Tired of Hearing About...

Back to Blunt: Christie ‘Tired of Hearing About’ Minimum Wage

By Nick Corasaniti

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, taking a short break from his national tour to help elect Republican governors, reverted to his blunt style in a speech in Washington on Tuesday, offering a fiercer and more partisan perspective than he has on behalf of others.

On the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Christie said: “It doesn’t work. It’s a fiction. It doesn’t work, and it should be repealed.” He added that it was up to Republicans to offer an alternative.

Mr. Christie, who heads the Republican Governors Association, also said he was “tired of hearing about the minimum wage,” saying, “I don’t think there is a mother or father sitting around a kitchen table tonight in America who are saying, ‘You know, honey, if my son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, all our dreams would be realized.’ ”

The governor also took a shot at teachers’ unions, which he has battled frequently in his home state. “We are saps for the teachers’ union,” he said. “It’s time to start offending them.”

The speech was delivered during a lunch of steak, potatoes and sea bass at an all-day event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Christie was careful to aim his jokes at himself, including one about how he’s able to get things done. “Sometimes it’s by my charm and good looks,” he said. “Sometimes it’s by taking someone out and giving them a beating.”

Of course, the topic of Mr. Christie’s potential candidacy for president in 2016 came up. Thomas J. Donohue, the chamber’s president, introduced the governor by rattling off the similarities between himself and Mr. Christie, like their Irish and legal backgrounds.

One key difference, Mr. Donohue noted, was that he himself had made up his mind that he was “definitely not running for the president of the United States.”

Mr. Christie then took the podium.

“Well, that’s the announcement of the afternoon,” he said. “Donohue’s out. One down, a few more to go.”