Christie’s Fact-Free Keynote
August 29th, 2012 | by Jon Whiten | Published in NJPP In the News
From FactCheck.org, August 29, 2012:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie largely avoided factual claims in a Republican convention keynote address that was heavy on generalities, opinion and platitudes. The pugnacious former prosecutor exaggerated a bit, though, when he bragged about his accomplishments as governor, and he repeated the common but false claim that the president’s health care law interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.
In particular, FactCheck.org looks at the line “we have three balanced budgets with lower taxes”:
In fact, Christie has cut state payments that his critics say amount to tax increases. He cut more than $800 million from the state’s popular property-tax rebate program in his fiscal year 2011 budget. The Star-Ledger reported that Christie “eliminated rebates for nearly 103,700 renters and cut rebates for everybody else by 75 percent.” He increased funding for the program in fiscal 2012, but has not fully restored the cuts.
Christie also cut the state Earned Income Tax Credit from 25 percent of the federal benefit to 20 percent in fiscal 2011, and later vetoed a bill to restore it. The left-leaning New Jersey Policy Perspective estimates that the $100 million cut over two years has reduced tax credits by $200 per family.
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