Frank Lautenberg has cancer

Yesterday it was reported that Frank Lautenberg the second oldest U.S. Senator has stomach cancer. From a personal standpoint, I wish the Senator well and we should all keep him and his family in our prayers.

That being said, the Senator should step down. As we posted here many times in the past our Senator has not represented the taxpayer of this state. When Lautenberg entered the Senate the first time in 1982, one of his key campaign promises was to improve New Jersey's net federal taxation/spending ratio. At the time, New Jersey only received 72 cents in benefit for each dollar sent to Washington. Now, 28 years later New Jersey receives only 61 cents in benefit for each dollar sent to Washington. By any objective standard, Lautenberg has been a complete failure using his own argument for his candidacy.

Add to that his complete refusal to even campaign during his last re-election effort. They hid away from the press and the voters of the state of New Jersey for fear he would appear out of touch or make a major gaff. He represents the interests of Harry Reid and the most liberal elements of the Senate while ignoring the needs of the citizens of NJ. In this climate, he would clearly not be re-elected if he were to run today.

Isn't it time to restore representative government to New Jersey? Let the Senator retire gracefully and worry about his health. And let someone else worry about New Jersey.

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The Healthcare Gravy Train: Why is NJ getting nothing?

The bribes paid to recalcitrant Democrat legislators have been documented in various blogs on both the left and right. The so-called 'Cash for Cloture' scandal can be reviewed in detail here at Michelle Malkin's site. No reasonable citizen can look at this situation and the actions by Harry Reid and not be sickened by the Senate Majority Leader using taxpayer money to bribe senators in his own caucus to support a bill that over 60 percent of Americans are against.

But my cynical side wonders where our two senators are hiding throughout this process. Menendez and Lautenberg are such comfortable votes for the Democrats that they have no leverage to get anything for the State of New Jersey's citizens. They continue to excel in their combined 30 year losing streak on behalf of our state. But hey, at least Nebraska citizens won't have to worry about their healthcare costs.

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Healthcare motion to proceed scam: Tell NJ Senators to Vote NO!

On another Saturday night special, Senator Harry Reid will bring to the floor the vote for the healthcare bill motion to proceed tomorrow evening. Several Democratic Senators have deluded themselves into believing that they can vote to proceed and then have political cover by voting the heathcare bill down later own(ast it passes with a simple majority). But that kind of strategy only works when campaigning down the road and the citizens are asleep. I can assure you that when we reach the 2010 elections and beyond, no one will be asleep. Every senator who is complicit in this mess of a bill will be held accountable.

Living in New Jersey, many of us are used to our senators ignoring our requests in order to vote lock step with the Democratic establishment. And there is no doubt that Democrats support this bill. But Republicans don't and Independents don't. And Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez are supposed to represent all of us. Call them.

Lautenberg, Frank R. - (D - NJ)
324 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3224
Web Form: lautenberg.senate.gov/contact/routing.cfm

Menendez, Robert - (D - NJ)
528 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
Web Form: menendez.senate.gov/contact/


There aren't going to listen but they should have to hear from you anyway.

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NJ Senators just plain batty!

I can't help but want to scream when I see an article like this one:

N.J. legislators join push for funding to aid ailing bats
Effort aims to understand deadly syndrome
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff
Federal lawmakers are seeking emergency funds from the U.S. Department of Interior to help scientists in the Northeast investigate "white-nose syndrome," a phenomenon blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million bats over the past two winters.

U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), along with 23 lawmakers from a dozen other states, signed a letter written yesterday by Vermont's congressional delegation to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking for his support. Citing the importance bats play in the North American ecosystem, including their consumption of insects, the letter states that white-nose syndrome "has profound public health, environmental and economic implications."

It isn't that I am anti-bat. Frankly, I have not noticed any difference in the number of bats swooping out of the trees behind my house at night. Clearly that is not a scientific argument. What galls me is that our senators should have something better to do.

One thing is clear. Senator Lautenberg and Senator Menendez vote complete lock step in line with whatever Harry Reid tells them to vote for. There is no independence. There is no real work involved with going along. And what is the evidence?

They are more worried about bats than they are about New Jersey taxpayers. Maybe they have more affinity for the former than the latter.

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NY Times Endorses Lautenberg - and NJ was cheated out of an election

From the NY Times endorsement of Senator Frank Lautenberg:

New Jersey voters deserved a better race this year than the nearly invisible contest between Senator Frank Lautenberg and Richard Zimmer, his Republican challenger. Mr. Lautenberg, 84, has accomplished much over 24 years in the Senate but seemed reluctant to campaign actively. He agreed to only one televised debate.

