Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Jon Corzine: "I Sucked"

I am paraphrasing, of course, but it looks like he now knows what the rest of us figured out well before election day...The New York Times reports, with a tear in its collective eye:

In a farewell address tinged with more wistfulness than Wall Street bravado, Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey acknowledged on Tuesday his inability to solve the state’s mounting fiscal problems and said he hoped that he would be remembered for his commitment to the state’s children.

Before a joint session of the Legislature for his fourth and final State of the State address, Mr. Corzine bluntly admitted that he was leaving behind the same problem he had inherited: “Let’s face it: Everyone’s property taxes are too damn high.”

But Mr. Corzine said he was proud to have made enduring improvements to the lives of millions of the state’s most vulnerable residents by dedicating billions to rebuild schools and to pay for preschool education for 50,000 children and health care for 100,000 children.

So you f*cked up your #1 campaign promise - cutting the nation's highest property tax - and instead dedicated billions the state didn't have to "children" who will most likely flee the state due to its onerous tax burden. All this, while the property tax continued to skyrocket.

Truth is, most of the billions in taxpayer dollars that went into the New Jersey school systems were swallowed up by waste, fraud, corruption, and administrative positions and perks. Ask Chris Christie, he should know - he prosecuted enough of Corzine's school-board buddies....

Meanwhile, the overwhelming amount of these billions went to designated under-performing "Abbot" school districts, which achieved virtually no enduring academic results despite all the extra monies that rained down upon them. Of course, this necessitated cutting back on education funds in middle-class school districts - you know, the children of the folks that were actually paying for Corzine's "enduring improvements" - but Corzine notably did not ask to be remembered for his contributions to the lives of the middle-class residents of New Jersey.

If the children of New Jersey were such a concern to Corzine, maybe our billionaire governor (who, according to the Times, left the chamber for a ski vacation in Switzerland) could have used some of his own limitless fortune to help build schools and hire educators, instead of raising taxes, creating deficits that threaten to bankrupt the state, and screwing the middle class, all in order to fulfill his liberal fantasies. Helping the poor is nice, but shaking down an almost-poor person in the name of charity is criminal.

As was Corzine. But the King is dead. And boy, did he suck. And he can hide behind "the children" and other moral vanities all he wants, but it appears as if not even his own people are buying it:

While his voice appeared to break at several points during the 30-minute address, there were few other signs of emotion outside the rows where Mr. Corzine’s family and closest friends were seated...

Not missed, not loved...

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