Associated Press
April is proving to be an unusually unkind month for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).
First, Newark's Star-Ledger ran a lengthy, detailed report documenting the extent to which the governor's legislative proposals, executive orders, and agency rules were written, at times word for word, by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a shadowy far-right group that seeks to impose a conservative agenda in state legislatures.
Then, the New York Times helped shine a light on Christie's corporate welfare practices, in which the governor is handing out lucrative tax credits to preferred in-state corporations.
Today's revelations, meanwhile, may be the most damaging to date.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey exaggerated when he declared that unforeseen costs to the state were forcing him to cancel the new train tunnel planned to relieve congested routes across the Hudson River, according to a long-awaited report by independent Congressional investigators.
The report by the Government Accountability Office, to be released this week, found that while Mr. Christie said that state transportation officials had revised cost estimates for the tunnel to at least $11 billion and potentially more than $14 billion, the range of estimates had in fact remained unchanged in the two years before he announced in 2010 that he was shutting down the project. And state transportation officials, the report says, had said the cost would be no more than $10 billion.
Mr. Christie also misstated New Jersey's share of the costs: he said the state would pay 70 percent of the project; the report found that New Jersey was paying 14.4 percent. And while the governor said that an agreement with the federal government would require the state to pay all cost overruns, the report found that there was no final agreement, and that the federal government had made several offers to share those costs.
Even at the time, Christie's decision on this project in 2010 was hard to understand. Conservatives, who've become increasingly hostile towards American infrastructure improvements, cheered the move, but from a substantive perspective, the governor's decision was fairly characterized as "destructive and incredibly foolish."
But this new report casts that decision in an even more damaging light. The Government Accountability Office is a non-partisan research/audit arm of Congress, and it's reporting this week that Christie's rationale for his strange decision wasn't even true. It was a mistake to scrap a major public works project during a weak economy; it was a bigger mistake to explain the move with dishonest claims.
Also note, this didn't just hurt New Jersey -- the project was intended to alleviate congestion between Boston and Washington, D.C.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who requested the GAO investigation, said in a statement this morning, "This was the most important transportation project of our time. [The ARC Tunnel project] was critical to the future of New Jersey's economy and it took years to plan, but Gov. Christie wiped it out with a campaign of public deception."
Leave a Comment:
Maybe he should have thought about this before getting into bed with the KKK.
Citation?
He is Republican and his mouth is moving! He will do Nothing to promote jobs until after November!
He has held up his end of the bargain with the devil. The republiecOn party has sworn to do everything they can to keep Obama from being elected again and Christy has done his share by cutting his state out of good jobs.. Well now, those in NJ who are out of work can blame him ALONG with the rest of the repugs who cheered him on.
You got that right!
This is exactly what I was thinking. How can you tell he's a liar? He's a Republican and his mouth is moving.
In Christie's case, it's always moving, whether eating or lying.
Isn't this project been around for more than 20 years?
"I'm shocked, shocked" that there's BSing going on here! Wise leaders are not those who take actions but those who take wise actions. Christie fails the test!
So does most of the GOP, yet the just keep getting "elected"?
Public deception??? How about a little bit of full disclosure? Lies, Lies, Lies. But then again, Christie is a whole owned corporate subsidiary and a repuknican.
Why are Republlicans dead-set against projects that make things better for Americans?
Darwinism
Another poster suggested that its a coordinated effort to keep the economy from improving to make Obama look bad. In other words, it is a political strategy to keep Americans unhappy until after elections so that voters will blame Obama for the lack of improvement and look elsewhere for a more effective alternative. Cooperating with the party agenda ensures financial and ideological campaign support for candidates. Christie stands to gain support for a future presidency.
10 points for Captain Obvious!!!
Because the repubs really want a country that only caters to the corporations that support their political careers and WE THE PEOPLE end up getting the shaft. While everyone is watching the Supreme Court for their decision on the HealthCare crap, repubs are working behind the scenes to destroy this country.