A lot of bloggers are criticising the Times on this one. I am not so sure. While the media should have forced Lautenberg to come out of his hole, so should the citizens of New Jersey. This man was allowed to hide during the primary and again in the general election.

New Jersey should take a page out of the Pennsylvania book. Every Presidential election, they are a battleground state. New Jersey doesn't really even mobilize either side. No issues are discussed or debated here. Everything is debated in PA. We are rapidly becomming a corrupt welfare state. And Pennsylvania has become a player that matters on the national stage.

And Frank Lautenberg sitting in his easy chair refusing to campaign, debate or discuss the issues is responsible. And so are we.

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Courier Post Endorses Zimmer

In the continuing saga of the New Jersey's secret Senate campaign, one newspaper has had enough.

In the spring, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg defeated U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews of Haddon Heights in the Democratic primary for the Senate nomination. Since then, Lautenberg has laid low, so low, in fact, that his race against Republican Dick Zimmer, a former congressman, has gone virtually unnoticed in a year when politics are on just about everyone's mind.

No one in this state is happy with the status quo. Whether or not the Democrats who control it want to admit it, they have performed abysmally. While other states were getting their fiscal house in order the past several years, the New Jersey governor and legislature has been simultaneously stealing the citizens blind (convictions of Democrat politicians number over 100 and rising) and bankrupting the state. They only know how to spend and have absolutely no self control. It is time for a change but the citizens in this state don't get it.

Zimmer, who spent six years in the House of Representatives in the 1990s representing Central Jersey, is not the most electric candidate in the world. But he knows the issues and he's got a pedigree when it comes to opposing any and all tax increases. And he recognizes just how off-kilter things are in New Jersey, where residents pay the highest amount in the nation in total taxes when local, county, state and federal taxes are all put together. We're first in taxes and, as Zimmer also points out, 50th out of 50 states in getting money back from Washington. New Jersey gets just 61 cents back in federal funding for projects here for every $1 in taxes we send to Washington.

Lautenberg, who's been in the Senate since 1982 except for a two-year hiatus in 2001 and 2002, has had his chance to reverse that trend and done nothing. Worse, he failed to really acknowledge the seriousness of this problem at the meeting Thursday, instead defending his performance by touting a few institutions he's gotten money for over the years.

And the biggest joke in all of this is that Lautenberg had to be embarrassed out of his hidey-hole to even participate in the debate this past week. He doesn't feel the need to address the issues and deal with voters. But then, I often wonder whether the real reason he is hiding is that he may no longer be completely in control of his faculties. If he is so proud of what he has done for New Jersey, come out and tell us Frank.

Read the endorsement here.

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Lautenberg comes out of hiding - Debate today with Zimmer!

Our Senator has finally come out of hiding and will be debating Dick Zimmer today from 2-3:30. It is clearly about time for him to make at least a pretense of answering to the voters. I don't care who the candidate is and even if I really liked them, if someone I supported refused to come out of hiding and discuss the issues, that would be the end of my vote. Unfortunately, many voters just don't seem to care.

Click HERE to watch the debate between 2-3:30.

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Still Looking for Lautenberg!

Our state Senator Frank Lautenberg continues to hide from any kind of interaction with his opponent. You see, the Senator doesn't feel he should dignify the citizens of New Jersey with any substantive discussions of policy, priorities or any of his plans for the state for the next six years. Dick Zimmer is trying to get him to come out of his cave:

But Frank Lautenberg, the man who now holds the job, has pretty much ignored Mr. Zimmer, the Delaware Township Republican who entered the primary race at the last minute and went on to win the nomination.


Mr. Zimmer's campaign has appeared at what he calls the boondoogle Secaucus train station named after Mr. Lautenberg, issued press releases on what he calls wasteful spending Mr. Lautenberg has voted for, and used a cardboard cutout of the senator to illustrate that Mr. Lautenberg won't stand on the same stage with him. There's only one scheduled debate, and that's the Saturday night before the election.

"He's showing disrespect to the voters and the governmental process," said Mr. Zimmer. "It's a matter of good government that a man who seeks to represent the state for six years should explain why he deserves to be elected.

We will continue to look for the Senator and see if he decides to every answer anything from anyone in this state. What is actually criminal is that no media or the citizens of this state seem to care. That is pathetic. It is even more pathetic when you consider that he only got the job through a Democrat scam after their former corrupt Senator had to bow out the last time.

