DeCROCE SAYS GREENWALD & FELLOW DEMOCRATS WILL BE THE FIRST TO RESUME DISASTROUS BORROWING HABITS

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce says he is shocked that the Democrat who heads the Assembly Budget Committee and bears much of the responsibility for New Jersey’s oppressive debt, outrageously high taxes and out-of-control spending doesn’t want the recession to end quickly because he is afraid consumers will start borrowing more money.

“If anyone has a right to be afraid, it’s the taxpayers,” asserted DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic. “They should be afraid, very afraid of Democrats like Lou Greenwald and Jon Corzine, who have already admitted they can’t wait to resume the spending and borrowing binge that has inflicted such heavy damage to the state’s economy.”

DeCroce’s comments came in reaction to new statements by Greenwald, a Camden County Democrat who is chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee and gained notoriety when he once insisted that New Jersey should have the “courage” to spend more of the taxpayers’ money.

Greenwald stunned taxpayers when he said during a live radio interview last week that “if (our economic problem) is solved too quickly, people (will) believe the pain was not real and I think it will be very easy for elected officials to fall into old habits,”

Instead of recanting his remarks, Greenwald defended them in a report posted on the website PolitickerNJ.com and blamed consumer borrowing and spending for creating the ecession that has cost too many people their jobs and their homes.

“I don’t understand what’s so controversial about it,” Greenwald is quoted as saying in the report, arguing that in a quick turnaround the state could see consumers falling back into the type of borrowing habits that helped cause the crisis. “It was a comment about the turn around of the economy, and that a slow, steady economy will benefit the public as a whole.”

“Greenwald and the rest of the Democrats who control the Legislature should pay more attention to their own ‘borrowing habits,’” said DeCroce. “They’re the ones who made a shambles of the state budget. If only they would live within their means, like most people do, and stop raising taxes, we wouldn’t be in such a bad mess now.

“What should scare taxpayers is the fact Greenwald and Corzine have said they just can’t wait for the economy to turn around so they can create more programs we can’t support and spend more money we don’t have.”

DeCroce said Greenwald’s insensitivity to the plight of taxpayers, particularly the struggling middle class, shows he is incapable of safeguarding taxpayer dollars and is all the more reason why he should resign as chairman of the budget committee.

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