Murphy wants to raise taxes. Pity there's not enough GOP legislators to stop him.
/And whose fault is that?
The NJGOP Establishment's second blog (both appeared during the Christie Project, the New Jersey Globe being the latest incarnation of the project's first one) decided to prate a bit over Governor Phil Murphy's threat to undo part of the compromise reached in 2016 and raise the state sales tax to 7 percent. The NJGOP Establishment's blog thinks this an "I told you so" moment when, as anyone with even a little gray matter should know, Governor Murphy was not part of the 2016 compromise, as he did not take office until January of 2018.
In fact, the compromise is working very well for New Jersey. The state's infrastructure is being repaired, restored, and improved upon. Out-of-state drivers who use our roads have assumed more of the responsibility for paying for them. More infrastructure funding is flowing to counties and municipalities, with the result that property taxes are being held in check or -- in some cases -- actually reduced. And revenues from state taxes -- in particular, the state income tax -- are increasing above projections. Now the Democrats who control the Legislature (some of whom participated in the 2016 compromise) might wish to jeopardize this in order to fulfill the election promises made by candidate Murphy, or they might not. Time will tell.
The Establishment blog makes an argument against legislative compromise, calling it "unadulterated BS." Of course, the writer cannot be so stupid as to fail to see that the Founders of our Republic fashioned a system to ensure such compromise. Indeed, compromise has been the working necessity of every representative democracy since the beginning of Western history.
Now compromise is quite different than surrender. Compromise is when you give something and get something back in return. Like re-funding the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) through an increase in the gas tax for doing away with the Estate Tax, plus four other taxes, while doubling the flow of money to counties and municipalities for property tax relief.
This is different from what the NJGOP normally does. Because what the NJGOP normally does is to provide votes for far-left Democrat legislation for free -- for NOTHING in return. Yes, they just give it away. Like they did on legislation to end the death penalty, impose the Highlands Act, fund Planned Parenthood, give tax money to illegal immigrants, pass the original sales tax increase, and gut the Second Amendment. Heck, the other day, legislators in the NJGOP leadership cast their votes to allow people to re-write their own birth certificates and pretend that they were born one way, when they (as a matter of genetic science) were born another. It seems science only matters when we're talking climate change.
They gave away all this for free... and got back NOTHING in return. And our Establishment blog criticized it not a word.
The Establishment blog complains bitterly about the lack of leadership from the NJGOP. We agree. The Establishment blog claims that the "gas tax increase" could have been "weaponized" for the 2017 elections. It could have been, but that would have meant NJGOP leadership -- up front. Instead, the GOP Senate Leader gave encouragement to both Pro and Anti compromise leaders, never actually choosing a side until it didn't matter. In the Assembly, it was no different, waiting for word from the Governor. As for the state party, well only a fool would have looked to them for leadership.
You cannot blame people for not following, when you will not lead!
Having no principles or platform beyond that which bellowed from a single man (apart from those placed into his head by a small coterie of handlers) the NJGOP was NEVER going to "weaponize" the gas tax or indeed anything else. Ha! The NJGOP failed to "weaponize" the twenty-point election landslide of a sitting Republican Governor!!!
As for Kim Guadagno. She did a dance all right. She literally danced with the LGBT Left and the Pro-Aborts until realizing too late that they already had a perfectly fine candidate to vote for in Phil Murphy (and he's a DEMOCRAT too!) When Guadagno's campaign team finally decided it was time to motivate the base, it was just weeks before Election Day and way too late. The 2017 Guadagno campaign team (the same moes who managed to lose an incumbent Republican Congressman in 2016) have been rewarded by getting to run Bob Hugin's campaign for U.S. Senate this year. Hey, it's the NJGOP, and nothing gets you promoted quicker than a crushing defeat -- the more, the better.
And that's the heart of the matter, isn't it? The NJGOP are losers. They are content to lose. After eight years of having all resources directed at one entity and everyone else being told they had to lose rather than disrespect some scumbag deal with some disreputable Democrat, the NJGOP has adjusted to losing. That's why so many of its "leaders" are "lobbyists" -- eels feeding off the bloated carcass that once held a majority in both Chambers and the Governor's office. The NJGOP's leaders are literally in business with the Democrats.
Don't expect any of this to change any time soon. There are still crumbs to be gathered, still bits of the carcass to eat off. Only yesterday, the "mastermind" of Christie project visited a legislative caucus to bask in the praise of NJGOP leaders (reminiscent of the video below). Under this "mastermind" the NJGOP lost ground in EVERY election cycle, even as "love" for the entity grew. Christie was elected with legislative control a very real prospect... and left with a hollowed out party and legislative numbers so low that you have to go back to the period just after Watergate.
For his next act... the "mastermind" wants to de-conservative the NJGOP. Get rid of all those folks who persist in having principles or who continue thinking in terms of the RNC platform. They gotta go. What needs to replace them are Republican candidates with the principles of... LOBBYISTS.
Before the NJGOP Establishment thinks about providing us with another lecture, it should put these few things in place first:
(1) Get Republican leaders who aren't conflicted by having business dealings with Democrats. Make sure they support the RNC platform. Otherwise, it's like having a Roman Catholic leader who doesn't believe in Transubstantiation.
(2) Sell Republican principles, ideas, solutions. Lead. Recruit candidates accordingly. Build the party up by recruiting and sustaining believers.
(3) Hire people who win elections. Don't expect someone who has never tasted victory to find it. That's like asking the wrong dog to sniff out a hamburger stand. What you'll end up at is a truck stop shithouse.
