Fed Government’s “Mindless Drones”: Gov. Christie Lets ‘Em Have It for “Government Craziness” in Filling Out 1,299-Page “Race to the Top” Application (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 26, 2010
I LOVE THIS GUY.
Governor Chris Christie just doesn’t hold back.
In the news conference video below, he gives his brutally honest opinion about New Jersey’s loss of millions of dollars in federal aid because of a simple error on one sheet of paper in the federal government’s gargantuan 1,299-page application to the Department of Education for the “Race to the Top” education funds.
So, no one in the federal government can pick up the phone to ask a simple question? Are they all “mindless drones”?
Excellent questions, Governor. However, if you were a Democrat in Congress, you wouldn’t have wasted your time reading the document in the first place, and you would have known that congressional Democrats, unlike other elected officials, admit they make up the rules as they go along… isn’t that right, Rep. Alcee Hastings?
Gov. Christie – Race to the Top
From Philadelphia Inquirer, Christie admits clerical error on application for education funds, blames Obama administration:
A state worker’s misreading of a question on a funding application was blamed Wednesday for New Jersey’s loss of $400 million in federal education money, setting off a political scuffle that ensnared the White House and the Statehouse.
In a single paragraph of a 1,299-page application, New Jersey answered a basic question about its budget with information from fiscal year 2011, as opposed to fiscal 2008 and 2009. As a result, the answer was given just 0.2 points out of a possible five.
If the state had scored just three more points on that answer – and a previous application with the correct answer indicated it could have – New Jersey would have become one of 10 states to win a piece of $4.35 billion.
Instead, New Jersey came in 11th, with 10th place Ohio receiving $400 million. Pennsylvania finished 18th.
At a news conference Wednesday on an unrelated matter, Gov. Christie spent nearly a half-hour taking responsibility for the “clerical error” while forcefully deflecting the criticism and ridiculing President Obama’s administration.
This is the kind of bureaucratic decision, the governor said, that “drives people crazy about government, and crazy about Washington.”
“Are you guys just down there checking boxes like mindless drones, or are you thinking?” Christie asked. “That’s the stuff the Obama administration should answer for.”
[...]
State Education Commissioner Bret Schundler sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Wednesday night seeking the award.
Christie said that the mistake was brought to Schundler’s attention weeks ago, and that Schundler provided federal officials with the correct information at that time.
The correct information was also available on the Department of Treasury website.
But the application failed anyway because, Christie said, the Obama administration chose “form over substance.”
“If you’re a normal, thinking, reasoned human being, you pick up the phone and you say, ‘Hey, you sent this one wrong piece of paper,’ ” he said.
Holding the two-binder application, Christie steadily grew angrier about Washington: “Does anybody think down there? Does anybody have common sense about what we’re doing? Is anyone allowed to make a clerical mistake anymore?”
Spokespeople from the federal Department of Education did not respond to a request for a reaction to Christie’s criticism.
Hot Air weighs in…
Rather than call them to ask for the correct information — and despite the fact that Jersey officials actually did give them the proper numbers at an oral presentation two weeks ago — the feds simply processed the application and, based on the incorrect info, determined that NJ missed the cut for almost half a billion dollars in funding.
[..]
So what’s a governor to do knowing that voters won’t be pleased at this innocent yet costly goof? Well, if he’s smart, he uses it to reinforce his grand critique of big government, indicting a mindless bureaucracy for penalizing Jersey students over a harmless, easily fixable error. Chris Christie, smart guy.
From NJ.com, Gov. Christie blames Washington bureaucracy for state’s failed ‘Race to the Top’ application:
…Christie said the mistake was made by a mid-level official at the state Department of Education, and that he would not name him because he did not want to scapegoat anyone.
“We’ll take the responsibility we need to take for putting one wrong piece of paper in a thousand page application,” he said. “If you want to take shots, take shots at me.”
Christie said that, while there is no appeal process in the “Race to the Top” program, there is $100 million in left over funds that were not awarded. He said state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler will write a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan asking if New Jersey could have access to them.
“There’s nothing in the process that allows for that, but there’s no harm in asking,” he said.
