Tom Moran has sometimes treated Chris Christie as though the Star-Ledger had a man-crush on the governor. But even Moran could not let Christie’s arrogant audition for vice president go without criticism.
Moran, in pointed column yesterday, called Christie an “economic royalist” and painted him as out of touch.
It is bad enough that economic royalists such as Christie are pushing for tax cuts that are heavily tilted toward the rich. Do we really have to hear his morally superior lecture on top of that?
The answer is yes. Because to justify shrinking government as much as Republicans want and to justify big tax cuts at the same time, you have to build a story that turns government into the enemy. So programs that provide help are turned into demons that corrupt our collective spirit.
As Moran notes, Christie has never been about tax fairness, only about tax cuts and really only for cuts that benefit the best off in the state.
Christie, despite his pledge on taxes, has actually increased taxes on the working poor by shrinking the earned income tax credit. Does a parent unlucky enough to be raising a family on minimum wage really need the governor’s condescending kick in the pants?
The aforementioned unlucky parent doesn’t, but maybe our arrogant chief executive does. At he very least, he deserves a very large serving of humble pie.
Hank Kalet 