Ever since he was elected as the Governor of New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie has been hailed as the kind of fiscal conservative who can bring the country back from the brink. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck even compared Christie to President George Washington, saying that the New Jersey Governor was a model of the kind of fiscal "belt-tightening" the government needed.
Indeed, since he has come in as Governor, Christie has cut a number of government programs in New Jersey. Most notably, Christie cut the state aid to local schools by 15%. His critics point out that these cuts likely will increase unemployment in the state (through teacher layoffs, for example) and also decrease the quality of education in New Jersey. Christie claims that the cuts are necessary in these hard fiscal times.
However, a new report from the Justice Department Inspector General reveals that Christie did not believe in such "belt-tightening" when he was a U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. In fact, of all the U.S. Attorneys, Christie was cited as the worst when it came to wasting taxpayer dollars for various trips. Christie routinely received excessive reimbursements for various trips he took as a U.S. Attorney, including:
- Getting reimbursed at $236 for a four mile trip back-and-forth to Boston's Airport through a pre-arranged car service.
- Getting reimbursed $562 for a trip to his hotel in the heart of London after landing at one of London's airports.
Christie also liked to stay in hotels that had rates well above the federal government's acceptable rate. Examples include the Nino Zero Hotel in Boston and the Four Seasons Hotel off of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C.
In total, the report shows that Christie "provided insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification for 14 of 23 trips (61 percent) that exceeded the government rate." Over half of Christie's trips exceeded the acceptable government rate of reimbursement for his travels. It appears that Christie believes in fiscal discipline when it comes to funds being spent to provide a safety net to the poor, or education to the country's youth. However, when it comes to funds spent for reimbursement of his travels to London, Christie is more than willing to abandon his fiscal discipline philosophy.
