You get what you pay for

NJ Governor Christie has told a teacher, upset at his scapegoating of the teachers, to find another job if she doesn't think she is being paid enough. Yes, because having Joe the plumber teach our children, in lieu of someone qualified, is such a great bargain. You pay for what you get and, having grown up in NYC with teachers and an education inferior to what I saw my cousins in the NJ suburbs get, I know what a difference a good teacher makes. While some students are motivated to succeed on their own, many are not. I know too many bright guys spending their days loading sodas onto trucks (not that there is anything wrong with that) who could have been so much more. I pay high taxes, in part, because I expect good schools and that includes good teachers.

NJ has 21 counties and almost 600 school districts. Each district as their own superintendent, some of whom make more than the Governor, plus assistant superintendents, who also make a pretty penny, and their staffs. In my town we have one school system for grades K-8 and another for high school (though that is regional with 5 other towns). Start consolidating the districts, perhaps to the county level, K-12, and we'll have money to pay a nice chunk of the teachers being laid off (who are probably at the bottom of the pay scale since it will probably be the newbies being laid off). But we, don't hear anything like this from the Governor as he continues to bash individual contributors. Why?

And before anyone thinks I'm letting the union off scott free, calm down. I'm not familiar with the union benefits, but if their contracts are anything like other school systems, which, for example, mandate to the minute how much teachers should spend on X, Y & Z (I know many teachers voluntarily spend more time), then there is plenty of fat to cut out at the next bargaining session. And the unions can really help themselves by not being so tone deaf and falling into the Governor's trap. I imagine the responses would have been less vicious if the unions had responded with a plan where the lower paid teachers still received some raise while those in the upper portions of the pay scale foregoed theirs (and a 1.5% co-pay for health care is nothing).

Republicans to 9/11 first responders: Drop dead

Republicans would greatly appreciate it if the 9/11 first responders would please hurry up and die because they don't want to pay for their health anymore, especially as they consider the costs to be a NYC issue and not a federal issue. This is wrong and disrespects and dishonors people who ran into a burning pit looking for survivors and then spent weeks digging in a toxic mess looking for victims. Getting skimpy on health benefits for the 9/11 first responders that are a drop in the ocean of current federal spending is not going to make or break the federal budget.

The 9/11 attacks were against the US, not NYC. We have the money. We just choose to spend it elsewhere, such as bailing out banks and giving even larger tax cuts to the rich -- the same people all those firefighters and police officers at the WTC died trying to save. But the real irony is that these are the same first responder types who would have run into the Capitol to save everybody they could, Democrats, Republicans, civilians etc if that plane had crashed into the building on 9/11 and will save them if another attack does happen.

The GOP claims they care so much about our troops yet they spent the first decade sending them to get blown up in war and then didn't properly take care of the wounded when they returned home broken. The GOP claimed that we had to take such a hard stand for 9/11...yet they don't want to help those who helped us. What a bunch of ingrates. A country that refuses to take care of their war wounded (and I'd argue these men and women were the first casualties of this war) deserves its fate.

NJ's Patsy Generation

Tax dollars for education? Ignorance is bliss.
Tax dollars for NJ Transit? Walk to work.
Tax dollars so school children can have bread? Let them eat cake.
Tax dollars for seniors' prescriptions? No problem.

It's bad enough that the Governor has increased my commuting costs and, ultimately, the costs to educate my children but now he wants to take my hard earned tax dollars to GIVE to the seniors who probably voted down my town's school budget so they can have an extra $310 for senior prescription drug funding to spend on golf fees at their active living neighborhood or on meals out???

How about NO?! When did shared sacrifice come to mean average, middle class parents paying for everything? Seniors got to vote down the school budget. Why can't I vote the prescription plan down? Why can't I vote down the budget for the town's senior center? Oh that's right, the parasites who have spent the last 30 years stealing money from their children are in charge and now are taking the resources from their grandchildren.


If it were realistic I'd sell my house now and move to a state with less parasites and leave this state for those who think younger generations have nothing better to do then move here and pay taxes to support their lifestyles while getting nothing in return simply due to an accident of geography. While my generation, Generation X, could be called the Patsy Generation getting stuck with this nonsense, Generation Y will be wise to look elsewhere when choosing the state to raise their families.