Governor Chris Christie at 2011 PhRMA Annual Meeting

Governor Christie 
delivered these remarks
at the 2011 PhRMA Annual Meeting 
April 14, 2011

Thank you, thank you very much.  Thank you very much and welcome to New Jersey, we're happy to have you here.  Chris, I want to thank you for your introduction and for bringing everyone here to New Jersey, the home of Chris' own company, sanofi‑aventis and we're happy that New Jersey's pharmaceutical industry remains a cornerstone of New Jersey's economy.

And so our economic growth, our future, our efforts to develop, to innovate, to change, to create new opportunity, for a prosperous future, for future generations of New Jerseyans, will depend, in large measure, on the continued growth and innovation and success of the pharmaceutical industry.

And so for all of you who I've had the opportunity to meet with before, I'm here today not only to represent the state of New Jersey as the Governor, but also here as a friend of this industry which provides so much economic opportunity and lifesaving treatments for our residents of New Jersey and for citizens all across the world.

Forty‑six thousand, five hundred New Jerseyans are directly employed in New Jersey's biopharmaceutical research industry. The jobs support another 150,000 jobs in other sectors of the state.

It is a geometric operation in New Jersey and one that we hope to continue to grow geometrically.

And that's why, since I took office 15 months ago, I made a commitment up front to the people of our state to make the difficult choices that needed to be made to try to restore economic vitality to our state.

As Chris mentioned, you know, when I became Governor, I felt something like this kind of story.  Given the decades of mismanagement in New Jersey, I felt like I had been invited to dinner, by all the former living Governors.

And that we had gone to this extraordinary restaurant and they treated me incredibly well.  They sat me at the head of the table as the new Governor.  It was great food and incredible wine and we had an amazing evening.

And then, right near the end of the evening, they all got up at one time and went to the bathroom.  And they never came back.  And the check came and I'm the guy who has to take care of paying the check.

That's what I confronted when I got into office in January of 2010.  During the transition, in the last week or two of the transition, my Chief of Staff, Rich Bagger, who is well known to folks in this industry, came to me with a cash flow chart.

 I guess from his corporate days.  And, except it didn't look like your cash flow charts.  Our cash flow charts showed that if we did not take immediate action in my first few weeks in office, that the state of New Jersey literally would not make payroll for the second pay period in March.

Not make payroll.  Now, imagine that reality for a state with the second highest per capita income in the America.  What that tells you is, that government has gotten so off course, overspending, over borrowing and overtaxing, that we were literally killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

And so in the first couple weeks in office, our task was to cut 2.1 billion dollars in spending, with five months to go in the fiscal year.

All you who are involved in running your companies understand what kind of challenge that is.  It was about, a little short of ten percent of the overall state budget had to be cut, with five months to go in the fiscal year.

And, you know, Democrats in my state were thrilled, they were thrilled.  Because they said, well this guy promised not to raise taxes in the campaign.

And we're going to get him to break that promise in the first two weeks.  This is like a two‑fer for Democrats, you know.  They get increased spending and make the Republican break his promise in the first two weeks.  This is like Christmas in January.

It's fabulous.  But we took an entirely different approach.  Well, one of the things I know corporate CEOs will be particularly fond of, when you talk about the New Jersey Governorship, is we have the strongest constitutional Governorship in America, of all 50 states.  And the Governor of New Jersey is, has been referred to by Michael Barone, the political scientist as the American Caesar, I like that.  I like that.

(Laughter.)

And so we had a choice, we had a choice.  Do I negotiate with the legislature on a package of tax increases and some cuts, to bring balance to the budget that they had just passed seven months ago and knew it was a bogus election year budget for John Corzine?

Or, do I take the path of impounding two billion dollars in planned spending, by Executive Order, without any involvement with the legislature?

Now, for those of you have been watching me for the past 15 months, if you answered A, please leave.  Because you obviously have not been paying attention.

(Laughter.)

So what we did was we called a speech before the joint session of the Legislature.  I went in there, I detailed the two billion dollars in spending cuts that I was going to make.

I told them I had just done by Executive Order.  I said thank you and I left.  Now, of course, when I left there was enormous consternation of the floor of the state legislature.

