New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, talked to Chris Ryan about his controversial proposal to raise the age for recipients of social security and medicare. Christie, who is considering his run for the presidency, will be making several visits the First in the Nation primary state to New Hampshire.
Two major federal government entitlement programs are in danger of insolvency–Social Security and Medicare. In addition, these programs are major contributors to our rising budget deficit. It is projected that the governor’s proposals would decrease the deficit by $1 trillion over a decade. Christie is proposing that Social Security payments would be reduced to individuals who earn more than $80,000 in retirement income, benefits would be progressively decreased; and, for those who earn more than $200,000, their benefits would be eliminated. Also, the retirement age would be pushed back to 69. Christie’s plan would go into effect in 2022.
At the start of the interview, the Governor Christie was warned that Chris Ryan’s father had asked him to give the governor hell for threatening to tamper with Social Security and Medicare benefits. However, Chris gave the governor a lot of credit for pushing a dialogue about these endangered programs. The governor quipped that he knows that he is on the right track because his plan has already received criticism from Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont. To that point, the governor was asked if he will continue to be outspoken in spite of his Bridgegate Scandal. It was alleged that high placed officials in the governor’s administration conspired to punish a political rival by disrupting traffic on the George Washington Bridge. Christie feels that he dealt with the problem directly by terminating the staff people who were responsible and answering any and all questions that the press wanted to ask.
The next question for Chris Christie was whether he believes that the next president should be a senator or a governor? Not surprisingly, he believes that only a governor has the skill set to lead and manage the government. Taking a shot at the Republican senators in the current field, Christie pointed out that having a one term senator like Barack Obama hasn’t worked out too well.
Chris Ryan asked if he has other plans for decreasing the budget deficit. Christie believes that the best solution is to increase economic growth which is currently at weak 2%. Christie also favors cutting taxes to stimulate investment and economic growth. The governor would push for investing in our infrastructure-roads, bridges, technology, etc.
The exit question was for the governor to react to a recent poll about whether Jon Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen is the quintessential New Jersey Rock and Roll musician. This was the only time that he reacted like a politician and avoided choosing one or the other performer. So, Chris Ryan rephrased the question to be if they were both performing on the same night who would he go to see perform. Christie answered unequivocally that he would see the Boss, Bruce Springsteen.