Mary is correct. Republicans on the state level are not going to support any jobs programs unless they are facing reelection. After November, there will be the start of the next campaign cycle in the states and that is when governors are going to be looking to pump up their records. On the federal level, Republicans are going to continue to resist any infrastructure improvements to keep the economy stagnant. That can change if the big business sees a lot of profits in major projects. If Obama wants to pull the rug out from under the Republicans, he can conference with business leaders where they can discuss what projects that would like to see started. When enough businesses jump on the building bandwagon, Republicans will be forced to support the projects. It is the business community that can apply the right pressure on Republicans since they tend to ignore the interests of their constituents.
Because most, if not all, of these projects are government sponsored and paid for. When they work well (like the Post Office) that is a sign that government works and works well. Republican/conservative doctrine says that ALL government is bad. If they allow government to do something good, they shoot themselves in the foot. They MUST make government look bad any way they can.
Rick Scott in Florida did the same thing . Rejected 24 billion in high speed rail money for ideological reasons.
It threatened to stimulate the economy of Florida , and that would be good for Obama
No Rick it didn't go back to the Federal Government it went to the Northeast who said thank you very much .
Why do Republicans hate the American people?
They supposedly have an ample supply of money coming from Karl Rove. This may be Bribery in it's worst form ever. We are being sold-out as we speak.
He's a bully, and now a proven liar. Promoting the ALEC plan means he's bought and sold by the Koch brothers...they don't want the economy to get better, they only want Obama to be voted out so their Mitt puppet can perform. The Kochs won't stop...they have bottomless pockets and they already own the republican party completely, including Rove and Faux. The Democrats are going to have to show up at the polls in huge numbers to defeat them!
Now might be a good time to start knocking down the walls and start talking to our neighbors and family members. I know we're not supposed to talk politics but, subtle hints may help. I thought about mentioning some of the MSNBC shows to them. I got my sister to watch Rachel because she looks like her.
Answer: They don't. They hate natural American people. :)
They hate the American people for the same reason they hate America. THEY ARE TRAITORS!!! They have sold their allegiance to the Constitution for a pocket full of cash. What they haven't realized yet is that, when their "benefactors" have finally wrestled the government fully into their own hands, those benefactors will become their executioners.
Its more like the 1% have grabbed onto the brass ring of no more taxes on the rich, in fact anything to cut their taxes more, that they are now going after infrastructure and transportation projects which used to be no brainers. But that's ALEC and the Koch Brothers - more money than brains.
We Americans get exactly the kind of government we deserve due to our lack of interest, low participation and acceptance of incompetence and corruption. We have found the enemy and he is us.
and the Repubs wanted him to be a candidate for President? he doesn't know the truth from a hole in the ground, he is scarier than Romney or Santorum :-(
Not really his bark is worst than his bite. He will scamper away with his tail between his legs soon enough when the gravy train ends.
Wait didn't he eat the "gravy train"......Sorry couldn't resist....
It's 9 am the day after this report, and Christie is still in office? Why? What are you waiting for, New Jersey?
His Batman Helicopter.
you mean Fatman Helicopter
And he was the republican base's first choice to run the country. In the ground I guess.
Just another Alec funded "shoot everyone in the foot" Republikan. The country is being overrun by fools and jackals who have sold themselves out to hard core crazies-
Yes, but the sheeple keep voting for "the fools & jackals" - so who is actually the a$$?!
I thought this was suspect at the time. Costs only increase in these type of projects and the fact that he's under the thumb of ALEC explains a lot. We need to get rid of ALEC NOW!!
I think we are witnessing an historic event unfolding right before our eyes. The cookie is crumbling.
Perhaps those politicians should be limited to only two terms, one in office and one in prison.
Everytime you take a close look at a politician of either party, there is some form of duplicity. It seems like it goes with the territory, like they can't help it.
Yeah, okay, whatever.
Great-another false equivalence-if you actually look at the numbers, the reps' have a much worse record
ALEC is like Governing for Dummies, except several times less useful than actual Dummies books.
Lets take it easy on the Dummies books, they're full of useful instruction. There's nothing useful about ALEC.
