By Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron
NJ Today
“Jon Stewart and I both turned 50 in the last two months. we’re the same age. we’re from the same state. I grew up with guys like Jon Stewart in Livingston my whole life. so I know wise guys. he’s a wise guy, so am I.”
With that, Gov. Christie explained what he didn’t explain to Jon Stewart, that the reason he vetoed the health exchange bill yesterday was because if he hadn’t, the 45-day window to act on a bill would have passed and it would have automatically become law. “The assembly was in session yesterday, that’s when the bill was due,” he said matter-of-factly.
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Christie wouldn’t say what he and President Obama talked about, nor would he get specific about numbers.
New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut estimate their needs at $83 billion. The White House has talked about a $50 billion aid package.
Christie also explained that he vetoed the health exchange because the federal government hasn’t been very forthcoming with details about a state-run health exchange, nor about the eventual cost to New Jersey.
“I’m not willing to buy a pig in a poke and they’re not willing to tell us how much it’s going to cost or how much control we’re going to have, he explained. “Yet they want me to sign onto it by Dec. 14. Well, that’s not the way I operate. You saw that with the ARC tunnel.”
He also delivered a rationale for 100 percent reimbursement for storm recovrey and rebuilding damage”
“New Jersey taxpayers, who send more money to Washington and get less money back than anyone, have funded a number of different responses, in part to natural disasters across this country — other hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes — and never, in my mind, have questioned whether that was an appropriate use of their tax money … so I’m confident it’ will work out the right way.”
Asked about a report that FEMA may not supply trailers to displaced New Jerseyans, the governor said recovery will not be a flawless process, that there will be mistakes. The test will lie in how well they’re corrected.