NJ Senator on Transportation, Opioids and Physician Shortage

Steve Adubato sits down with Sen. Bob Singer (R) – NJ, 30th Legislative District, who shares his top priorities for 2019 and explores issues facing New Jersey including: transportation, the opioid crisis and the medical professional shortage.

1/26/19 #233

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"We're pleased to be joined by someone who's been a longtime friend of the show. He's Senator Bob Singer from the 30th Legislative District, which is where Senator? Ocean and Monmouth County. You know, I have a Summer place, we hang out in Lavallette. Is that yours? No but close to it. Because if I have an issue I can't call you? No you can't... well you can call me anywhere. You know that. Senator singer, let's talk about a whole range of issues. The number one, fiscal policy in the state. Senate President Steve Sweeney gets a group together to look at expenses in the state reduces... the need to reduce costs. Where is he right? And where is he wrong? Well he's right on the money. We've got to talk about healthcare for all government employees. We're going broke. We've got to talk about pension for government employees. We're going broke. We've got to talk about municipalities, just spending too much money because of duplication of services from both the county level and the local level. He is 100 percent right. The problem is no one wants to talk about it. But Senator you're... excuse me, respectfully you're a Republican, he's a Democrat, you're saying you're agreeing across the board. Why isn't there bipartisan cooperation across the board just to get some of these things done? Well first of all there is to some extent, but his own party's got problems. You know, the governor is aligned with the unions. The unions don't want to talk about this. Some of these fellow Democrats. Excuse me, respectfully, is that fair to say? We just were interviewing the folks at the NJEA, they happen to be one of the underwriters of what we do, and they said, "Listen, we gave back in 2011. We sacrificed." There was health reform, healthcare reform, in terms of our health benefits. There was pension reform. We gave then. We're willing to talk. You say that they don't really want to do it, and then also the Communication Workers of America, are you saying they really don't want to do this? They don't want to tell the troops that there's a problem. So by saying, "We really did our bit, we did everything we had to do, it's okay," it's not okay. We are going broke and everybody keeps thinking no matter what happens, they're still gonna get their healthcare, they're still gonna get their pension. If the state goes broke, they won't. Sweeney wants to fix it now, and I don't agree with all the ways he may want to do it, but one thing he's talking about that is absolutely very very true, we have the..."