It looks like Zohran Mamdani has already run out of other people’s money. The unapologetic socialist mayor-elect in New York City has yet to set foot in City Hall, and already his signature proposals are being kicked to the curb by his own political allies. That’s not a good sign for Mamdani, whose socialist wish list collides headfirst with fiscal reality.
When Gov. Kathy Hochul stood on a stage in Puerto Rico this weekend, she didn’t sound like the cheerleader who only days earlier had endorsed Mamdani’s victory. Instead, she turned into the voice of cold arithmetic, declaring there’s simply no money to fund his plan for free bus service across New York City. “I cannot set forth a plan right now that takes money out of a system that relies on the fares of the buses and the subways,” she said.
That’s politician-speak for “It’s not happening.”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which Hochul oversees, depends heavily on fare revenue to survive. Mamdani’s dream of taking fares to zero isn’t just a matter of social justice slogans—it’s a math problem. The MTA ran a limited experiment in 2023, offering one free bus per borough, but even that pilot raised plenty of internal skepticism. Now, with the state running a growing deficit, the idea of free rides seems dead on arrival.
And Hochul made sure to point out it isn’t just free transit that’s on the chopping block. Universal child care, another plank in Mamdani’s campaign platform, is already morphing from lofty promise into a phased “we’ll get there eventually” talking point. The governor told Politico that while a phased approach might someday make the idea feasible, it can’t happen under current conditions. In plain English, New York taxpayers can’t afford Mamdani’s dream agenda, and all those promises of free this and free that, well, Mamdani voters should prepare to be disappointed.
The irony is delicious. Hochul backed Mamdani’s mayoral bid, hugging his brand of Democratic socialism when it suited her politically. But now that the election is over, she’s putting a firm hand on the purse strings. Mamdani didn’t even reciprocate the endorsement—yet Hochul went all-in for him. Now she’s walking it all back, warning that the state is already $3 billion in the hole. “Our ambitions are big, and I believe in them, and I want to accomplish them,” Hochul said. “We also have to figure out — now I’m in the hole $3 billion already on Medicaid cuts.” Then, as always, she found a Republican to blame, claiming the state’s woes stem from federal funding cuts under the Trump administration.
I guess living within your means is a concept that Democrats don’t understand.
Let that sink in. We’ve got a governor lamenting the aftermath of her own mismanagement while blaming Washington for the state’s massive spending gap, and a socialist mayor-elect pushing fantasyland policies as if budgets grow on trees. The clash was destined to happen. What’s surprising is how quickly the cracks are showing.
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Hochul’s excuses have begun stacking up. On one hand, she talks about affordability and finding “a path to make it more affordable for people who need help.” On the other hand, she admits there’s no path to make Mamdani’s proposals a reality anytime soon. It’s the same dance we’ve seen time and time again: pander to the base before the election, then plead poverty after.
Mamdani’s experiment with utopian economics is already collapsing under its own weight, and he hasn’t even taken office. Every socialist plan eventually meets the same wall: the bill comes due, and the math doesn’t care about ideology. New Yorkers will soon learn that “free” is the most expensive word in politics. When the dust settles, Mamdani won’t just expose himself—he’ll remind everyone that socialism doesn’t fail by chance. It fails because it can’t work any other way.
