NJ Gov. Christie: Unions Won't 'Get Their Way' All the Time

Gov. Chris Christie rebuts critics who contend that he’s trying to bust public-employee unions, but he notes with his characteristic bluntness: “They’re not gonna always get their way, all the time.”

The Republican New Jersey governor, who just completed a deal with The Garden State's Democratic Legislature on a bill that decreases benefits to unionized public employees, said during an interview with Politico that opponents are twisting the idea behind his bill’s four-year suspension of collective bargaining on healthcare.

“This whole idea that we’re taking away collective bargaining is just false,” Christie told Politico. “What we’re doing is setting the bar to a new normal.

“I think the future of public sector unions is still going to be important players in what happens as we move forward . . . but what we changed in New Jersey is, they’re not gonna always get their way, all the time.”

As for the fact that his name keeps popping to the top of some Republicans’ presidential candidate wish lists, Christie said with a chuckle: “Is it appealing to have people say to you, ‘We believe you’re the best person to be president of the United States and leader of the free world?’ Yeah that’s pretty good.”

But “you don’t run for president because the opportunity is there,” Politico quotes him as saying. “I would never run for president saying, ‘I think I can win, I hope I’m ready.’ I want to say, ‘I know I’m ready, I hope I can win.’ So until I can say that, I have no business asking anyone to vote for me for president.”