Governor Christie Responds to Rand Paul’s Ignorance, Exposes Huge repugican Lie About Spending

Lunatic Fringe: The Infighting Edition

Normally I don’t give much attention to squabbles within the repugican cabal, but the war of words between New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has been fantastic.
And while I’m not a huge fan of Chris Christie (after all, he’s still a repugican who supports many of their ridiculous ideological beliefs) his calling out of Paul for blatant right-wing rhetoric has been great.
This all stems from Governor Christie calling Rand Paul’s style of libertarianism “dangerous,” and Senator Paul mocking the events following Hurricane Sandy by saying those who sought government aid following the storm had a “gimme, gimme, gimme–give me all my Sandy money now” mentality.  Paul’s comments basically targeted those who asked for money after their lives had been destroyed, and blamed them for excess spending.
Apparently to Paul, they are the type of people who have “bankrupted” this nation.  Real classy.
Well, Christie shot back at Paul’s despicable comments , and in doing so exposed a huge Republican myth about spending and taxes.
Christie said, “I find it interesting that Senator Paul is accusing us of having a “Gimme, gimme, gimme” attitude toward federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state and we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington.  Interestingly, Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they send to Washington.  So if Senator Paul wants to start looking at where he’s going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start looking at the pork barrel spending he brings home to Kentucky.”
With that one comment, Christie has shown he supports a common liberal talking point often used against conservatives.
See, Republicans often talk about how great their economic ideologies are and how successful their tax system can be for our country—yet “red states” often take in much more money from the federal government than “blue states.”  That’s what Christie means when he refers to New Jersey as a “donor state.”  They give more than they take in, while Kentucky is essentially a “taker” state as it takes more from the federal government than it gives back.
Which is ironic considering many “red states” are often controlled by the politicians who claim that lower taxes, fewer regulations and conservative values will lead to economic prosperity.  Except—many red states are so poor they rely much more heavily on federal spending than “blue states,” which are controlled by what repugicans often refer to as the “out of control tax and spend liberal agenda.”
Governor Christie’s comments exposed this lie, and the kicker is—Rand Paul can’t dispute these numbers. In fact, all he could do in response was take a thinly veiled jab at Christie’s weight and whine about Christie picking a fight with him.
So in a war of words between two probable 2016 repugican Presidential candidates—Governor Chris Christie has clearly shown he can handle the likes of Rand Paul.
While Rand Paul has clearly shown, as he has in the past, that he’s more interested in making headlines than actually knowing facts.