They were calling me all kinds of names, Julius Caesar, you know, Napoleon Bonaparte, all those great leaders of the past.  And, well I don't think they meant it in a complementary way, and so I read that stuff in the newspaper the next morning and I happened to be walking in at the same time as the Senate President, Democrat Steve Sweeney of Gloucester County, and he had said a number those really ugly about me, so I saw him, I said Steve, you know, I read the newspaper this morning, and you know what, I think you're right.  I probably overstepped my bounds.  Here's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to go upstairs and I'm going to vacate that executive order.  I'm letting you guys fix the two billion dollar problem.

And this will tell you all you need to know about the state of politics back then in my first few weeks in New Jersey, they said, hey, Governor, don't over react.  It's just politics, you know, I mean I think he did a pretty good job actually, you know,

We needed to bring a new approach and a new discipline.  And what I said to folks during the 2009 campaign was, if you elect me, New Jersey will become a leader in the challenges and facing the challenges that we have, in our state, for the entire country.

Now, some people just shook their heads, one, because of course, there's 700,000 more Democrats and Republicans in New Jersey.  No one had been elected from the Republican party for Governor of New Jersey in a dozen years and we have not elected a Republican United States Senator since 1972. 

Oh, by the way, I was also running against an incumbent Governor who was going to outspend me three to one.  So people felt in no threat that I was actually going to be able to pull this off.

And imagine saying that New Jersey is going to be a leader in something positive.  This was seen as almost, you know, catatonic in terms of what state you must be in to actually think that.

Remember, this is the state that when I traveled around as U.S. Attorney, it was basically known for a few things.  Political corruption, the Sopranos, the Real Housewives of New Jersey and, God forbid, the Jersey Shore.

And I'm telling folks during the campaign that we're going to be known as a state that is leading the nation in something positive.

People thought I was crazy.  Well, we won, and if you've now watched the last 15 months, what you hear much more now on the cable news shows and on network television about New Jersey is exactly what I predicted.

We're making the difficult choices; we're setting out the blueprint for Governors across the rest of the country.  If you look at my separate at birth twin, right across the river here, Governor Andrew Cuomo.

I mean when I see what Governor Cuomo is doing over there, I think it is true.  I think we were separated at birth.  You know, I came into office and I said no more millionaire surcharge.

I vetoed it, I would not go for it.  And what did Governor Cuomo do in this first budget?  No millionaires tax in New York.  I said, and we were able to accomplish, a two percent property tax cap, to finally start to deal with the scourge of the highest property taxes in the nation.

Governor Cuomo has proposed a two percent property tax cap for the state of New York.  I said we're going to balance our budget, which had an 11 billion dollar deficit for fiscal year 11, which we're in right now, on a 29 billion dollar budget.

Just take that in for a second.  The structure of deficit was 37 percent of the overall budget.  When I say we're going to balance that budget without any new taxes or any tax increases on the people of New Jersey, and we did it.

Governor Cuomo just closed a significant budget gap in New York, without any new or increased taxes on the people in the state of New York.

Even down to things like capping the pay of school superintendents which we did at the salary of the Governor, Governor Cuomo has now proposed to cap Superintendent pay at the salary level of the Governmenor of New York.

The point is this is not a red or blue issue.  This is a black and white issue.  It's about balancing the books.  And the reason that's so important to all of you, will be evident because New Jersey is not one year ahead of the curve.

Ahead of all the other states.  Last year, even in that difficult budget, we sun-setted the corporate business tax surcharge.

We saved businesses in New Jersey 90 million dollars.  A small amount of money but a down payment on good faith.  This year we are proposing in our budget over 200 million dollars in tax cuts and tax credit, to businesses in New Jersey.

Again, a down payment more than double last year and it's going to continue to move in that direction, because we need to get Government's foot off the neck of business in New Jersey.

Third, we've said that regulations are the hidden tax, and that the regulatory scheme in New Jersey is just too onerous for businesses to responsibly want to expand and grow here and do so while making a profit for your shareholders.

And so we've said we're going to take action immediately.  The Lieutenant Governor has been in the lead on this.  You see a sea change of attitude difference at the Department of Environmental Protection.

