Christie’s cure for U.S. economy fails as remedy for own state

Corporate Incentives

"As a Republican, I don't suffer from the disease that Democrats do," he said.

"I don't feel the political need to vilify the wealthy and accomplished." Obama's policies, he said, "have led to a crippling decline of middle-class wages and opportunities, while our wealthiest have gotten wealthier on a stock market fueled by borrowing and easy money."

Yet in New Jersey, Christie's record amount of corporate incentives and four vetoes of Democratic-sponsored bills calling for a millionaire's tax — moves he said would keep the richest from fleeing to lower-cost states — have yet to pay off.

Between 2009 and 2011, all income increases went to New Jersey's top 1 percent of earners, according to a 2014 study headed by Norman J. Glickman, a professor at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in New Brunswick.

In the fifth-most expensive U.S. state to live in, 34 percent of households "cannot meet the bare costs of life, let alone middle-class life," the report found.

Though Christie has awarded more than $2 billion in economic development tax breaks since 2014, promised employment growth hasn't kept pace.

The nation, and neighboring New York and Pennsylvania, have regained all the jobs lost in the 18-month recession that ended in 2009. New Jersey has gotten back 62 percent.

One-Party Rule

"He's been very pro-business," Tom Bracken, president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, which supports many Christie policies, said in an interview.

"The results have been less than spectacular, but it's not for a lack of trying."

The governor was hamstrung, Bracken said, by almost a decade of one-party Democratic rule prior to his taking office in 2010.

Christie's dismantling of onerous regulations is making the state more attractive to business owners, he said.

Christie's economic proposal also calls for fewer regulations, along with a national energy policy, shutting government programs that he said stifle growth, and pouring more money into research and development.

He said boosting R&D spending could be accomplished partly by cutting outlays onsocial welfare programs known as entitlements.

Harry Stein, director of fiscal policy for the Democratic- leaning Center for American Progress in Washington, said tax restructuring as Christie proposed means most reductions go to the wealthiest.

"It's hard to see how this works without a large tax increase for the middle class," he said. "What Christie is talking about is not realistic."