economics."

Reagan's trickle-down lies and Christie's voodoo budget

The large number of empty storefronts in Englewood, above and below, is a story local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza of The Record refuse to tackle, even though both at one time covered Englewood as reporters. Today, the weekly reporter assigned to the small city discusses a heating project at the high school (L-7).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Ronald Reagan's "trickle-down" tax and budget policies as president were discredited years ago as "voodoo economics."

In fact, in the 1980s, The Record did a series reporting the conservative Republican's budget was balanced with deep cuts in social programs, including those for children.

Is there any mention of that in today's Page 1 report on Reagan's "legacy" as a "master of compromise" that Governor Christie is trying to resurrect in his pursuit of the White House (A-1)?

Stile lies

Editor Martin Gottlieb loves putting Charles Stile --the Trenton-based political columnist who long ago sold out to Christie -- on the front page, but the way his flattering report is played today raises troubling questions.

The headline appears above the fold with no indication to readers that an opinion column appears below or that it is written by Stile, a reporter who is one of the GOP bully's lap dogs.

The word "Opinion" should appear on Page 1, maybe even over the headline itself, to tell readers this is more of Stile's selective reporting.

The one question Stile doesn't address is how could Christie, who has executed 350 vetoes in New Jersey, hope to sell himself as a compromiser, if he decides to run for a nomination he is unlikely to get?

Now, Christie is trying to balance a state budget and reduce taxes on the wealthy, forcing him to grab at money that should go into state pension funds, affordable housing, cleaning up the environment and other programs.

Sex trade

Except for the sex trade on Route 46 in South Hackensack, here is another Sunday edition with a global and national perspective (A-1).

I wonder if Gottlieb will ever lead the Sunday paper with news that police departments in Tenafly and other wealthy communities have stemmed the high number of house burglaries or that the lame Paterson department is winning the fight against street shootings.

Instead of reporting on struggling downtowns in Englewood and Teaneck, Gottlieb gives us an Associated Press story on chain stores in Manhattan, where he lives (A-4).

Photo puzzles

A photo on A-12 today raises a question that isn't answered by the caption:

Do guests of Route 46 hotels in South Hackensack have to worry their car's wheels and tires will be stolen?

On L-3, a photo of an architectural tour in Paterson doesn't identify the early 20th century building shown.

Local news

Today's Local news section gives readers a much stronger municipal report than in recent days or weeks, and, lo and behold, no crime news appears on L-1.

There is even a story on the Hackensack school board race, but none of the candidates are asked to address the low-quality of food service at the high school (L-3). 

Ferriero editorial

The only thing worth reading in Opinion today is an editorial that states in no uncertain terms that despite a mixed verdict, former Bergen County Democratic Party power broker Joseph Ferriero "was still found guilty" and "justice was served" (O-2).

Contrast this with Columnist Mike Kelly and other reporters falling all over themselves to lay out legal arguments from the losing defense attorney, Michael Baldassare, who plans to appeal the conviction and whatever sentence is imposed.

That assures the lawyer of tens of thousands of dollars in additional legal fees.

Table this

I got a good laugh from the Elisa  Ung column on North Jersey's hard-to-get restaurant tables (L-1).

I actually once got one of them, a spacious booth in Chakra's romantic dining room, which manages to silence the roar of traffic on Route 4 in Paramus.

But the toughest tables to find are those where grass-fed beef, antibiotic-free poultry, organic vegetables and other premium ingredients are served, because few restaurant owners want to give up profits to benefit customers.

Ung, the paper's restaurant critic, wouldn't know anything about that, blinded as she is by her food obsessions and a love of artery clogging heavy cream and butter.

More bad news: Christie says he's the new Reagan

On West Passaic Street in Maywood, two trees appear to have been trimmed by passing NJ Transit buses and trucks.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Do you remember President Ronald Reagan's "trickle-down" economics?

Reagan's two terms in office (1981-89) seemed like an eternity to many Americans, who believe he was the worst president we ever had until George W. Bush took office.

As a reporter for The Record, I was assigned to do a story on Reagan's budget cuts, and my Page 1 story detailed how he had slashed social programs for minority children, among others.

Now, Governor Christie has "compared himself to Ronald Reagan," The Record reports in a Page 1 column today on the GOP bully's TV appearances on Sunday.

Reporting every fart

It looks like The Record has committed itself to chronicling Christie's every word, every fart and every mean-spirited act, and to spinning them for what they mean for his presidential aspirations in  2016.

That election is three long years away, and if Christie actually gets the nomination, he faces certain defeat at the hands of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Reader weighs in

Reader David B. Simpson of Tenafly is already sick of all the space The Record is devoting to its "endless speculation about Governor Christie's presidential ambitions and the prospects of his success" (Your Views, A-13).

Instead, Simpson says, The Record's "journalistic function" is to provide "a genuine factual  inquiry into the performance of Christie in office as to whether he really is accomplishing what he claims."

Take a hike

Hey, Simpson, don't you know Editor Marty Gottlieb and his gang of Christie-loving columnists and reporters don't give a shit what you think? 

And you have a nerve telling Gottlieb and the Borg family how to perform their "journalistic function."

