Thank you very much – it’s great to be here tonight.  Do me a favor, turn to your neighbor and tell them, “It’s great to be a Democrat in New Jersey!”  Turn to your other neighbor and tell them, “It’s good to be a Democrat in New Jersey.”  Now everybody all together say, “We’re moving forward, not back!”

Chairman Wisniewski, Speaker Oliver, Senate President Sweeney, Governor Florio, proud Democrats from the Delaware to the Hudson,…

We have a number of mayors in the audience.  If there are any mayors, raise your hand.  I myself was once a mayor, and there is a certain camaraderie among mayors.   I loved my years as Mayor of the City of Baltimore.  One of the things I loved best about my job as Mayor is that you bring people together to get difficult, important things done.  There is no Democratic or Republican way of filling a pothole or more efficiently collecting the garbage.  There’s no way to hide whether you’re doing the job or not.  

I bring you greetings from your friends in Maryland.  If you think about it, we actually have a lot in common, don’t we

• You're the home of Frank Sinatra,… We're the birthplace of Billie Holiday;
• You're the home of the New Jersey Devils,… we're the vacation home of former Vice President Dick Cheney;
• We house much of the federal government – and nationally nobody seems to care,… you house the Giants and Jets,… and nationally nobody seems to notice;
• In Maryland, we threw out a mean-spirited, ineffective, Republican governor after just one term,…

 And in New Jersey,… Well, let's just say it's good to know we have so much in common.

Forward, Not Back 

It's great to join you tonight.  The reason I wanted to come here, Mr. Chairman, when you asked me, is that I think that our states share a certain affinity.  We are a Revolutionary people.  In New Jersey and in Maryland, we understand what it takes to move forward.  We understand that leadership is about bringing people together to make the tough, difficult – but right – decisions that allow you to balance budgets, move your state forward and invest in our future – all at the same time.

For our country to win the future, every state has to make tough decisions to move themselves forward.  Every state is needed.  Every state is important – especially states as strong and as gifted as New Jersey.

For all their bombast and bluster, there is a group of ideological, narrow-minded, short-sighted, throwback, tea-partying Republican governors, who are not making the tough decisions or the right decisions necessary to create jobs and expand opportunity, so we can move out of this extremely difficult period of time that we were left in by the prior national administration.

So tonight I'd like to talk to you about the differences between Democratic governors and Republican governors on jobs,… on opportunity,… and on the tough choices we must make right now in order to move forward. 

Jobs. Opportunity. Now. 

Across our country, Democratic governors – in the toughest of times – are balancing budgets, making tough choices, creating jobs, and moving forward ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  

Balancing budgets is important – but what some Republican governors seem to lose sight of is this.  They seem to forget that creating jobs is also critically important.  Long term, we have to get our economy moving.  We have to create jobs.  We have to expand opportunity.  And in the words of Bruce Springsteen, “you can't start a fire without a spark.”

President Clinton knew that.  With Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez at his side, he built a fiscally responsible bridge to the future.  He created jobs, he cut spending, he made government work, he created record surpluses – and he did these things all at the same time.

That's what President Obama is striving to do,...  That's what Democratic governors across our country, from New York to California, are moving forward to accomplish,… That's what your Democratic state legislators are fighting for here in New Jersey,…

Does that mean we just spend our way into recovery without balancing budgets? No, far from it.  All 20 Democratic governors are balancing budgets – and they're doing it while bringing people together, making tough decisions, investing in the future, and making government work. 

Do you really think we can just spend our way into a better economy?  No, far from it. In Maryland, we're cutting $6.6 billion in state spending while still making record investments in public education, defending our Triple A Bond Rating, igniting the best year of job creation since 2007, and driving unemployment down to the lowest rate in nearly two years.

Does that mean you just raise taxes without any regard for your business climate?  In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Milken Institute, and the Kauffman Index all rank Maryland in the top two or three among the 50 states for innovation, entrepreneurship, science, and our ability to win in this new economy.

A Fight for our Future 

Why does it matter whether Maryland is moving forward, or whether New Jersey or any other states are moving forward? 

Let's have a show of hands.  How many of you believe that you have a better quality of life than that of your parents and grandparents?  Second, more troubling question:  How many of you believe just as firmly that your children and grandchildren will enjoy a better quality of life than you have? 

That’s the fear of fear itself in our own time.  We have political opponents, but there is no bigger opponent in our own country right now than that pessimism, that fear of fear itself that some in the other party seek to capitalize on.

Make no mistake about it: our country is in a fight.  It is a fight for our economic future.  It is a battle for jobs and opportunity in a changing new economy.  And the choices we make today – the choices we make as a people right now – will determine what sort of future our children will have. 

