Jon Bramnick defends voting for the gas tax

Could it be his voting for the gas tax was just a joke? Jon Bramnick, the top Republican in New Jersey's General Assembly who voted "yes," will be performing stand up comedy at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Bramnick was on my show explaining his decision: ”the reality of Trenton, the Democrats have controlled the legislature for 14 years, they've raised 115 taxes and the haven't lowered any. When you're in the minority, you don't control what's going on, you try to affect what's going on,” basically giving something to get more.

Bramnick goes on to say that he and Governor Christie got a sales tax reduction, discussions on pension reduction, 401k income would be exempt up to $50,000. Says Bramnick, “we could walk away and they would raise the taxes anyway,“ but then he wouldn't be at the table to get anything else.

Bramnick figures they're better off “negotiating reduction in other taxes and then have some sort of increase in the gas tax.”

When asked if it were up to him, would he vote for the gas tax, Bramnick said “I don't want to vote for any taxes.” But Bramnick went on to say that when the head man in NJ votes for it, opinions tend to change. Bramnick stated “when Chris Christie himself who's an anti-tax conservative considers this proposal, it's the real deal.”

When asked for his best Christie joke, Bramnick recalled one time at the Stress Factory when Christie was running for President, he said "the governor couldn't be here tonight, he was scheduled in the wrong place...New Jersey.”

Try the veal.

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