Simpson voted for Christie, but bemoans the governor's "one-shot gimmicks to close budget gaps, and his willingness to subsidize public projects with extensive public money, such as in the case of the failing casinos of Atlantic City and the monstrous Xanadu project in the Meadowlands [American Nightmare]."

"You owe it to the people of New Jersey, and the nation, to provide an unvarnished portrait  of Christie's tenure in office, identifying both successes and failures," Simpson's letter says.

Don't hold your breath.

Hackensack mystery

For Veterans Day, the front page also carries a story about 1st Lt. Raymond Sachtleben, a World War II pilot from Hackensack whose B-24 bomber crashed in an English village in 1944.

The cause of his death was shrouded in mystery until villagers, a researcher in New Jersey and Hackensack High School students worked together on a memorial and a Web site (A-1 and A-8).

Clueless readers, including a boater, continue to consult Road Warrior John Cichowski on MVC rules and regulations, apparently unaware he has lost it completely (L-1).

Restaurant focus

Better Living's cover story reports on children who followed their parents into the restaurant industry (BL-1).

Issues faced by restaurant goers -- including service, tipping, rising prices and the quality of the food served by restaurants -- continue to be largely ignored.

'The day the middle class died'

Image via Wikipedia


Filmmaker Michael Moore has posted a video as a chilling reminder of the destructive presidency of Ronald Reagan, right.


You can see how Governor Christie, congressional Republicans and rabid Tea Party loyalists are carrying on the work of our first and hopefully last company spokesman-actor-president.


You remember "trickle-down economics," don't you?


In retrospect, that theory could have been called "tepid discharges from a douche bag."


I was part of a team of reporters at The Record that documented the cuts to social programs during the Reagan presidency.


As today, all those holier-than-thou Republicans loved to cut Head Start and other programs for minority children.


Here is a link to the YouTube video:


4-minute video of Ronald Reagan puppet

Didn't we see this coming?

Image via Wikipedia

The Borgs and other wealthy North Jersey families breathed a sigh of relief today, learning from The Record of Woodland Park that Governor Christie won't renew higher taxes on the rich. The rest of us got slammed with big cuts in his budget message to the Legislature, but are we really surprised?

If you lived through the administrations of Tom Kean and Christie Whitman -- or Ronald Reagan's -- you know Republicans are sworn enemies of environmental regulation, unions, diverse public schools, mass transit, public health-care programs and the Public Advocate, among others.

You won't see this in The Record, which seems to be firmly in Chris Christie's corner, though a Page 1 column yesterday and an editorial today warn the former federal prosecutor to tone down his tough talk lest he totally alienate Democrats, who control the Legislature.

Another thing you didn't see in Christie's speech or the former Hackensack daily was an attack on home rule, the incredibly inefficient system of local government that inflates property taxes. Are any of the executive orders he issued going to lead to cuts in those taxes? Homeowners aren't holding their breaths.

As I predicted yesterday, people who don't own cars or who rely on local buses get a royal F.U. from pompous Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski and in news coverage of the snowstorm's aftermath. No matter how many big stories head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Laughs A Lot" Sykes tackles, she always screws up. Inevitably, the copy is late and riddled with errors and major omissions. And she was the one who promoted the lazy Cichowski to columnist.

"Bunkering down"? It's right there in the lead paragraph on the front of Local under the byline of Staff Writer Alison Pries, formerly a clueless clerk in Business. Is that supposed to be a play on the words "hunkering down"? Or something everyone on the inept assignment and news copy desks missed?

The online Urban Dictionary defines "bunker down" this way:

"A term morons use, particularly when bad weather is afoot, to which they confuse the meaning of 'hunker' with. Bunker is a noun, yet hunker is a verb, thus while the words sound similar, when thought of in their linguistic context, one is blatantly wrong."

 The rest of the lead graph about storm cleanup isn't great news writing, either. Way to go, Sykes.

Sykes and her incompetent minions have always thought you cover a big story by throwing as many reporters and photographers at it as possible -- about 20 yesterday, maybe 40 the day before. But what inevitably happens is that everyone runs around gathering way too much information, and much of it never gets used. That alienates staffers who don't see their quotes in the paper and cheats readers and news sources. Then, the editors give the job of writing the story and blending the material to a relative novice such as Pries.

For example, the section of Pries' story on downtowns trying to "regain momentum" completely omits Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other important towns. In fact, there are only quotes from one merchant in Tenafly, which happens to be where Publisher Stephen A. Borg lives in a $3.65 million mansion, courtesy of a North Jersey Media Group mortgage granted months before big staff cutbacks.

Does The Record have to do the same story about drivers reserving parking spaces with furniture after every major storm? How about writing about the plight of local bus riders who have to cross dangerous snowbanks in front of their uncleared bus stops? Doesn't Sykes remember how she fell heavily and was injured in The Record's Hackensack parking lot after a similar storm? My recollection is she was trying to get over a snowbank.

On A-2 today, The Record finally corrected a typo in a headline about the Baha'i faith that ran Monday.

In Better Living, readers get only a partial listing of restaurant health-inspection ratings. For another week, Wyckoff ratings are conspicuous by their absence as is an explanation of why they haven't appeared for many years.