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And no, he's not talking about a salad bar!
Don't you just love this? We're in the middle of a depression and Chris Christie is begging Congress not to send his state more money. (Because it wouldn't give him the excuse he needs to break the unions and steal their pensions, and it won't help the Republicans destroy Medicaid):

Gov. Christie on Sunday urged Republicans in Congress not to "paper over" the problems facing deficit-racked U.S. states with an additional round of stimulus spending.

Christie, a Republican entering his second year in office, said in an interview on Fox News Sunday that he had asked federal lawmakers not to approve additional money. Christie said states must cope with the expiration next year of funding under the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

"It's time to make some tough decisions," he said. "It's time for us to belly up to the bar and make the tough decisions."

Christie's comments come as 40 states have projected deficits that may reach $140 billion in the 2012 fiscal year, according to a December report from the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. President Obama's stimulus bill contained $140 billion to help states cope with the recession.

Christie has warned of cuts to New Jersey's Medicaid program as it faces a $1.4 billion deficit because of the loss of $900 million from the federal government and the requirement to maintain services at levels mandated by the United States.

The state's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services projected Christie may face a deficit of $10.5 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1, equivalent to more than a third of the current budget. Christie last year closed a $10.7 billion gap in part by skipping a $3 billion pension payment and cutting $1.3 billion in aid to schools and cities.

You really can't blame them for not listening. After all, the U.S. is caught up in deficit fever, too - a cyclical illness that occurs only when we have a Democratic president or Democratic control of the House. The only thing that worries the Villagers is when the government spends money on the people who gave it to them:

TORONTO -- President Obama warned Sunday that the world economic recovery remains "fragile" and urged continued spending to support growth, an expansionist call at the end of a summit marked by an agreement among developed nations to halve their annual deficits within three years.

The president's remarks tempered the Group of 20's headline achievement at the summit, a deficit-reduction target that had been pushed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the host of the meeting and a fiscal conservative. Although there is broad agreement that government debt in the developed world needs to be reduced, there is concern that cutting too fast and too deeply will slow growth and possibly spark a new recession.

In a news conference at the meeting's conclusion, Obama said that the world's largest economic powers had agreed on the need for "continued growth in the short term and fiscal sustainability in the medium term."

"A number of our European partners are making difficult decisions," Obama said. "But we must recognize that our fiscal health tomorrow will rest in no small measure on our ability to create jobs and growth today."

The group's closing statement included the specific deficit-reduction target, but it was couched in caveats -- that deficit reduction needed to be "calibrated" to avoid harming growth, paced differently in each country and paired with other reforms to strengthen the economy.

Obama and European leaders, in particular, came to the meeting with sharply different views of the strength of the global economic recovery, with the U.S. president more pessimistic. The declaration, in the works for weeks, gave each side what it wanted, although the specific deadlines went further than the Obama administration had preferred before the meeting.

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The Times is obviously trying to jump-start the political process that makes our elected representatives so reluctant to go back and ask for more badly-need stimulus spending from the federal government:

The unemployment rate includes only jobless people who have looked for work in the past four weeks. The underemployment rate — which also includes jobless workers who have not recently looked for work and part-timers who need full-time work — reached 17.5 percent in October. And the long-term unemployment rate — the share of the unemployed population out of work for more than six months — also continues to set records. It is now 35.6 percent.

The official job-loss data also fail to take note of 2.8 million additional jobs needed to absorb new workers who have joined the labor force during the recession. When those missing jobs are added to the official total, the economy comes up short by 10.1 million jobs.

Taken together, the numbers paint this stark picture: At no time in post-World War II America has it been more difficult to find a job, to plan for the future, or — for tens of millions of Americans — to merely get by.

At a recent meeting at the White House to discuss job creation, President Obama said that “bold, innovative action,” would be needed — from the administration, Congress and the private sector — to undo the devastation in the labor market. Americans are waiting for Mr. Obama to lead the way.

There were good ideas floated at the White House meeting, including bolstered federal support for efforts to retrofit and weatherize homes and public buildings. There was also talk of using government money to establishing a so-called infrastructure bank that would issue bonds to help finance big construction projects.

The country also needs a program that would create jobs for teenagers — ages 16 to 19 — whose unemployment rate is currently a record 27.6 percent. Deep and prolonged unemployment among the young is especially worrisome. It means they do not have a chance, and may never get the chance, to acquire needed skills, permanently hobbling their earnings potential.

We know that more stimulus spending and government programs are a fraught topic. But they are exactly what the country needs. It may be the only way to prevent a renewed downturn. And the only way to create the jobs needed to put Americans back to work. Those are the essential — and missing — ingredients of a sustained recovery.