lot less money. a shift. that apparently is an outrage. but most bustle eautifully, then republicans are unwilling to participate in discussions, about the possibility of america not defaulting on our debts and potentially causing a global financial catastrophe, the reason they cannot even participate in that discussion, according to chris van hollen, is because democrats raised the possibility of ending taxpayer subsidies for corporate jets! that is the hill republicans want to die on in washington proverbially speaking. protecting taxpayer help for corporate jets. the poor corporate jets. do you realize how hard things have been on them? what republicans are prioritizing on the national v level this year, things like that, has been a clear mirror on the state level as well. in florida, scott proposing a $1.5 billion giveaway to businesses to be paid for with
the national level right now. all of the benefits going to big business. big business paying for it and getting what they paid for. all of the pain going to people who work for a living. the other part of this agenda, the way you make it stick, really, is by not only screwing over the people who work for a living, but taking apart the group that fight for their interests. the unions, for example. this is trenton, new jersey, this week. does this scene remind you of anything? does it remind you of the scenes in madison, wisconsin, earlier this we re when republicans in that state were stripping union rights, thus awakening a wisconsin democratic base like nothing else we ve seen in a generation? republicans in new jersey did the same thing this week. unlike wisconsin, however, what passed in new jersey passed with the help of democrats. this week a significant number of democrats in the new jersey state senate and state assembly joined with republicans, joined with republican governor c
your assurance, if you have any, to those people who are worried that new jersey represents an important policy-based abandonment of union causes by not being able to hold together the democratic caucuses in the legislature this year? well, i think what they have to look at is that it is a small microcosm of a lot of large issues. a republican on the budget committee introduced a bill the other day to make new jersey a right-to-work state. i mean, that s the attack that s coming, and that s the attack the democrats do you call every democrat to vote against that? on that, absolutely. absolutely. all right, i ll hold you to it. new jersey chairman of the democratic party, i really appreciate you coming in tonight. thank you very much. rachel, thanks a lot. good luck. we are still watching the new york state senate which appears set to vote quite soon. i m told the technical term is very soon on legalizing same-sex marriage. if they vote yes, by population, that would dou
pensions and to their health care. they have paid everything that they are supposed to be paying. but the state is the one that s not been meeting their obligations. absolutely. why is that? it goes back to another christie we had, christine todd-whitman who did a borrowing to refinance the pension fund. and we were able the state of new jersey was able to skate for a couple years without making payments. it s like not making your mortgage payment. you take that money and go out to dinner and on vacations. when you start having to make that payment again, it s hard. that s what happened to the state. we had a pension holiday. the state didn t make its payments. and now the state is behind in making its contributions. and so the solution, which is wrong, is saying to the employees, well, you have too much. that s the wrong answer. the state has to make its contributions. do we need to make improvements to the system? sure. every pension system can be improved. but it s not right
saland, republican state senator in new york state. the reason his remarks are important right now is the same-sex marriage debate is under way in albany is because he is one of the republican state senators who has been undecided, publicly undecided, on this measure. what he s discussing here has been a key issue for republican senators. the issue of whether or not religious institutions essentially have carved-out exemptions in terms of their liability to essentially protect their right to object, to protect their right to object to the extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples. so an agreement was reached on exemptions for religious institutions between the two parties earlier tonight. we were told those still being discussed in detail on the floor of the state senate in new york as the state senate there heads toward eventually a vote on this measure sometime tonight. if new york state does vote for this, it would be the sixth state plus washington, d.c.,