New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, joining with a potentially contrary state legislature, has helped push through a bill to force the state service employees to contribute more toward their benefits.
Heralding this landmark legislation, Christie proves once again that he is sticking to his guns as he brings down outrageous public pension costs which have wrecked the Garden State's credit, have reddened the state balance sheets, and have imperilled the state's financial future.
How welcome to find another Republican Governor in a traditionally Democratic state who has the courage to take on the loud and proud public unions. Despite their massive media blitzes against the Governor, their massive protests in the capital and around the state, plus the illicit recruitment of children, state agencies, and public resources to push their souring agenda, the public unions are rapidly losing clout. Heeding the dire warnings of their Reality-driven governors, the general public is putting a stop to rampant, wasteful handouts to overpaid, under performing public servants.
His growing political success, in contrast to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, is all the more remarkable in that he is instituting fiscal discipline in a state which put him in office by a thinner margin than Walker. Making his task more challenging, Christie must negotiate with a Democratic-controlled legislature. Whatever the source of his secret skills, Christie can keep it real with the public, talk tough with the Unions, spell out the needed reforms to avert fiscal collapse, yet reach across the aisle with the opposition.
A man who has detailed the core issues that need to be addressed against all other peripheral issues, Christie takes the state of the state seriously, never wavering, pushing off media flak, and still delivers points for the private citizen and the business community.