The Chief Weasel

I came to Trenton a politic naif; I truly believed that the purpose of the Legislature was to honestly and forthrightly wrestle with the problems facing the state of New Jersey.

Silly me. Expecting honesty, anticipating integrity.

But today's speech by Governor McGreevey simply surpasses all my previous expectations. Rarely has more mendacity, dishonesty, prevarication, and duplicity been crammed into one speech, delivered with a smarmy smirk.

One knew the day was off to a bad start when the Democrats ignored the legislative rules that compel the Legislature to actually be in session when a special session was called. They knew that if the Legislature actually met, the Republicans could move to actually do something about ethics bills that the Democrats have buried. Can't have that.

What the Dems lack in honesty they make up in volume. They dutifully shouted down the Republicans who attempted to point out flagrant violation of the rules, and clapped enthusiastically when Comrade McGreevey outlined his new program embodying the politics of envy and reversing three years of Administration policy without even a by-your-leave.

McGreevey congratulated himself – he excels at that – for "balancing three budgets"; of course, that's a lie. Not one of the budget he has proposed was balanced, each relying upon billions in new borrowing. His budgets are no more balanced than is the federal budget.

The list of unbroken McGreevey campaign promises approximates in length the number of jokes feminists find funny, or the list of great French military victories of the 20th century. But his use of Orwellian doublespeak, language which would have pleased the most cynical Soviet commissar, is astonishing.

OK, so he lied about balancing the budgets. But the entire point of this speech was to announce the restoration of cuts to property tax rebate programs that he, himself, had effected in the first instance. Never mind that he criticized these same programs when they were created (correctly, as it happens). Honesty would certainly compel some acknowledgment of his 180 degree turn. But who expects honesty from this administration anymore?

New Jersey owes much of its prosperity to the idiotic tax and spend policies of New York. Now, Pennsylvania owes much of the boom along the Route 78 corridor to the idiotic tax and spend policies of New Jersey. Even assuming that the McGreevey policies produce a short term increase in tax revenues, in the long run, they spell disaster. McGreevey is the best Governor from New Jersey that any business broker in Pennsylvania – or high end real estate salesman in Florida – could possible hope for.

McGreevey depends upon two assumptions in this tax grab: that the voters are stupid and that the rich are stupid. About the voters, his cynicism may prove correct. New Jersey voters often display a marked inclination toward economic masochism, as when they elect two of the most liberal United States Senators, both of whom are devoted to vastly increasing the size of the federal government, from which New Jersey receives few services and to which it pays crushing taxes. It may well be that the people WILL prove naive enough to fall for this beggar thy neighbor tax grab.

But about the rich, that's a different story. The rich did not get that way by being stupid, at least not around money. Much of the money "the rich" make comes from capital gains, and one can clip coupons as easily in one's Florida condo as at one's Upper Montclair estate. Will all 28,000 of McGreevey's targeted "rich" instantly relocate? Of course not. New Jersey has many advantages which go a long way to offset McGreevey's idiotic tax policy; it's a great place to live and may defy the efforts of one man (or one Party) to change that. (After all, there are still people who voluntarily live in New York!!) But, on the margin, some number of the people we should be encouraging to stay will decide that they should be elsewhere. It's a mistake to treat them like bottomless wallets, to socialize their income in the name of "fairness". Tax something, and you get less of it. Make "the rich" feel unwelcome, and they may simply leave. McGreevey aims to make it worth their while.

And the use of "weasel" words!! Consider the real meanings of McGreevey-speak. "Fair share": more than whatever you're presently paying. "Loophole": something which reduces someone else's taxes. "Fairness" – something which increases someone else's taxes. "Windfall" – a tax cut to somebody else.

An HONEST speech would have run something like this:

"My friends.

"Over the course of the past three years, I faced difficult budget choices. I wanted to massively increase spending – in fact, I've increased spending at something like 5 times the rate of inflation – but I didn't want to raise income or sales taxes because I thought that might tick off the voters. So, instead, I indebted our kids for the next thirty years by borrowing billions. I raised every fee in the state. I stuck businesses with a massive tax increase.