Read the entire article here.

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Good Govt NJ Style - Hide the Senator!

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has decided to come off his mountain and debate Dick Zimmer on November 1, 2008. The State of New Jersey is awash in government corruption scandals. The perpetrators in these scandals are almost exclusively Democrats. Lautenberg is allegedly one of the parties leaders and yet, he refuses to debate, speak or really appear in public that much.

At the heart of good government is the access citizens have to the process and the people who run it. Every citizen of this state has a right and a responsibility to hear from the candidates from elected dog catcher to governor to (yes, Mr Lautenberg) Senator. Yet, Frank Lautenberg refuses to even pretend that he has to act like he wants our votes. True, this state has a lot of people who will vote for this man because they are told to by their union or their boss. But there are also people in New Jersey that want to hear from the man.

But even then we are shortchanged. For example, in a recent Newsday story about King Frank agreeing to a late debate, there were plenty of quotes from Zimmer. But from Lautenberg-only a "spokesman". This was the same trend during the primary. Is this man even alive anymore? Can someone check his pulse? (I can't wait for a spokesman for Lautenberg to issue a press release that yes indeed, the senator is alive)

New Jersey citizens have a right to hear from you Mr Lautenberg.

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Lautenberg is 7th-Richest Member of Congress

As noted here, he's worth over 55 million dollars. Here are the people who beat him out:

1. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
$230.98 million
2. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.)
$225.96 million
3. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)
$160.62 million
4. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
$80.40 million
5. Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.)
$78.96 million
6. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.)
$65.49 million

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Lautenberg up in polls and NJ residents just don't get it!

From this article in Newsday:

A new poll shows incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg enjoys a comfortable lead over Republican challenger Dick Zimmer heading into the fall election season.

The Fairleigh Dickinson-PublicMind poll has Lautenberg up by 11 percent, with the low-key Zimmer still struggling to get his name known to the electorate.

Here is what I don't get:

1. Lautenberg has frankly presided over the largest decrease in net return of federal taxpayer dollars to NJ residents in history.

No one cares.

2. Lautenberg is one of the leaders of the Democrat party that has had more that 100 of its elected officials convicted of public corruption in the last four years.

No one cares.

3. NJ keep debating gun rights and abortion in our state elections, neither of which matters in the live of many NJ residents. Issues that do matter like taxes, standard of living, education and government spending never get discussed.

No one cares.

4. NJ residents pay more taxes that any other state.

No one cares.

5. NJ has experienced the largest outflow of business and people of any state in the country EXCEPT Michigan in the past four years.

No one cares.

6. The Democratic legislature is only capable of spending more of residents money and enacting meaningless legislation (slavery apology).

No one cares.

7. Both Democrat and Republican apologists for the status quo have no ideas, no answers, no ethics and no action plan to change anything.

And no one cares.

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Lautenberg - Let them eat cake!

From this article in Newsday:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg is facing some criticism over some comments he made to ABC World News about parties hosted by lobbyists.

In Denver for this week's Democratic National Convention, Lautenberg told ABC News' Brian Ross "with a smile" that it is his "duty" to attend the parties.

"Of course, you must visit, make sure that the food they serve is OK, that it passes the taste test and the liquor is the right vintage," Lautenberg said.

Is it not bad enough the we have a constant wave of Democrat politicians in this state being investigated, indicted and going to jail for influence related criminality? Now we are supposed to laugh off comments made by a Senator that owes his seat to another ethically challenged Senator (remember, NJ politicians don't retire, they go to jail).

Lautenberg does not serve the people in this state. He serves himself. Just as he told ABC.

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Obama's Supporters Think The Soprano State's Leaders Are Doing A Great Job

Want Yet Another Reason not to vote for an Obama-nation? How about the fact that his backers think New Jersey legislators are to be commended?

N.J. eco-group backs Obama, gives lawmakers high marks
2 senators, 8 congressmen get perfect scores

A state environmental advocacy group yesterday announced its endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama for president and gave New Jersey's two U.S. senators and eight of its 13 congressmen perfect scores for their environmental records.

Environment New Jersey based its report card on 10 votes between January 2007 and February 2008 that involved combating global warming, promoting clean energy, protecting air and water, and opposing offshore drilling, Executive Director Dena Mottola Jaborska said at a Statehouse news conference.

