Sen. Prez Sweeney unloads on Gov. Murphy

Now Murphy is claiming there won't be a government shutdown next week and even said budget talks are going well.

Really?

Maybe there won't be a shutdown, but the anger and tension between the governor and the senate president doesn't seem like it could get much worse. After Murphy mouthed off about fellow Democrats in the legislature and questioning what 'side' they were on, Senate President Steve Sweeney let loose with both barrels.

Sweeney said Murphy “is starting to resemble Donald Trump in bombast, inconsistency and unreliability.”
“The governor is repeating himself with a series of misguided and misinformed tantrums in an attempt to distract attention from his legislative and policy failures. His statements have been inconsistent on the facts, but they have become consistently wrong. I want to be clear in stating that when it comes to recognizing which side I am on, I am on the side of the taxpayers of New Jersey and our hard working middle class families who want public officials to actually take their side, not just repeat empty rhetoric."

Sweeney added “the Legislature and the working people throughout the state” will work to make New Jersey better – “with or without the governor’s participation.”

Then there was this. The knockout punch.

“The reality is, Phil Murphy has no real agenda, no realistic plans to fix what is wrong in New Jersey, and no idea how to address the property tax crisis, the state’s most demanding problem,” Sweeney said. “And when it comes to choosing sides, Gov. Murphy is more beholden to selfish, special-interest groups such as the leadership of the NJEA and CWA than to everyday working people.”

Wow. That's as close to a declaration of political war as I've heard. These two are going to come to terms on a budget? Stay tuned.

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