Commie Zohran Mamdani ran for mayor of New York City by promising excessive amounts of “free” giveaways, from housing to transportation to grocery stores. Instead, under his leadership, housing, transportation, and groceries are more expensive than ever. It’s the classic socialist cycle.

Of course, there is no such thing this side of heaven as “free” anything. To adapt a line from The Princess Bride, anyone who promises you differently is selling something. Often, communists come to power by appealing to real or imagined grievances and swearing that once they’re in control, magically everyone will have all the necessities and comforts and financial security that he or she craves. Then, once the Commies are in power, they take whatever they can get for themselves, do a little bit of redistribution (with an emphasis on impoverishing those they dislike), and leave most people to deal with the consequences of both the previous problems and new ones.

Related: 'Russia Collusion' John Brennan’s Son Arrested for Creepy Child Exploitation Materials

In 2024, the N.Y.C. Metropolitan Transit Authority discovered that a huge reason for its burgeoning financial disaster was that about 50% of bus riders in New York City were not paying fares. Mamdani, then an assemblyman representing Queens, promptly insisted that the only reason people would evade fares was that they were unavoidably incapable of paying, and he proposed that MTA make the buses completely free, borrowing money from the city (that is, taxpayers) to do so.

“That's about $800 million a year, which may sound like a lot of money, and it is substantial, but in the context of a city budget that's north of $100 billion and a state budget that's north of $220 billion, this is just pennies,” Mamdani grandly declared. By the way, at the time, New York City was staring down a budget gap of about $12.6 billion.

Recommended
The Boy Who Cried Wolf Runs Washington Now Maureen Steele How JD Vance Charlie Sheen’ed His Career — and Why the 2028 GOP Race Is Now Wide Open Scott Pinsker

Well, now that Mamdani presumably has the power to implement his plan, he isn’t doing anything of the sort. Under his watch, MTA is hiking prices.

The transit agency plans to jack up fares in March 2027 as part of a push to boost fare and toll revenue by 4%. A matching increase in the $3 fare would bring it to $3.12 — though the agency hasn’t proposed a specific new subway and bus fare, and the hike still needs board approval.

News of the possible hike comes as a new survey by the Community Service Society, an anti-poverty nonprofit, shows that some 20% of riders say they can’t afford the fare. Also, nearly 3 in 10 say that, despite their struggles to pay, they earn too much to qualify for the city’s half-price Fair Fares program, the report said.

The problem is not that too few people are subsidized; it’s that government programs and regulations have made the cost of living egregious in New York. Mamdani lied, but he also supports exactly the sort of programs and regulations that make life so expensive.