Trading body blows three weeks out

Republicans are hammering away on taxes today and the "Democrat-run" Legislature, while Democrats are trotting out their favorite election year punching bag: President George W. Bush and his veto of the state Children’s Health Insurance Program, which the U.S. House upheld today, by a vote of 273-156.

Republicans used the results of a new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll that shows 49% of all New Jersey residents would leave the state given the choice, to dispatch Assemblyman Richard Merkt.

"Every survey conducted since Governor Corzine took office shows that residents are fleeing the Garden State's crushing tax burden and unbelievable cost of living," Merkt said. "Each time a fresh report is released, the news is worse than before. Yet the Governor and this Democrat-run Legislature have done nothing to ease the taxpayer's pain or solve the state's fiscal crisis. New Jersey residents aren't stupid; they're heading for the doors in record numbers."

Democrats, meanwhile, sent state Sen. John Adler to the parapet to blow a bugle against U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton, who was one of three Republicans in the U.S. House voting to uphold the Presidential veto of the children’s healthcare plan.

"It saddens me and families all over New Jersey that Jim Saxton today turned his back on the needs of children," said Adler, who is challenging Saxton in 2008.

Also voting to uphold the presidential veto today were U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett and U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen.