NJ Senator Urges End to Bipartisan Attacks from Democrats in Trenton

Trenton–Senate Budget and Appropriations Committeeman Joe Pennacchio, R-26, stated the following in response to hypocritical attacks waged this week by Democratic legislators against the State of New Jersey:

“For the public’s sake, I must first emphasize that New Jersey’s credit rating is unchanged this week, despite Standard & Poor’s lowered outlook, with both Fitch and Moody’s recently declaring the state’s outlook as stable. Unfortunately, a series of media reports published this week quote Democratic legislators clamoring about artificial state credit rating catastrophes. Their overblown statements distort the state’s solid financial standing, which we largely owe to bipartisan reforms under Gov. Christie.

“It seems my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to satisfy their perpetual political desires to try to muddy Gov. Christie and Republicans. But their statements against New Jersey’s stable credit are as hypocritical as they are misleading. Trenton Democrats were eerily quiet about real federal financial disasters, which affect budgets and employment at state and local levels. They were quiet last week, when U.S. debt ratings were downgraded again, in the face of debt levels having increased by about $5.4 trillion to more than $16 trillion under President Obama. They were also as silent days prior, when Moody’s pledged to downgrade the U.S. credit rating if the current federal budget stand-off is left unresolved.

“It’s not surprising that my colleagues from across the aisle are waging an unbalanced political attack, but we can only hope going forward that they will instead make honest, grounded financial assessments. Let’s also hope that their hypocritical attacks don’t impede bipartisan reform efforts, which are helping New Jersey avoid the type of financial struggles now faced by lawmakers in Illinois and Washington, D.C.”

Posted by Ocean County News on Sep 19 2012. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.