Gov. Chris Christie said the country is becoming a "paternalistic entitlement society" this morning in a speech at a conservative conference headed by former President George W. Bush.
Addressing Bush and other national Republicans, Christie said he hasn't seen a less optimistic period in the country in his lifetime.
"Government's telling them stop dreaming, stop striving, we'll take care of you," he said at a theater at the New York Historical Society. "We're turning into a paternalistic entitlement society. That will not just bankrupt us financially, it will bankrupt us morally."
"We'll have a bunch of people sitting on a couch waiting for their next government check," Christie said.
Christie and Bush kicked off a day-long conference on pro-growth tax policy run by the President George W. Bush Institute, a group that Bush said allows him to engage in public policy issues behind the scenes.