To tell you just one example of how things are different at the DEP, the Commissioner of the DEP required that every one of the 3,000 plus employees attend mandatory customer service training.

Imagine environmental government bureaucrats at customer service training.  We are changing Trenton.  And we changed the terms of regulations, as well.  If you compare the first year of the Christie Administration to the last year of the Corzine Administration, regulations are down one‑third in a year.  We are changing the environment that you have to work in, as well, when you're here in New Jersey.

And when you look at what's going on in Washington, D.C.  You say to yourself, now I know why it's been said that the state should be the laboratories of democracy.

Because they can't get out of the way in Washington right now, they really can't, and you all know it.  I mean to look at this industry, for instance, and say that what we need is more regulation.

Let's have more regulation on the pharmaceutical industry because, well, you guys don't have enough as it is already.  This is an insane approach that turns on its head, in my view, what our founders set up this government to be in the first place.

Limited federal government, with the real governing being done by the states, and with people's entrepreneurial spirit, ambition and innovation, let loose to succeed.

Now, we seem to have a President who decided that there is nothing that his Administration doesn't know how to be better than you.

I suffer from no such illusion.  There's a lot you know how to do better than I do.  And what I want, when you're here in New Jersey, is to have a collaborative partnership.

For you to come to me with ideas about the way that government can help and the way the government can get the hell out of the way.

And to talk to each other.  Chris and I were talking back behind the stage, before we came out.  You know, in the early part of my administration he came in to visit and we sat for well over an hour, in my office, talking about what are the challenges that his company is facing.

What are the opportunities that they have and how can we work with sanofi‑aventis to try to make sure that those opportunities are exploited to the best use of your shareholders, of the citizens of our state and the citizens of our country.

It wasn't me in there giving him a speech or him giving me a speech.  It was a conversation, and I would think it would do the President well to start having those conversations.

Rather than standing behind the seal of the presidency and dictating that he knows better than everybody, about how to do everything.

It's about collaboration.  And that's why companies like Coca Cola and Honeywell and BASF have made the decision, in the last 25 months, to stay and expand in New Jersey.

That's why Bayer just announced, this month, that they are moving operations from New York State to New Jersey, and expanding the number of jobs that they have here in our state.  Because I think the business community understands, that they have someone in the Governorship now who will listen.

And who is not afraid to act.

You know, in that first few weeks that I was trying to find the money to make payroll, I also got word that Honeywell was leaving New Jersey.  And I called Dave Cote and asked him to come and see me.  And when he came to my office he said to me, "Listen, Governor, I'm here as a courtesy because I like you and I like the things you said in the campaign, but we've pretty much made up our mind we're going."  And I said "Do me a favor.  Give me a week."

And he told me afterwards that when he walked out with his General Counsel and another member of management team, he said "Poor guy.  But I'll give him a week.  No problem. He'll never be able to get anything in a week."

A week later I called him.  And after our conversation and the deliverables that I told him I would come up were actually there, Honeywell announced that they were staying in New Jersey and expanding in New Jersey.

We're not afraid to act, and we're not afraid to decide.  And we're not afraid to take positions.  And sometimes those positions are going to be popular with a broad group of people and sometimes they're just going to have to count on the fact that what we're doing is a plan to move New Jersey forward, to grow jobs and grow businesses.  And that's why we're putting results before politics.

And that's why you see me work with Democrats all over the state as well.  You know, this climate in Washington, D.C. where Republicans and Democrats almost refuse to work with each other, you see certain members of my party playing politics and just trying to maneuver things.  And you see the President yesterday doing the same kind of stuff.  Political re‑election games.  The problems of our country are too serious, too serious. 

Look at New Jersey.  We have a pension fund that is $54 billion underfunded.  We have public sector health fund that is $67 billion underfunded.  And I'm in the midst of a debate in our state over trying to save those systems.

Now, of course, the public sector unions say I'm just trying to take benefits away from them.  Well, you know I am.  Because if we don't, these systems are going to go bankrupt.  An independent study has said that New Jersey's pension system could well be bankrupt by 220.  We're one of 11 states that face that problem.

So we're doing common sense things, proposing common sense things like raising retirement age, eliminating COLAs, increasing the amount of employee contributions to their pension and rolling back unreasonable benefits that were given with no cash flow to pay for them.

