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Chris Christie: Telling It Like It Is To Create Opportunity For Every American
Christie draws on life experiences to make the case why every individual deserves a fair shot at the American Dream
What You Need to Know: Chris Christie Launches Presidential Campaign
• Surrounded by family, childhood friends and longtime supporters, Chris Christie is announcing his decision to run for President of the United States at his alma mater Livingston High School in Livingston, New Jersey, (where he served three years as class president).
• Starting his campaign in his hometown allows the American people to meet the “Chris” everyone from Livingston knows through the people who know him best and the experiences that have helped define him.
• Leading From The Heart. Christie is showing people who he is at his core by delivering this important speech in the school he went to, in the community he grew up in, surrounded by his family and friends -- the people who made him who he is today. It’s the reason why he believes that the greatest gift the people give us is their trust which is why you have to tell the people how you feel and what you think. There should be nothing left unsaid between the people who trust you enough with these jobs in the first place.
• Extending The American Dream To Every Person In Every Community. As the son of a Sicilian mother and Irish father, from an early age Christie has known what it means to have strong influences in your life. Governor Christie recognizes that he is living the American dream and believes that every person in this country deserves a fair shot at it the same. It’s that belief that has been the driving force behind why Governor Christie has pursued a career in public service - the chance to widen the circle of opportunity and extend the American dream to every person in every community.
• Running Towards What Makes People Uncomfortable. It takes guts to make the American dream happen which is why Governor Christie is going to confront the hard challenges and take on the big issues, not run away from them. It’s time to stop accepting the status quo and being resigned that it’s impossible to make things work. Governor Christie sees how people’s lives are impacted when government is ineffective and the system is frustrating, maddening and devoid of common sense. There’s no excuse when you hold elected office not to try. It’s your job to make it work.
• Telling It Like It Is. You won’t get any ideological dogma or theory. You won’t get any spin, and you won’t get any pandering. Governor Christie isn’t afraid to stand up for what’s right, and to tell you the truth – whether that truth is easy or not for you to hear. And to achieve that you need to talk to everyone, even the people you disagree with, and have a real debate.
Taking on the Big Issues and Third Rails of Politics
Chris Christie is taking on the biggest and oftentimes most politically unpopular issues. From tackling the entitlements crisis and growing our economy to reestablishing American leadership across the world and ensuring that every child gets a high-quality education, Governor Christie has already begun laying out his vision for a stronger American future.
• Economy: Governor Christie has outlined his Five Point Economic Growth Plan calling for pro-growth tax reform, an end to the Obama era of excessive regulation, a national energy strategy, creating incentives for Americans to work, and policies to ensure that America remains the home of innovation.
• Entitlement Reform: Governor Christie has put forth a substantive proposal to begin a national conversation on how we must address our nation’s entitlement crisis. During a speech in Manchester, NH the Governor called for a number of measures to control the costs of entitlements including raising the retirement age to 69 and redefining social security as retirement insurance.
• Education: Governor Christie detailed a 15 point reform agenda to address concerns about our nation’s education system that have consistently been brought up by students, parents and grandparents during town hall meetings across the country, from ensuring every student has access to a high-quality education to making college more affordable and accessible.
• Foreign Policy: Governor Christie laid out specifics on the importance of national defense, including a strong intelligence community as well as the need to rebuild our alliances and confront our adversaries. He made the case for strong and accurate intelligence and highlighted the critical need for rebuilding our alliances across the globe.
Christie has brought unprecedented conservative reform to one of the bluest states in the nation.
Christie has successfully worked with a Democratic-controlled legislature for all six years in office, making him uniquely qualified in the Republican field to bring conservative reform to Washington.
• Sweeping Pension And Benefits Reform: Governor Christie signed into law landmark pension and health benefit reform in June 2011, marking months of hard work, negotiation, compromise and ultimately bipartisan support. While Governor Christie made clear that more work was needed, critical savings were achieved – over $120 billion in savings for New Jersey taxpayers.
• Historic Bipartisan Changes To The Nation’s Oldest Tenure Law: Marking the first extensive reform oldest tenure law in the nation, Governor Christie signed into a sweeping overhaul requiring tenure to be awarded and retained based in part on student achievement. Also for the first time, teachers in Newark began to earn raises and be eligible for additional bonuses based on evaluations that include progress being made by their students.
• Improving Access To High-Quality Education: The Inter-District School Choice Program is designed to increase opportunities to escape failing school districts by providing students with the option of attending a public school outside their district of residence without cost to their parents. Enrollment has increased more than 5-fold since the law went into effect with projected enrollment of over 5,000 students. The Christie Administration has also increased the overall number of charter schools in New Jersey to 87, opening 35 since the Governor took office.
• Six Years With No New Taxes: In the eight years before Governor Christie took office, taxes and fees had been increased 115 times making New Jersey the most heavily taxed state in the nation and placing an undue burden on residents and job-creators alike. Since then, Governor Christie has now signed six consecutive balanced budgets without raising taxes once, and repeatedly vetoing tax increases passed by the legislature.
• Five Consecutive Years Of Private Sector Job Growth: Since Governor Christie took office, New Jersey has created 198,000 private sector jobs. New Jersey’s unemployment rate has dropped to 6.5 percent, the lowest it has been since 2008 and the state has seen five consecutive years of private-sector job growth.
• Rewarding Work And Cutting Taxes: Acting on his commitment to rewarding work and lowering the tax burden for hard-working families, Governor Christie secured $120 million in tax relief for 500,000 New Jerseyans through New Jersey's Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Holding Discretionary Spending Below 2008 Levels: Governor Christie has reinforced his commitment never to return to the reckless spending and fiscal irresponsibility in Trenton that brought New Jersey to the brink of catastrophe, by holding Fiscal Year 2016 discretionary spending $2.3 billion below Fiscal Year 2008 levels.
• Vetoing Unnecessary And Excessive Gun Rights Restrictions: New Jersey already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. And while Governor Christie is committed to enforcing the laws on the books, he will not allow political agendas to further restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners. He has vetoed several pieces of legislation he viewed as just such overreaches including bills to restrict magazine sizes and add further red tape to the state’s firearm ID processing.
• The First Pro-Life Candidate Elected Statewide Since Roe Vs. Wade: Governor Christie: “And when they said it could never be done, now twice – twice, for the first time since Roe vs. Wade, New Jersey has elected a pro-life governor of New Jersey.” He has also vetoed funding for planned parenthood every year since in office.
• Keeping Communities And Citizens Safe: Governor Christie has taken aggressive action to keep citizens and communities safe by keeping violent offenders behind bars and giving communities the resources they need. He has signed bipartisan reforms to New Jersey’s bail system and taken action to protect the public safety by providing needed reform to state law governing New Jersey’s Parole Board. Governor Christie also worked with City and County of Camden to implement ground-breaking reform by creating a county-wide force that is putting more cops on the streets of Camden, and more resources at their disposal.
• Helping Individuals Reclaim Their Lives: Governor Christie firmly believes that every life is a gift from god and that no life is disposable. Acting on this commitment, Governor Christie has worked to help drug addicts and non-violent offenders reclaim their lives by enacting common-sense bail reform, signed into law landmark, bipartisan legislation to put in place a statewide, mandatory drug court program, and announced a statewide program to help reduce the number of heroin-related deaths by training and equipping police officers and first responders to administer the antidote Narcan to overdose victims.