Get this story out there and keep digging for more about Christie and ALEC.
I'm surprised that the GOA didn't find evidence of coercion from the RNC about keeping jobs down and making the economy worst. Their one goal all this time was to make sure the Democratic president had only one term. It's sad when a political party makes its goals paramount to the wellfare of the country. They need to go!!!!
OBAMA 2012 / DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS 2012
Bernie Sanders in 2016!
Bernie Sanders for Supreme Ayatollah! Throw the rest into the sea!!
I LOVE Bernie Sanders. Wish he would run but I don't think it will ever happen.
Unfortunately, like mostly all democrats, the NJ voters are too apathetic to do anything about this moron. He will continue in office and probably get elected again. Until the democrats develop a backbone our country will continue to be run into the crapper by politicians like this idiot.
I think the numbness is starting to wear off, If we could just get people to put their cell phones down for a minute and talk about this to some real people. Come on Cell Phone Zombies remove the Appendage.
Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
It's basically a right-wing Republican organization working diligently to take away the rights of ordinary working people to implement the one-percent agenda
ALEC...
Funded by many, many corporations and wealthy individuals.
Including the major corporate welfare recipient General Electric, the parent corporation of the NBC/MSNBC branches of the corporately owned media.
Don't forget The White Supremist. The ones who want to get rid of our Government.
All of this misses the point. We still need the tunnel!
Let's sign the deal today and start digging tomorrow. This tunnel isn't some pork-laden bridge to nowhere. It's a vital resource that is integral to keeping the Northeast corridor competitive globally. It's ludicrous that NJ was even permitted to prevent this from happening.
Who is he going to borrow the money from now? China?
The original project called for, among other things, two new tunnels under the Hudson River connecting to a Penn Station that would have been expanded into the old Farley Post Office building behind the current Penn Station, and rail connections between Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, allowing access to the East Side for commuters from New Jersey. The two additional tunnels would have allowed Amtrak to share use of all four tunnels with NJ Transit.
What you would have ended up with, at a higher cost, was two tunnels from New Jersey into a station, not even directly connected to Penn Station, underneath Macy's. No East Side connection, no new Penn Station expansion into the Farley Post Office, and Amtrak stuck with the two tunnels it has now. In my eyes, that is indeed a tunnel to nowhere (not a bridge - that was in Alaska). And with whom is the Northeast Corridor competing on the *global* level? Are Canada and Mexico running rail service through the northeast US? Britain? France? Germany?
Yes, we need new tunnels under the Hudson. The ones there now, built by the Pennsylvania Railroad, are a century old. But we also need to build smart, for the needs of the next century, and not just build for the sake of maintaining momentum on a project that started out as a master plan for regional transportation and ended up as a commuter path to Macy's sub-basement.
Christie was wrong to play fast and loose with the numbers. But he was right in pulling the plug on this particular use of taxpayer money, applying a splash of cold water on the fevered minds who felt they had to construct something, anything, right now.
If that is the case Noon then why did Christie not just go out and publicly explain that he felt that the project wasn't wise and would prefer to spend money on a different route? He actually had a lot of voice over this project and did nothing w/ it. Both NJ and NY had a lot that they could've done w/ this project. If it was a train to nowhere then someone, somewhere, should've been speaking up about it. Why weren't they?
Mouzer, they WERE speaking up about it in public - in particular, the New Jersey Association of Rail Passengers (NJ-ARP). Why weren't you paying attention before now?
The route that everyone agreed on was from New York City, under the Hudson River, and into New Jersey. There was no "different route".
For Christie to voice an objection would make him a lone voice up against past NJ governors, plus the governor of NY, the mayor of NY, Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the MTA - a losing proposition, especially where federal $$$ were concerned. He did do something with what clout he had, but that something you don't agree with.
