How to be a One-Man Dictator in America – At a secret billionaires conference hosted by the Koch Brothers, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recalled discussing the 2009 budget with his aides shortly after taking office. He claimed to have told his aides, referring to the majority Democrats in the state Legislature as those people down the hall:
“Listen. We’ve got to fix this problem, but I do not want to deal with those people down the hall…
And so they told me, “If you declare a fiscal state of emergency, you can use your emergency powers as governor to impound $2.2 billion in planned spending and balance the budget. And you can do it by executive order.” I said, “Man, I love this state!”
So, I went in my office, all by myself, and set up the executive order, and I signed it. But I thought it would be rude for me not to go down and tell that coequal branch of government what I had just done. [Scattered chuckles.] So I asked them for a joint session speech…I basically said this: “You left me with a $2.2 billion problem. You want me to raise taxes. I’m not going to. I just impounded the money by executive order. I fixed your problem. Thanks, have a nice day.” And I walked out.”
Regards,
Jim
Andy Hailey