Limited government principles and fiscal conservatism are philosophically sound, because they preserve the people’s natural rights and they prevent government from overspending, over borrowing and overtaxing.   For more than four decades I have been advocating limited government principles and fiscal conservatism, longer than any public figure in New Jersey.  Voters have either loved these positions or hated them in the past.  Voters who rejected my uncompromising positions on taxes, spending, and regulations, have no none to blame but themselves, both New Jersey and the federal government are financial basket cases.   

On June 25th 1959 at age 12½ I became a United States citizen.  It was a warm, sunny day in Manhattan when I raised my right hand in the federal courthouse and took the following oath:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."  (Emphasis added)

Governor Corzine is proposing to hike taxes on the highest income earners in the state to help balance the 2010 budget.   The Governor promises that the tax hike will be for one year only.  But as the late economist Milton Friedman once quipped:  "There is nothing as permanent as a temporary government program."

Rather than halt or at least reevaluate his collectivist/redistributionist crusade, Governor Corzine wants upper income families to pay for a greater proportion of state spending, even though they receive few government "services".  He believes that government is the best way to help the most vulnerable in our society, neglecting the overwhelming evidence that the welfare state is unsustainable.

Jon Corzine grew up on a farm in the country's heartland.  Presumably, he milked a few cows growing up.  As governor, Jon Corzine has continued to milk not cows but middle and upper income individuals and families to implement his vision for New Jersey.  Governor Corzine's vision for New Jersey can by summed up in one word: entitlement. 

Governor Corzine is unashamedly going around the state arguing that it is his duty to impose higher taxes on those families making more than a $500,000 by raising their marginal income tax to more than 10% so he can preserve and expand a whole host of spending programs.  Supposedly, the income tax surcharge will be imposed only for one year.  Wanna bet?  

Governor Corzine delivered his fourth budget address to the Legislature yesterday asserting "we are living within our means."  This has been a favorite theme of Democrats since 2001 when Jim McGreevey campaigned against the Whitman-DiFrancesco spending spree of 1998-2001, and in 2005 Jon Corzine campaigned as a savvy Wall Street manager who was going to shake up Trenton and impose more fiscal discipline on spendthrift career politicians. 

When former president Bill Clinton declared in his 1996 State of the Union address, "The era of big government is over," Republicans gave him a standing ovation and cheered wildly.  Clinton easily won reelection to a second term by running to the "right" of the hapless GOP nominee, former senator Bob Dole, who expressed admiration for the welfare state.  Ross Perot also was in the race and grabbed only 9% of the vote, after a strong third party run in 1992.   

Like a horde of addicts looking for their next fix, 49 of the nation’s governors or governors-elect descended on the City of Brotherly Love last Tuesday to meet the incoming pusher in chief, Barack Obama.  Of course, the governors were not seeking heroin or any other banned substance from the president-elect, but were looking for a more potent “drug,” OPM—other people’s money.