If I were teaching a course on logical arguments, I think it’s safe to say the governor’s latest rant against his critics would land him a fairly poor mark.
Here’s the back story:
Gov. Chris Christie has developed a budget plan that more than one analyst says includes rosy revenue projections — or an inflated sense of what can reasonably be expected to be collected via taxes and fees.
The budget plan drew criticism from the bond rating agencies a while back, and now the state Office of Legislative Services is saying that revenues are growing but falling well below anticipated levels — to the tune of about $688 million for the current fiscal year and $635 million for the next one.
Christie, who is pushing an income tax cut, is furious and his response, in typical Christie fashion, was to tear down the messenger and not really address the messenger’s analysis:
Gov. Chris Christie today attacked the legislature’s non-partisan budget expert, calling him “the Dr. Kevorkian of the numbers.”
“Why would anybody with a functioning brain believe this guy,” Christie said of David Rosen, the budget officer for the Office of Legislative Services. “How often do you have to be wrong to finally be dismissed?”
He then went on to decry the non-partisan office as the “handmaiden of the majority.”
Look, there is an argument to be made here, but it should focus on the methodology that created the estimates. The question is how did each side come to its revenue figure and why does each side think it’s right. Past experience is useful here — so Christie is on solid ground when he questions last year’s numbers. But he is cherry-picking, as NJ.com points out:
Though Christie’s revenue estimate last year was more accurate, the OLS has been closer to the mark over the decade. On average since 2000, governors have been off 1.99 percent, the OLS 1.36 percent.
Where the ground shifts and becomes rocky is in the name-calling, which is part of Christie’s standard arsenal and has nothing to do with rational argument but makes for good copy.
Author: hankkalet
Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.
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Hank Kalet 