Will Republicans boycott the Chamber trip?

to refrain from complaining about something unless I had a viable solution.

While the Democrats must take some of the blame, the GOP helped create the financial mess that we find ourselves in.

Think Whitman. Then, think pension catastrophe....EZ Pass scandel.....DMV inspection debacle.... lottery scandel... deferred debt.

Corzine is not the most personable or charismatic governor we've ever had. However, when he says that we can no longer allocate funds without first having a revenue source, he speaks the truth.

Don't point fingers (especially if you helped create the problem) unless you have a viable solution.

The public is awaiting alternatives from Republicans and other Dems with baited breath.

... don't spend money you don't have. 

Maybe if the braintrust in Trenton took this sage advice to heart, we wouldn't be conducting this most elaborately self-defeating fire sale.

Well, here is your alternative.  Instead of freezing spending at FY 2008 levels, why not freeze spending at FY 2006 levels?  You see, our illustrious Governor decided to raise government spending by more than 6 billion in his first year.  Why did he need to do that?  If he freezes spending at FY 2006 levels, that money can pay our obligations.  If you don't think that'll be enough, then cut back on the 12,000 or so employees in off-the-books government that have bloated the payrolls of those authorities and agencies since 2001.  The governor than has the authority to squeeze these authorities and commissions for all excess revenues. 

Believe me, this is a viable solution. Problem is, nobody has the balls to make the hard choices and instead we will borrow 100 billion dollars to pay back 35 billion.  If this plan goes through, our grandchildren will still be paying the debt, bond cousels and wall street financiers will be making out like bandits.  And Corzine is even more stupid than I thought if he actually believes he can take the politics out of this new agency (another layer of government that will have a blosted payroll). 

This is all being done in the name of reducing debt by $16 billion.  For the record, debt was 16 billion before McGreevey took office and is now $34 billion.  The new debt - tobacco bonds, transportation trust fund, etc- were all created by the Democrat majority and Democrat GOvernors.  The D's like to say it's everyone's fault, but the facts don't support that.

    How about a long-term freeze on the number of state workers? How about about actually trying to reduce the size of our state government instead of a one-year freeze and then business as usual. How about not proposing $2.5 billion in new state debt before the ink is even dry of the proposal that is suppose to solve our state debt problem?

     Rarely have I been so disgusted with the Chamber.