So if you're interested in the kinds of things that make Obama friends, it's business-unfriendly government. And half-measures aren't enough. You have to really hate business. For example:

Erica Elliott, Garrett's [Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.)] spokeswoman, called the congressman's poor marks "an unfair representation," and issued a list of his environmentally-oriented advocacy. It includes his introduction of a bill to expand the National Wallkill Wildlife Refuge in Sussex, and his support of getting a toxic waste site in Ringwood re-listed on the Superfund National Priorities List.

Scott, of course, scored the lowest in the state, which may be good or bad, but I certainly can't tell from the negative picture painted by this environmentalist group. After all, look at who they like:

Voting environmentally friendly 100 percent of the time were U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both Democrats, and Reps. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.), Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.), Robert Andrews (D-1st Dist.), Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.), Bill Pascrell (D-8th Dist.), Steve Rothman (D-9th Dist.), Rush Holt (D-12th Dist.) and Albio Sires (D-13th Dist.).

80% or them are Democrats, of course, including some of our worst, and I have to suspect that LoBiondo and Smith are RINOs; especially when you consider who also scored low alongside Rep. Garrett: Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.), and Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-7th Dist.). You don't get a Democrat until you tie him with another Republican for a 69% score. Clearly "bipartisan":

"Being green in the Garden State is a bipartisan issue and we applaud our delegation's environmental heroes, especially the leadership from Sen. Menendez and Sen. Lautenberg," Mottola Jaborska said.

Sounds like a lot of Jaborska to me.

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NJ Residents Support Offshore Drilling!

As Emporor's Menendez and Lautenberg continue to fiddle at the expense of New Jersey's taxpayers, a new poll sheds some light on what the people in our state think about their policies on energy.

From MyCentralJersey.com:

With the cost of gasoline hovering near $4 a gallon, a majority of New Jersey residents say they would support drilling for oil off the Jersey coast, according to a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll released today.


Fifty-six percent said they would favor drilling for oil or natural gas off the Jersey Shore, while 36 percent opposed the idea.

So, slightly more that 1/3 oppose drilling offshore but Senator Menendez can send me a letter speaking down to me on energy policy that contained nothing of any substance that would help people. But, out politicians say, "let them eat cake!".

New Jersey's political leaders have traditionally fought against offshore oil drilling, and they said they would continue to do so, in spite of the poll results.

"New Jersey's coastline is the lifeblood of our economy and a fragile environmental treasure that helps shape our way of life, and the governor intends to fight any attempt to jeopardize it," said Sean Darcy, spokesman for Gov. Corzine.

As we continue to say at NJ Tax Revolution, until we threw this entire pack of bought-and-paid-for politicians and replace them with a representative government of, by and for the people of New Jersey, we will continue to feel the pain of their incompetence.

Read the entire article here.

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Zimmer hold Lautenberg Accountable

For far too long, Senator Frank Lautenberg has been happy to thoroughly trash his opponents whether they are Democrats or Republicans. His engine to spew slime is as well known as the corrupt tactics that put him in office the second time around after his corrupt predecessor was forced to withdraw he bid for re-election. But in a response to an editorial, Dick Zimmer took some serious shots at Lautenberg record in this article from the Dailyrecord.com:

Our incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., certainly has never agreed with your contention that the gap between what New Jersey sends to Washington and what we get back is a phony issue. Back in 1982, when he first ran for the Senate, he complained that we ranked 45th out of the 50 states in the percentage of our tax dollars we got back from Washington and promised that he would change it. He certainly did. As your editorial correctly notes, we now rank dead last among all 50 states, a position we have held for many years. We currently receive back only 61 cents for every dollar we send to Washington.

These are serious words from a congressman with a solid track record of fiscal responsibility. While he will likely be completely sullied throughout this process by the Lautenberg machine, we shouldn't ignore some of the facts that represent our current Senator's record. Lautenberg will try to make this about Zimmers record while refusing to talk about his own. But he has one.

Lautenberg has not only failed New Jerseyans on the money we get from Washington, but he has failed us on the taxes we send there as well. He opposed the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 on the grounds that they benefit the "rich." But, because New Jerseyans' incomes are relatively high, our state benefited from those tax cuts 33 percent more per capita than the nation as a whole. In fact, 3.4 million New Jersey tax payers saw savings because of the cuts. If Lautenberg had his way, and those tax cuts never went into effect, the return on each dollar we paid in taxes would not have been 61 cents; it would have been only 58 cents. Yet, Lautenberg wants to repeal most of those tax cuts.

This piece is a must read. Let's take Senator Lautenberg to task for once.

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Lies and Taxes - Liberals lie and we pay!