Get this: Thirty years ago – when I graduated high school – the United States ranked #1 in high school graduation rates among our global competitors.  Today we've slipped to 11th,…   Thirty years ago, America ranked #1 in college completion.  Today we've slipped to #12,… As a nation, we now spend more on potato chips than we invest through our government into energy research and development – and the Congressional Republicans' budget would cut that even further. 

It's not what other countries are doing to us,… it's what we're not doing for ourselves.

That's why, especially in the toughest of times, as Democrats, we know how critically important it is to invest in our children’s future.  That's why we choose to invest in education, research, development, healing, cures, and new technologies. We have always as a people had the ingenuity and the guts to see these waves coming and to be able to make that wave of change ours. “You can't start a fire without a spark.” 

As Democrats, we know that we must invest in job creation and a stronger middle class, because expanding opportunity is the surest path to return our country to long-term fiscal health.

Not Focused on Job Creation 

Unfortunately, there is a new breed of tea-partying Republican governors who are not focused on job creation.  They are engaged in an historic overreach.  They care more about settling old scores than they do about creating new jobs.  Rather than advancing innovation, they push narrow ideology.  Instead of expanding opportunity, they seek to make teachers, firefighters, and nurses pay the price for a recession that America's workers did not create. 

Instead of standing up for the middle class, we get stand-up comedy routines from colorful characters like your Governor.  But his record is no laughing matter:

• Raising property taxes on the middle class, senior citizens and on the disabled, while giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires;
• Driving up his own YouTube ratings, while driving down New Jersey's bond ratings;
• Killing tens of thousands of ARC tunnel jobs, while New Jersey unemployment climbs to 9.2%.
• Raising tuition at America's second most expensive state universities, while our global competitors make college more affordable;
• Slashing public education – and even losing 400 million Race-to-the-Top investment dollars because of sloppy, messy paperwork! 

Candy or Vegetables? 

Probably the most disappointing of all, given the strengths you have as a State, and disappointing especially if you are a mom or dad looking for a job in New Jersey, is Governor Christie's totally dismissive attitude toward the very things that create jobs, the things that we can only do together – educating, innovating, and rebuilding our transportation infrastructure to create jobs.

In February, Governor Christie tap-danced across the national media stage – entertaining a standing-room-only audience of enthusiastic FDR-haters – he took great delight in dismissing the job-creating potential of important initiatives like high speed rail, internet broadband, and electric cars.  He called them – and I quote – “the candy of American politics.”  

Friends, job creation is serious business.  Job creation is not candy!  Look someone in the eyes who’s out of work and can’t keep food on their family’s table and try to tell them that these sort of job-creating initiatives are merely candy.  Job creation is the most important thing we should be doing right now.  What of kind of a make-believe world does Chris Christie live in, where rebuilding our nation's infrastructure, connecting our businesses large and small to broadband internet, creating jobs through innovation and next-generation manufacturing, can be looked upon as “candy”?

That's not American exceptionalism, that’s American infantilism,…

But these tea-partying Republican governors would have us believe a lot of things that simply aren't so:

• In their make-believe world, they would have us believe we can somehow eat cake and lose weight,…
• They would have us believe that unions cause recessions,...
• They would have us believe that massive permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans doesn't cost a dime. In fact, it inspires them to run down to the nearest unemployment office and hire more people to wash their Maseratis,…
• And they would have us believe that bridges are,… well, kind of like trees: if you leave them alone, they get taller and stronger with age!

At the Republican Governors' tea party, where colorful characters like Chris Christie preside, there is no need to pay bills, no need to protect bond ratings, no need to invest in the future. Down is up, up is down; candy is a vegetable, and vegetables are candy,...

But of course, we know that their type of tea party is more Alice in Wonderland than it is Sam Adams.  It is more Mad Hatter than James Madison. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, New Jersey, my message is this: what was true in Jefferson and Jackson's day is still true in ours.  These are difficult and challenging times.  But there is no progress without struggle, no victory without sacrifice.  And America needs our generation – as she has needed every generation – to stand up together, face the challenges of our own day, and not only face them – but face them and win.  Not just for us, but for the people who are watching that come after us.

With all of the assets you have in your favor as a state – your diversity, your geography, your world-class workforce, your leading institutions of discovery and higher learning – you have so many advantages in this changing new economy.  And our country needs you.  Don’t give up.  You are a great state.  This temporary difficulty will pass.  And New Jersey will lead the way forward.

I leave you tonight as I began, with the words of your own Bruce Springsteen:  “It is through the truthful exercising of the best of human qualities – respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals– that we come to life in God's eyes. It is how our soul, as a nation and as individuals, is revealed,… It is time to move forward. The country we carry in our hearts is waiting.”

Thank you.