paul: welcome to the the journal editorial report. i m paul gigot. more bad news for the fragile economic recovery this week. as the unemployment rate rose to 9.1%. employers hired only 54,000 new workers in may. the fewest in eight months. home prices also fell for the eighth straight month. to levels last seen in 2002. and retail sales slowed in may. as consumers struggling with higher gas and food prices spent less on discretionary items like clothing and home goods. joining the panel, wall street journal assistant editorial page editor james freeman. washington columnist kim strassel. senior economics writer steve moore. so steve, how do you read these numbers this week? which were uniformly bad. are we heading into maybe a double dip? first of all, you look at the employment numbers and we
granted in 2001. require most public workers to contribute 8 1/2% of their salaries toward their pensions, and have workers pay 30% of their health care premiums. the plan would also raise the retirement age to 65 for most employees. new jersey s current pension system is unfunded by a measley 46 billion dollars. assistant editorial page editor james freeman joins us with more. james, how good is this christie plan? pretty good if you re thinking about the finances of the state of new jersey. you mentioned 46 billion dollar unfunded. it s bigger 67 billion on the health side. paul: wow, 100 billion, he destroys most of the unfunded liability if he gets this plan through. paul: and most of these would just put the state employees in line with what the people in the private
pension benefit increase granted in 2001. require most public workers to contribute 8 1/2% of their salaries toward their pensions, and have workers pay 30% of their health care premiums. the plan would also raise the retirement age to 65 for most employees. new jersey s current pension system is unfunded by a measley 46 billion dollars. assistant editorial page editor james freeman joins us with more. james, how good is this christie plan? pretty good if you re thinking about the finances of the state of new jersey. you mentioned 46 billion dollar unfunded. it s bigger 67 billion on the health side. paul: wow, 100 billion, he destroys most of the unfunded liability if he gets this plan through. paul: and most of these would just put the state employees in line with what the people in the private
state budget that slashed 820 million dollars in education aid and urged voters to defeat school budget if the local teachers union did not agree to a one year pay freeze. taxpayers did that tuesday, rejecting more than 58% of school spending plans. the first time since 1974 that a majority of budgets were defeated. assistant editorial page editor james freeman joins us with more. the conventional wisdom is once benefits are in place, you can t stop em and you can t take on the teachers unions, you can t take on city hall. why is christie succeeding so far? well, so he s been able to articulate what is at stake. he s also has a population in new jersey that has been getting soaked for decades. they pay the highest property taxes in the country. they are saying enough is enough. paul: how is he articulating the stakes?
state budget that slashed 820 million dollars in education aid and urged voters to defeat school budget if the local teachers union did not agree to a one year pay freeze. taxpayers did that tuesday, rejecting more than 58% of school spending plans. the first time since 1974 that a majority of budgets were defeated. assistant editorial page editor james freeman joins us with more. the conventional wisdom is once benefits are in place, you can t stop em and you can t take on the teachers unions, you can t take on city hall. why is christie succeeding so far? well, so he s been able to articulate what is at stake. he s also has a population in new jersey that has been getting soaked for decades. they pay the highest property taxes in the country. they are saying enough is enough. paul: how is he articulating the stakes?