Additional:
The American Pundit: Chris Christie Rips Federal Government Over School Funding Error
Hot Air: Video: Chris Christie rips feds after clerical error costs New Jersey $400 million in school funding and Hey, let’s spend $578 million on a public school
Et cetera: Gov. Chris Christie (R) New Jersey is one hell of a leader. This person is a perfect example of, what A President, should be
Another Black Conservative: Being tough pays off: N.J. voters approve of Chris Christie
WJLA: Calif. state workers brace for minimum wage
Radio Vice Online: Chris Christie teaches teacher a thing or two about behavior UPDATE: more video
Gateway Pundit: GOP Patriot Ben Quayle Rips Obama in Victory Speech and Chris Christie to Whiny Teacher: You Can Quit and Bombshell… Colorada Dem Michael Bennet Admits: “We Have a $13 Trillion Debt & Nothing to Show For It” and GOP Leader Boehner Calls For Obama’s Economic Team to Resign and Joe Biden Admits: “Voter’s Anger & Frustration Understandable Given High Unemployment & Sluggish Economy” and Beautiful!… Dem’s First Ad Asks Voters to Choose Between Bush’s Pro-Business Policies or Current Ruin and It’s Time to Admit It: Obamanomics Are a Complete Disaster and US TAXPAYERS ARE FUNDING MOSQUE CONSTRUCTION and Obama July Deficit of $167 Billion Tops Bush Deficit For Entire Year of 2007: and Obama’s Cloward-Piven Economic Strategy Working Out As Planned
Frugal Café Blog Zone: $580 Million: Most Expensive School in Entire Nation Opens in Los Angeles Where Drop-Out Rate Is High & State Is Broke and Gov. Christie vs. Gov. Schwarzenegger: Drastic Cuts in Spending for NJ & CA Budgets, but CA’s Solution Seems Harsher… Minimum Wage for State Workers and Obama’s Secret to Cheering Himself Up When Faced with Failed Stimulus & Record Unemployment: Have a Danish! (video) and Classic: Rick “Mr. Tea Party” Santelli Strikes Again: Stop Spending! Stop Spending! Stop Spending! (video) and Obama’s Mortgage Modification Program: Adored by Leftwing Media, Failing Program Has Never Delivered on Its Lofty Promise to Help 3-4 Million American Homeowners and Cowards: Democrat Politicians Hiding Out from Town Halls This Summer to Avoid Angry Voters (video) and NJ’s Gov. Christie Does It Again… Shocks Democrats, Vetoes Property Tax Increase (video)
Randy’s Right: One Public School Costs Tax Payers Over a “Half Billion” Dollars
Sacramento Bee: Schwarzenegger orders minimum wage for state workers
Stop The ACLU: Fish Wrap – “Hey, Pass The Unemployment Extension All Ready!”
Heritage Foundation, The Foundry: Morning Bell: Why Obama’s Stimulus Failed
Legal Insurrection: Harry “Havoc” Reid
Nice Deb: White House Admits That More Than 85% of Stimulus Projects Were Not ‘Shovel-Ready’ in 2009
Motor City Times: Government Inefficiency: Treasury Department Lacks Manpower To Monitor TARP Fund Distributions
Don Loos, Big Government: Union Contract: Duly Suspended Employees Get Paid For Overtime Missed!
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: It’s About Time the Government Created an Agency to Look Out For Us!
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[...] American Power: The Left’s Culture of Hate and G-Pal, Pay-Pal — No Pals? Frugal Café: Fed Government’s “Mindless Drones”: Gov. Christie Lets ‘Em Have It for “Government Crazine… Nice Deb: 2nd Annual 9/12 Taxpayer March On Washington American Thinker: Democrats Drove [...]
Does anybody out there feel a refreshing breeze coming from the conservative constituents that have had enough ?
Governor Christie and Sarah Palin are just some of the leaders that will re-establish the will of the majority of this nation to restore the Constitutional Principles this Country was founded upon.
Parties no longer make any difference, nor should they.
Both have been corrupted by greed and the desire for power, while dismissing the voice of the people that hired them.
The conservative ideology is needed to right the ship and put her back on course, otherwise, we will be ‘lost at sea’ for an extended period of time.
The greatest enemy we confront on November 2 is the ignorant, or the indignant voter.
The libs are doing their level best to accumulate the largest welfare state that they can, including the very States themselves.
Self preservation is indeed a lost art.
Conservatism is the answer, from the home front to the National front.
[...] American Power: The Left’s Culture of Hate and G-Pal, Pay-Pal — No Pals? Frugal Café: Fed Government’s “Mindless Drones”: Gov. Christie Lets ‘Em Have It for “Government Crazine… Nice Deb: 2nd Annual 9/12 Taxpayer March On Washington American Thinker: Democrats Drove [...]