In our health benefits we're saying to folks "Listen, we want you to have good health insurance.  We want you to have more choice, and we want you to pay 30 percent of premium rather than what they pay now, which is 12percent of their salary.  There's no relationship, as you know, between the salary and the rise in benefits.  All of you know that. But yet in New Jersey we made some connection to it because it's the easier thing to do politically.

I say everybody's got to have skin in the game.  You want the Cadillac health insurance plan?  Okay.  You got to pay for it.  And not pay for all of it.  Not even pay for a majority of it.  Pay for 30 percent of it.  Because right now for public workers in New Jersey the average is that government, we the taxpayers, pick up 92 percent of the costs.  It is unsustainable.

And we have to have that conversation in New Jersey. We're having it, and I'm going to try to force it to a conclusion by the end of June. And we need to have that conversation in America.  And we need to do without the political posturing that we saw yesterday. I mean that's just a game that's being played.  Just a game to try to better position for re‑ election.

You know, I've said this before:  I don't need to have a master political strategist in the White House.  I prefer to have a leader. And sometimes leading means putting your own political capital at risk.  And sometimes it means doing things that are going to be unpopular.  But the job of a leader is to go down the lonely road first:  That's leading, hence the name.

And so we've got to stop allowing people to pretend to be leaders by sticking their finger up in the air and seeing which way the wind's blowing, and then running to the front of that pack and pretending to lead.

Leadership in New Jersey today and leadership in America today is challenging, and it means taking risk. All of you understand that.

 You're taking risk everyday.  You're putting capital at risk everyday to try to improve the lot of our country and to try to make money for your shareholders who invested themselves in your expertise, in your ability to innovate and in your willingness to take risk and lead as well.  And in government we should expect nothing less then that from those who pretend to lead here.

I had a political science professor in college who said to me "There are two types of people who get into politics, Chris.  Those who want to do something and those who want to be something.  Beware of the ones who want to be something."

See, I ran for this job because I New Jersey was in huge trouble, and I know that I wasn't elected on my charm and good looks. They elected me because they thought that this guy just might be tough enough to take on these problems.  And so in the same way, in the very same way, we have to be willing to grasp these things by the lapels and start doing it.  And it's not going to be easy and it's going to be about delivering hard truths to people. Because in every aspect of American life we've overspent and over borrowed and over taxed.  And we've got to get honest with the people that we lead.

And so part of what New Jersey is trying to do in terms of leading by example is to say if you want unemployment to go down, you have to give incentives to those who will create new jobs to be in their interest to do so.  We're not running a charity here. 

America is based upon capitalism and entrepreneurial spirit.  And we have to make sure that we in government are out of the business of regulating, taxing and penalizing people who trying to create jobs.  And so as we move forward on the things we're doing in New Jersey, we always keep an eye on what that mean for America. Because as much as we try to treat New Jersey at times as an island, and we do the thing that we do to try to make our state the best and compete vigorously with other states for jobs and for opportunity, we will are a part of the United States of America.

And so New Jersey's actions over the last 15 months, I'm convinced are good for New Jersey.  Good for our citizens and putting on a path to fiscal sanity and economic growth for our future.  But by doing it first, doing it before any of the other states were doing it, we also are mindful of our responsibility as leaders of this movement in America.

And so all the conduct that we engage in over this period of time is about trying to make those basics, those very basics happen that it is not government who creates jobs.  In fact, in New Jersey over the last 15 months no state in America has shed more public sector jobs than New Jersey. Of course, we had many more shed then most states.  We had more government per square mile than any state in America.  So I'm damning us a bit of faint praise, but at least we're moving in the right direction.

Spending by the state government has been down 9 percent last year, another 2.6 percent this year.  Taxes are moving down.  Regulation is moving down.

And here's the one thing all of you will know if you decide to further invest in New Jersey. There are a lot of unknowns in this world that you have to deal with.  Here's one thing you'll know for sure.  Over the next number of years as long as I'm Governor of New Jersey, taxes will be going in only one direction, and that's down not up.  I don't know if you can say that about a lot of the other states in the union, but you're going to be able to say it about here.