This morning I read an excellent blog entry on Powerline that discussed "who pays the taxes". If you have never read Powerline, it is an excellent blog and the one most famous for taking down Dan Rather and his bogus hit job on President Bush during the last presidential election cycle. The net of theis post today is this:

1991
Top 1%
Reported 13% of the income
Paid 24.6% of the taxes
Top 5%
Reported 26.8% of the income
Paid 43.4% of the taxes
Bottom 50%
Reported 15.1% of the income
Paid 5.5% of the taxes

2007(from the Wall Street Journal)
Top 1%
Paid > 40% of the taxes
Top 50%
Paid 97% of the taxes
Bottom 50%
Paid 3% of the taxes

The first point here is that the media constantly talks about Bush giving tax breaks to his rich buddies. It seems to me that we have a far greater problem with Corzine and Obama giving people's hard earned money to individuals who are not holding up their end of society's joint burden. Liberals lie-We pay!

And for your information, the median taxpayer last year earned $31,000. So, it you make this number or above (this represents most of the working class of New Jersey) you are paying 97% of the taxes.

So the next time you hear John Corzine or Barack Obama tell you that you are not paying your fair share, remember these numbers. It's easy to blame the other guy and say he should pay. It is much harder to stand up and say "what's fair is fair for all of us".

Read the Powerline post here.

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Roberts at it again! Suburbs beware!!!!!

I just read one of the best descriptions of the property tax mess summarized in one article. In the article "A Property Tax Disaster", Michael Patrick Carroll (on Politicker.com)discussed the looming danger non-city taxpayers face:

Every legislator claims to favor property tax relief, but by their actions shall you know them. The present majority gave us the fraudulent "millionaires’ tax", rebates with borrowed money, etc. But none of these rookie efforts compares with the threat posed by A-500.

Therein, Speaker Roberts and a cadre of urban legislators draw a bead on suburban taxpayers. Should this proposal pass – and be coupled with even more coercive COAH regulations – it could mean property tax increases in the hundreds of millions, of billions, of dollars.

Lest we feel that this article is overstating the case, it clearly lays out the rationale for believing that we may be close to an acceleration of the disaster already propagated upon taxpayers in the past 6 years. The setup is COAH dictating to a local district that they need more low income housing to the tune of 1,000 units (which would be paired with 4,000 market rate units).

5,000 units; let’s assume 1 kid per unit = 5,000 new students. That’s, what, 10 new schools? Not being an Abbott district, the entire cost of that construction would fall on the shoulders of the existing taxpayers. Let’s be generous and assume that each unit pays $7,000 in annual property taxes. Bridgewater presently spends (roughly) $12,200 per kid, which means that present taxpayers will see their taxes increase by $26 million (5000 new kids at $5,200 deficit each), not including the costs of school construction.

But wait, there’s more. If the Abbott folks are correct – students from poor families need spending of roughly $25,000 per year to compensate for their poverty – that makes the deficit for 1000 of those kids roughly $18000 per annum. Oh, and the state contributes a princely 8% of the costs of educating a child in Bridgewater.

This development, then, would be an unmitigated property tax disaster for the local residents.

This entire situation as some level starts to make you sad. As the gas situation gets worse, my commuting cost continue to skyrocket and even food costs are going out of site, the luxury of living in the State of New Jersey is becoming less and less affordable. And the fact that the urban districts in this state will continue to look at people like me and those that read this blog as a pack of rubes ripe for the fleecing. Speaker Roberts is frankly just chief grafter in this pack. Carroll has some ideas in this regard:

Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can address the housing problem by addressing the school funding problem: give each child an equal, state funded voucher.

If each kid came with a voucher, municipal opposition to housing construction would abate, because they’d be assets, not liabilities. A fair number of them would attend private schools, making their parents’ property tax payments pure municipal profit. And those who attend public schools would, now, pay their own way. The need for tens of billions of new construction spending on Abbott district schools would vanish. The incentive – and the ability – for Newark or Keansburg to lavish excessive salaries or reward employees with sweetheart deals would evaporate.

In short, kids, their parents, and the property taxpayers would benefit massively. Only those with a financial stake in the present, hugely expensive and horribly unfair system would suffer.

The funny thing here is that once the regular citizens of this state realize what is going on, it will be far too late. "Leaders" like Lautenberg, Menendez, Roberts and Kean Jr are all vested in a system that doesn't serve the state . And only after New Jersey starts to resemble Michigan will they get it. The productive people in this state are leaving in the 10's of thousands every year. One day, the teachers union may wake up and realize that not only isn't there a golden egg, the goose left long ago.

Read this excellent article here.

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