His Policy Statement is Cause for Removal from
Office
(The sooner the better)
Story from here: New York State
Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY)
took a portion of his daily coronavirus press
briefing on Thursday (April 232) to blast GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and
his suggestion that struggling states and cities should go bankrupt rather than
seek more Federal assistance in any more relief bills, saying in part: “If
there was ever a time to stop your obsessive political bias and anger, which is
what it’s morphed into … now is the time. And you want to divide this nation
now – with all that’s going on? How irresponsible, and how reckless.” He
continued saying McConnell’s comments were “vicious” he called the idea that
states should just declare bankruptcy one of the “really dumb ideas of all
time,” noting that state and local money is used to pay the salaries of first
responders, teachers, and schools, concluding: “What he’s saying is, if you
look at the states that have coronavirus problems, they tend to be Democratic
states like New York, California, Michigan, and Illinois. They are Democratic
states. So if you fund states that are suffering from the coronavirus, they are
Democratic states. Don’t help New York State because it is a Democratic state.
How ugly a thought? Just think of what he’s saying: People die – 15,000 people
died in New York, but they were predominantly Democrats – … so why should we
help them? I mean, for crying out, if the was ever a time for you to put aside
your pettiness and your partisanship and this political lens that you see the
world through – Democrat and Republican, and we help Republicans but we don’t
help Democrats, that’s not who we are. It’s just not who we are as a people.”
McConnell’s
office referred to the notion of federal assistance as “blue state bailouts” in
a press release. Then on the Hugh Hewitt radio show on Wednesday (April 22,
McConnell originally said: “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to
use the bankruptcy route. It saves
some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to be available. My guess is
their first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from
future generations to send it down to them now so they don’t have to do that.
That’s not something I’m going to be in favor of. There’s not going to be any
desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money
from future generations.”
State and
local funding is not included in the latest coronavirus relief package,
which includes hundreds of billions to replenish a small business loan program
as well as more money for hospitals and testing. The $484 billion legislation
is expected to pass the House on Thursday (April 23) and to be signed later in
the day by President Trump.
Gov. Cuomo went
on to suggest that it was a mistake not to include money for state and local
governments in the package, but House and Senate Democratic leaders said that
they will now turn to pressing for such relief in the next coronavirus
legislation.
Cuomo said
about that: “How do you not fund police and fire and teachers and schools in
the midst of this crisis?” And he objected to the idea that the relief to
states would be a blue state bailout,” adding: “McConnell represents the state
of Kentucky, OK? When it comes to fairness, New York State puts much more money
into the federal pot than it takes out? At the end of the year, we put into
that federal pot $166 billion more than we take out? His state, the state of
Kentucky, takes out a billion more than they put in. So he’s a federal
legislator, he’s distributing the federal of money. New York puts in more money
to the federal pot than it takes out; his state takes out more than it puts in.
Senator McConnell. Who’s getting bailed out here? It’s your state
that is living on the money that we generate. Your state is getting
bailed out, not my state.”
McConnell’s
comments also triggered some outrage among Republicans. Rep. Peter King
(R-NY) sharply criticized McConnell, calling him the “Marie
Antoinette of the Senate.”
Other
prominent Republicans expressed agreement with McConnell’s remarks. Nikki
Haley, the former governor of SC wrote on Twitter:
“States should always plan
for a rainy day just like any business. I disagree that states should take Fed
money or be bailed out. This will lead to taxpayers paying for mismanagement of
poorly run states. States need to tighten up, make some cuts, and manage.”
The B/L: States,
unlike the Federal government must balance their budgets each year even as states
have faced shortfalls in previous recessions, and they have often done so
through a combination of layoffs and budget cuts, tax increases and new bond
issues.
My 2 cents: I stand by my topic heading that McConnell
should either resign or be expelled from the Senate and ASAP would be just fine
… what a horrible policy statement for him to make at this terrible time in our
history as we face this world-wide crisis.
McConnell really does need to leave the Senate.
Thanks for stopping by.
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