New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie stood before the Democrat-controlled legislature last week and, like a surgeon explaining a life-saving procedure to a skeptical patient, outlined deep budget cuts to close a gaping $11 billion budget wound necessary to save the critically ill state from following California into financial meltdown.

Like California’s, New Jersey’s ills were self-inflicted. General fund spending increased 40 percent in five years. The Tax Foundation blames the Garden State’s tax-and-spend policies for creating the nation’s worst business climate.

Recommended Stories

Is ‘frontier intelligence’ a sustainable business strategy?

Don’t raise the ceiling without a plan

The Mahoning Valley came home, but it did not come back