A story in today’s Star-Ledger gets at the crux of the ideological manner in which Chris Christie has approached the state budget.
I should make it clear that all governors approach budgeting with an ideological bias — it is at the center of what it means to creat policy and budgets, by assigning dollar values to programs, are policy documents.
But Gov. Christie has rhetorically approached the budget as if his only goal was weening the state off unnecessary spending. He has talked repeatedly about how we have lived beyond our means for too long and how we need to stop, pretending that his cuts have had little to do with his political philosophy.
That, of course, is horse hockey (as Col. Potter might say on “M*A*S*H”). Christie has targeted the teachers union as the boogeyman of his administration, while slashing programs designed to ameliorate the effects of economic hardship (changes in unemployment benefits, for instance).
Today’s Ledger, cites another program cut (as part of a larger story on the potential loss of federal aid) that stands out for its callousness toward women and its consistency with the anti-abortion right’s antipathy toward women’s health issues:
The state is giving up a chance to get federal money for family-planning services after Christie proposed cutting all funding for doctor visits that include gynecological visits, birth control, breast exams and disease testing and treatment. Because the Christie administration doesn’t want to put up any money for the services, the state had to withdraw an application asking the federal government to fund 90 percent of the bill, a decision Democratic lawmakers have criticized.
Christie, as he made clear during the campaign, is a pro-lifer. That does not automatically place him in what I’ll call the antiwomen camp; but the antiabortion movement has a history of attacking women’s health programs. Christie’s budget cut must be seen in this vein, especially when paired with his unwillingness to reinstate the higher marginal rate on those who earn more than $400,000 a year.
The state’s press has been a bit soft on the governor since he came to office, allowing him to write his own narrative and create his own political story. In doing so, Christie gets to portray himself as being above politics, acting without the kinds of motivations that drive other politicians. That, of course, could not be further from the truth.
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