Christie: I don't have "the first damn idea" what D.C. lawmakers are doing
Lambasting the federal government for its failure to avert the blind, across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester, Gov. Chris Christie said today he doesn't have "the first damn idea" of what lawmakers in Washington are doing.
The "worst" thing about sequestration, the always-candid New Jersey Republican told reporters today, is that it has inspired little to no substantive conversation about shoring up the debt via entitlement reforms.
"I'm disappointed in that, but, you know, if you stacked up all the things that disappoint me about Washington, D.C., it would be pretty tall," Christie said. "If anyone in this room thinks they understand Washington, D.C., please come on up, stand behind the podium, and you give the answers - 'cause I don't have the first damn idea of what they're doing down there."
Wondering why "they haven't fixed it already," Christie argued the New Jersey legislature has done "much harder things" than concocting a feasible budget alternative in "much shorter periods of time." President Obama, he said, shoulders the blame for Washington's inaction.
"Seems to me it should be pretty easy to fix," Christie said. "Real leadership would get this fixed. You get everybody in the room, and you fix it. And you don't let them leave until you fix it. That's what real leadership is; not calling a meeting two hours before the thing's gonna hit to have a photo op in the driveway at the White House."
Mr. Obama invited House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other congressional leaders to the White House on Friday - the day the sequester cuts officially went into effect - in a last-ditch effort to come up with more targeted budget cuts. In an interview that aired Sunday on "Meet the Press," Boehner called the meeting "pleasant" but maintained a divide between the parties on whether to partner the cuts with additional revenue through tax hikes.