This is the point I am getting at. This had to be agreed upon by both states and the federal government. There should have been ample disagreement from NY, NJ, and their respective elected representatives. An institution crying fowl is certainly compelling, but this doesn't suddenly mean that Christie was rejecting the rail on the merits of it being bad policy. Nor indeed does this mean that the institution raising awareness was doing a good job. I have never heard of this before hand. What reports I read in the NYT and elsewhere predicted that this would cut down on commuter traffic and would end up saving the state money in the long run. I have never heard anyone claim that it was indeed a rail to nowhere. So my question now is why weren't you on here complaining about it before from the various articles that TRMS has written about it, why wasn't Christie and other politicians making more stink about it, and why weren't the national representatives (Congressmen/women) making a bigger stink about it? Christie appeared several times on national television including The Tonight Show and yet he never mentioned this. Why would he not have? If this indeed was such a dire project why would he have been silent? That is one thing for you to claim that the system railroaded him, but that's another thing entirely for you to claim that every opportunity that he had to speak out publicly about the issue he decided not to.
Christie and the state's representatives would have, had ample time to raise awareness on the issue and protest it. The fact that you are saying 'previous governors' and other elected officials were in favor of the project tells me there's more to this story than you're letting on. Why don't you provide some evidence to support your claims?
If previous governors were in favor of it, why didn't they ok the project in the past? The whole tunnel project was put on hold since the early 90's, I believe. You literally had an almost equal amount of parties (democrats and republicans) governors of NJ that were in and out of office...and the tunnel project was on the shelf the entire time. Corzine pulled it off last minute. Why? He was leaving. If anything happened, it would be the next governor's problem.
And I have actually heard from people the problem with the tunnels, much the same as Noon described. However, I haven't read anything about it.
I used to think there existed some yet-to-be-disclosed method to this nationwide madness on the part of Republican state officials. Now, I have come to the conclusion that they are all simply idiots and a-holes elected on a "praise Jesus" platform who don't possess the requisite intellect needed to perform the duties of the offices to which they were elected or appointed. Oklahoma's Attorney General (a Republican) recently declined participation in the national mortgage settlement at a loss to state debt-ridden home owners of approximately $18 million. The other 49 state AG's signed the agreement. What an idiot!
It's less a question of intellect than one of morals.
It's getting very old. Kinda makes you wonder what voters could possibly have found so appealing about people like Christie, Rick Scott, Scott Walker, etc. etc., in the first place. After all, each was duly elected by their constituents. Are Americans really such p-poor judges of character? If so, who's really to blame for the jokes these clowns have relentlessly played on us? Yes, the questions are sadly rhetorical.
Here in Florida it was all about negative ads and Democratic apathy. The anti Democratic party ads started months before Rick Scott was even selected. Trashing Alex Sink and anything democrat, including senators , representatives you name it . In the election it was nonstop poo slinging and the Mugwump voters of Central and North Florida bought his more jobs bulls**t.
He forgot to mention it was more jobs for his Healthcare and corporate privatization buddies .
The Super majority of Republicans has really F**ked this state
We could probably start with the same people who are trying to convince us that it's ok to lie and tell storys that aren't true. Which we are about to be hammered with in Smear attacks which are being funded by Mortimer and Duke and all their newly made best friends the TV Evangelists and the White Supremists. Maybe we need some kind of a gas mask.
He wasn't Jon Corzine. That was it. That's how Christie got elected.
That sounds too familiar. At the time Sarah Palin won the Republican nomination for governor of Alaska, it was "anybody but Murkowski" (Lisa's dad Frank, that is), and it would appear that the state's republicans didn't vet her any more thoroughly at that time than John McCain's people did before recommending her as his running mate in '08. We all know how both of those endeavors failed miserably, and yet NBC and FOX both still find her highly desireable as a guest host and political analyst respectively. Duh. What a way to run a country.
Agreed, Jessica.
Look how many Maddow bloggers have dogs!
Ya I noticed and so did Farley the wonderdog
Well, when is this goon up for re-election? Vote him out and get this project back on track(sigh, there's my pun for this morning).
This guy is the definition of the term "fat cat" politician. I can't understand how anybody voted for this idiot. As a New Jersey native I know that his attitude and approach is NOT consistent with any of my friends and relatives who are still in NJ.
Same here I'm from Rahway.