"And I slashed property tax rebate checks, knocking millions of people off the rolls.

"I never thought those rebates were a good idea anyway. They did nothing to reduce the spending which drives property taxes higher, they cost a mint to administer, and they could easily be handled through a refundable credit on the income tax, negating the necessity to establish phone registrations, print checks, buy envelopes, pay postage, etc.

"But, now that I'm in office, I kinda like ending the voters checks with my name on them. Just like I never thought much of previous Governors appearing in taxpayer funded campaign commercials masquerading as public service announcements, as an incumbent, I now appreciate their value.

"I know I've done nothing whatsoever in three years to address property taxes, but doing anything really effective probably means ticking off my strongest supporters: public employee unions and residents of urban areas. Any effort to control spending will, of necessity, have to be focused on those areas which soak up the bulk of it, meaning public employees and the cities. I like this job and want to keep it, so I can't go around angering the people who put me here.

"I mean, if these rebates were really "FAIR" and necessary, I wouldn't have slashed them in the first place, right?

"But, heck, I gotta look like I'm doing something. And this "soccer mom" tax works pretty good. It lets me do a bit of old fashioned, populist, bash-the-"rich" demagoguery. Rich liberals will vote for me anyway; they feel guilty about being rich. And rich conservatives wouldn't vote for me under any circumstances. If I can buy some votes with Republican money, that's a win-win situation.

"Hey, I'm not stupid. I know that this is bad policy, that it will, on the margin, chase some people out of state, cost us jobs, depress business. But I'm not gonna be here in the long term. I only have the next election to worry about.

"Isn't this constitutional convention idea brilliant? Sure, it's another flip flop. But it makes me look like I'm actually doing something, while postponing whatever that something might be until after the next gubernatorial election. And the convention is designed so that it CAN'T really address the problem. Everyone knows that the reason property taxes are so high is because the Supreme Court mucked up the system, demanding that we spending more than one half of all state education money in urban areas. This convention is set up so that the people won't be able to change that. It will likely be stacked with NJEA members anyway. The ONLY thing the convention will be able to do is raise some other tax, and the Democrats will be able to evade the blame. BRILLIANT!!

"My poll numbers are so low that they couldn't get any worse even if I do break my last surviving, unbroken campaign promise. What have I got to lose? Sure, I always thought rebates were dumb. Sure I promised not to raise the income tax. Sure, these new rebates will probably be the first thing to go in the second McGreevey term, just like they were the first thing to go in the first. But the key here is to GET that second term.

"The people have short memories and, God willing, the Bush economic recovery will bail my tuchas out just like the Reagan-Bush economic boom made the people forget Bill Clinton's massive tax increase. I get to take credit for things that happen during my term, even if I had nothing whatsoever to do with them, like New Jersey's job growth. But people may remember a check. They might forgive me raising someone else's taxes to give money to them. What difference does it make if it's rotten policy, if it gets me reelected?

"As I said, I've got nothing to lose.

"And, as I said, no one with half a brain really believes that this socialist, redistributionist Robin Hood crap actually makes sense. But we Dems are every bit as serious about property tax reform as we are about ethics reform. We sure as hell aren't going to do ANYTHING which cuts off the gravy train for those who put us here. We're DEMOCRATS, for crying out loud!! We believe that Government exists as a jobs program for Democratic voters.

"So, my friends, remember, this is simply about money: buying votes of one class of voters with the money of another class. The voters don't give a damn about the long term and, I hope, they don't give a damn about good policy. All they want is more money in their pocket and if they have to beggar their neighbor to get it – and that neighbor happens to be "rich" – they'll rationalize, just as I have. Sure it's bad policy. Sure it's economic folly. But I'm banking that idiotic policy will have salutary, short term political benefits. For me. That's what it's all about. Tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect. And you thought the era of envy died with Reagan!!