State services necessary for many residents
Iread with interest Greg Bean's misanthropic, moneyoriented column "Day of reckoning is on the horizon for budget." Where were you when your conservative crony Christie Whitman was pursuing the Republican path (similarly followed by our esteemed President George W(orst President in History) Bush) of spend and don't pay? It's interesting that you propose sacrificing people rather than politicians, that you seem to blame current government rather than past. Perhaps a close reading of history will show you that your own silence, and those of your conservative colleagues, are in fact, the true causes of the very real financial problems the state now faces.

With respect to your citation of the 49% of people who claim to be fed up with the state, do you really believe that when state services are cut, those people will become more satisfied? What fantasy world do you live in? People want the very services you propose should be cut, so they will have to pay for them- pure and simple.

New Jersey has among the lowest gasoline prices in the country because our state legislators and previous governors have lacked the courage to raise taxes on gasoline when it should have been done. That has been a factor in creating some of the massive deficits the state has faced and will face for years to come.

Until narrow visioned, economically challenged folks like you start facing the harsh reality head on - that people want and need services, and that if government provides services people need to pay for them - we will remain forever in the economic dark ages. How about getting real and looking at the problems from something other than your own self-interest? Your sort of supply side economics has produced the impending recession we now face. Isn't it time to change your tune and learn something about how people really behave?

Frederick Rotgers

Metuchen