Chris Christie: 2% doesn’t taste the same. (Image by Luigi Novi.)

The most ridiculous moment from Chris Christie’s tone-deaf, masturbatory Keynote Address last night was his assertion that Mitt Romney will tell America “hard truths.” Romney has done absolutely the opposite during this campaign, pledging tax cuts for the wealthiest, a return to a Cold War military budget and yet a reduction in the budget. 

What Christie really is saying is the usual right-wing, supply-side nonsense: Unions, working-class people, seniors and poor people have to sacrifice more while the wealthiest will get larger tax breaks. The pain will not be evenly distributed. I would put aside the unfairness of such an arrangement if it actually worked, but it doesn’t. Nothing trickles down.

If you truly want to help impoverished people, there’s a blueprint. Don’t take away their Medicaid and food stamps. Don’t treat them like they’re evil. Start to replicate in other locations what Geoffrey Canada has done with the Harlem Children’s Zone and make a real investment in those born to poverty. The program works, but it requires work and money across generations. That’s the hard truth.

But it’s easier to be a fake tough guy spouting lies, asking the vulnerable to tighten their belts. And this coming from a guy who won’t even give up whole milk.•