New Jersey is the latest poster boy for the failure of liberal/socialist economics. You cannot substitute sound fiscal policies with programs to buy votes and expect the economy to thrive. In fact, you can expect the eventual collapse.
This is right where New Jersey is. The only surprise is that we do not have more states that are following such disastrous economic policies in the same boat. But we wait with patience, knowing that the day of reckoning will come for them as well.
Here’s New Jersey’s solution to its financial crisis: Tax everything.
Unfortunately, being the not so proud owner of the most distressed and underfunded public pension fund in the US is just the start of New Jersey’s monetary woes, and as Bloomberg reports, New Jersey’s fiscal situation is so dire that new Governor Phil Murphy has proposed taxing online-room booking, ride-sharing, marijuana, e-cigarettes and Internet transactions along with raising taxes on millionaires and retail sales to fund a record $37.4 billion budget that would boost spending on schools, pensions and mass transit.
The proposal which is 4.2% higher than the current fiscal year’s, relies on a tax for the wealthiest that is so unpopular it not only has yet to be approved, but also lacks support from key Democrats in the legislature, let alone Republicans. It also reverses pledges from Murphy’s predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, to lower taxes in a state where living costs are already among the nation’s highest.
Honest analysis trumps political expediency on these pages. The truth is that Christie did not get the job done. Debate the reasons for his actions, but the state is in a mess. Perhaps we are too hard on Christie, but we expect results. And it is very unlikely that his Democratic replacement is going to do any better. In fact, he might hammer the final nail in the state’s financial coffin.
Murphy, a Democrat who replaced term-limited Christie on Jan. 16, said his goal is to give New Jerseyans more value for their tax dollars; instead he plans on bleeding them dry. He has promised additional spending on underfunded schools and transportation in a credit-battered state with an estimated $8.7 billion structural deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
“If we enact another budget like the one our administration inherited, our middle class will continue to be the ones shouldering the burden, while seeing little in return,” Murphy said Tuesday in his budget address to lawmakers. His solution? Socialist wealth redistribution: “A millionaire’s tax is the right thing to do –- and now is the time to do it.”
A better way of putting it, as Bloomberg has done, is that New Jersey’s budget “would raise taxes on almost everything.”
Good liberal that Murphy is, he would never consider getting rid of excessive spending. So he is going to tax the daylights out of everyone with two nickels to rub together. Yet he is either ignorant of, or just dismisses one important fact: Money goes where it is treated the best.
There is nothing magical about New Jersey. It is convenient to New York City, but we now have this thing called the internet and a zillion applications that make location all the more irrelevant.
Millionaires and billionaires can afford financial experts who will move their money to jurisdictions where their clients will be safe from Mr. Murphy’s proposed confiscatory taxation.
He’s got an appropriate last name, this new governor. How does Murphy’s Law go? “What can go wrong will go wrong”
Governor Murphy is about to give great support to that saying. All at the expense of those in New Jersey who are about to suffer mightily.
This was Christie 2 years ago:
Source: ZeroHedge
Image: Phil Murphy
I gave former governor Christie a couple of blasts for being a Republican who could not fix the state’s financial problems. I believe in holding Republicans responsible for implementing conservative policies. If I’ve been too hard on him, just delete those couple of sentences.
Margaret Thatcher was correct: Socialism works until you run out of other people’s money. Put another way, it works until the untethered desire and ability of government bureaucrats to waste copious amounts of money finally runs into a brick wall. In other words, they run out of money.
This is a catastrophe for them, not to mention those who have become accustomed to receiving government benefits or to being employed in government jobs. It’s a catastrophe for the politicians because it means that they no longer have the money to buy votes through extravagant welfare programs.
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Seems a bit odd to start like this. Who is ‘them’? What is that quote from?
That quote is from me. I was stating what Thatcher said as I recall it. The rest of that paragraph contains my words. My idea was to start the article by launching an attack on socialism using the words of Thatcher — someone every good conservative should know of and who is a voice of authority of in conservative circles. “Them” and “they” are the government bureaucrats for whom the running out of money is a disaster as it makes it difficult to buy votes with socialist programs.
Sorry if that did not come off clearly!!! I thought I had launched a broadside against socialism with the help of the “Iron Lady,” but apparently I was too obscure. Will employ a more direct approach in the future.
Ok, I just took that original paragraph our of quotes and changed the beginning of the second.
Great! Thanks, Jake. My idea was to launch a salvo against socialism using the words of one of the world’s best know opponents of socialism, Thatcher. I could have used Reagan or others, but I am really fond of the succinctness and power of Thatcher’s attack. If it didn’t come off originally as well as it might, it would be my fault, not Lady Thatcher’s.
He’s not really a Republican. It makes no sense for the R behind his name.
Clearly you fail to realize that NJ is really run by the Senate, and a governor can only do what the Senate allows him to do. To.blame Christie when NJ has been run by democrats for decades is outright moronic.
Joe is correct