Common Sense For New Hampshire

“A joyful pounding” reads the Asbury Park Press print edition headline about the first boardwalk piling being set here in Belmar.

I was out of town yesterday so I was unable to witness Christie and Doherty celebrate the great joy derived from the pounding.  Of the American taxpayer that is.  And the fact that the money is coming mostly from people who aren’t even their own constituents (voters) must have made it a real rush!

Even if I was home I probably wouldn’t have attended, lest my presence be mistaken as a sign of support.  I support building a new boardwalk.  I don’t support the way they’re going about it.

First of all, not that any of these guys give a flying hoot about the Constitution but using federal money to rebuild storm damage is unconstitutional (except on federal property, of course.)  The framers put nothing in the Constitution authorizing it.  And some of you may not know this, but they did have storms and hurricanes back then even before capitalism created all this “climate change”.  But the founders left this sort of thing up to the states and, of course, the people themselves through self-reliance and private charity.

Secondly, the Sandy Relief bill that Democrats Christie and Doherty so enthusiastically support is loaded up with pork.  Lots of it.  What does Alaskan fisheries or remodeling the Smithsonian Institution have to do with the hurricane?  Am I the only one unhappy about this?

Thirdly, in case you haven’t heard this, the federal government is broke.

And fourthly, it’s immoral.  Call me old-fashioned, but taking other people’s money because you think you need it more than them is wrong.  It’s wrong whether you brandish the gun yourself or vote in a politician to do it for you.  And just because we in New Jersey have been the victims of politicians from other states taking our money to lavish on their constituents, doing it back to them is still nothing to be proud of.  Of course Christie and Doherty are proud.  Damn proud.  But me, I feel a little ashamed, even though I opposed all of this.

Obviously I’m not opposed to building a new boardwalk.  I’m not even opposed to state aid as a last resort.  But we never even considered any alternatives to using tax money.

Now I have suggested at borough council meetings allowing private companies to develop and operate the beachfront, or at least selling naming rights to offset the cost.  I wrote about it here.  But getting the boardwalk built any other way but their way violates the first lesson of politics 101.  Make sure that people think that all good things come from you, and that without you these good things wouldn’t happen.  This is why Matt ignored the state’s strong recommendation not to get involved in distributing charitable donations like the gift cards and instead insisted on doing it himself.  You see he’s even better than Saint Vincent de Paul.  He’s Saint Matthew de Belmar!