What War on Women?
Just before the midnight deadline on July 1st, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed $7.5 million in family planning funding which would have funded mammograms, pap smears, cancer screenings, and birth control.
It wouldn't have funded abortions, and it wouldn't have forced the state budget into the red. He vetoed it just because.
Democrats in the state had tried to restore money for social services but Christie wasn’t having it. All said he vetoed $7.5 million into women’s clinics, refused to return $66 million in energy tax revenue to cities, and vetoed a proposal to beef up tax credits for the working poor after slashing them previously in 2010.
As Robin Marty reports, the $7.5 million proposed would have come from the over $500 million budget surplus the state is projected to have. Those funds will instead go to increase the state’s cash reserves.
Christie offered the following response
The budget I signed reverses irresponsible funding decisions, establishes funding levels based on realistic and responsible revenue assumptions and increases our surplus. I am unwilling to surrender the gains we have made to establish fiscal responsibility in the state budget.
"I am unwilling to surrender the gains we have made to establish fiscal responsibility in the state budget."
Translation: I am willing to surrender the health of others to further my political career.
The state is expecting a $500 million budget surplus thanks in part to increased taxes on the working poor, but Christie refused to sign only $7.5 million into law which would have primarily benefited the same working poor people he raised those taxes on. You know, so he can rubber stamp a $500 million surplus with his name on it. $492.5 million just doesn't have the same ring to it.
To say that Chris Christie is a dick would be an understatement.