We have a lot of work to do to make New Jersey a more hospitable place to business, but I think business is starting to see already that I mean what I say, and I'm willing to take the political risk that's necessary to get it done.

And I hope that what it's done in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio, and Michigan, and Iowa is to put governors in place who understand and see that you can make these hard choices and people will reward you politically for it.

I am more popular today in every poll that I was on the day I was elected.  And that's after cutting $13 billion of state spending in 15 months.  That's after vetoing a millionaire's tax. That's after working folks in the eye and saying "We have to cut funding from K to 12 education.  We have to cut funding in every department of state government."  And to say to our public sector workers that we have to reform your pension system and your health benefit system. All of these things individually were supposed to be third rails of politics.  Collectively some people thought I was crazy. But these folks who elected me, elected me because they expected me to take on these problems.  And I think we should demand no less from the leaders that we have in governments all across America, and no less from all of you.

All of us have a role to play in these really difficult times.  And I believe the first obligation we have is to be truth tellers to the people we serve.  Not to just sing a happy tune and tell them everything's going to be fine. Just follow me, all will be well. No. 

Our job is to tell them the road ahead is difficult. We messed this up.  I feel like the guy who got an invitation to a party, right, and came to the party, and you show up at 8:30.  The party said it's supposed to start at 8:00.  You get there, and everybody's already drunk and passed out on the floor and there's empties everywhere. And then you got two choices, right?  Look for another party or clean up.  Clean up. 

It is time for us to clean up.  It's time to clean up the mess that America has made for itself.  It is time to clean up the mess that New Jersey has made for itself.

We enjoyed the party. It is time to be responsible enough to explain clearly to the people of my state and this country why the clean up, as arduous as it is going to be, will lead to a better and brighter future for our children and grandchildren.  Because the end, and I'll conclude with this.  This is what I say to people all the time when they say "Governor, you're doing these things. Aren't you worried?"  I should worry about being re‑elected?  And listen, if I decide to run for re‑election, I'm in it to win.  So, of course, I think about it, but I'm not worried about it.  And here's why.  No matter what happens from here on out, I'm getting the big oil portrait in the State House, right? I mean, I already won.  So there is going to be the big amazing, right?  I'm going to have a big painting of me hanging in the State House, right?

So now what the hell are we arguing over?  All we're arguing over now is the little brass plague at the bottom, right?  The only thing left to argue about is the little brass plague that will say four years or eight years.  That's it.

So when I bring my grandchildren some day to see that painting, and believe me I will, because they're going to get a load of me and go "Yes, you were Governor.  Sure, Grandpa.  Absolutely."  So I'm going to bring them to see it.  And when I do, I hope they're inquisitive children and I hope they're smart, and I hope they're going to ask me "What was it like?  What did you do?"

I don't want to have to say to them "Well, first, let me draw your attention to the little brass plague that says eight years.  I was a Republican in New Jersey and that was hard work.  Now listen, of course, I had to sign away my principles. I had to incrementalize.  I had to give away things that I felt dear and important to me and the future of my state, but I did get the eight years."  No.  No. 

I'd much rather say to them whether it's four or whether it's eight that the for the time I spent as Governor I did everything I could to make sure that you not only could afford to live here when you grow up, but that you'd want to live here.  Because, see, in the end when the great joys‑‑ and I lost my Mom seven years ago next month. And one of the great joys of her life was that she was a half an hour drive away from any of her grandchildren's Little League games or soccer games, from any of the Christmas concerts or spring plays, or from those little birthday parties that you do around the kitchen table.  She didn't have to get on an airplane every once in a while to see them.  She'd get in her car and drive and as big a partner in their lives as she wanted to be. And I know it was a great joy for her.

I want the same thing for me and for you, and for our children. That's what makes New Jersey such a great place. Because it is a place that is literally dripping with tradition and with culture and with that attitude that there's something special going on here.  And I refuse to allow a timidity to deprive our children and grandchildren of that opportunity.

And so, let's be bold, let's be strong, let's be forward looking.  And let's make sure that in all of our leadership positions that we put the interests of future generations before our self interest and that we truly live the meaning of the word "leadership."  That's why I'm trying to do in New Jersey. That's why I came here to welcome you this morning.

And I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you.  Thank you all very much.

 (Applause)