As in many major cities in the U..S run by Democrats, you have to be fabulously rich or wretchedly poor to live in New York City. Either you have the money to live in the rent-controlled, gentrified neighborhoods or you need government assistance.
If I lived in the Big Apple and were rich, I’d start looking at properties in Connecticut.
Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced the most ambitious health care plan in America, covering the 600,000 New Yorkers who don’t have health insurance — including illegal aliens. How will the city pay for it? Bill is a little fuzzy on the details but he made it pretty clear where his thinking lies.
Tapper opened the segment by quoting Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum — who had proposed a similar plan for his state, but noted that unless other states joined the program, it would be financially impossible. “He was saying in Florida they could do it only if other states joined him because otherwise, all sick people would just come to Florida,” Tapper explained.
“What’s to stop sick people from flocking to New York and overburdening the system?”
De Blasio shrugged off the question, saying, “I don’t see that happening.”
Of course he doesn’t see it. Liberals never see any negative consequences from their schemes. You should read how the debate unfolded in the 1960s about Medicare. What could go wrong?
That said, de Blasio daydreams about how to fund his fantastical health care program by taking money from people he thinks don’t deserve it.
Tapper pressed de Blasio further, referencing an earlier quote from the mayor. “You said something pretty radical this week that I want to ask you about. You said there’s plenty of money in the world. There’s plenty of money in the city. It’s just in the wrong hands.”
De Blasio nodded, “Yep. That is a quote.”
“Who decides whose hands are the right hands and whose hands are the wrong hands?” Tapper asked.
“When I say there’s plenty of money in this country, it’s just in the wrong hands, it means to say we need policies that give back to working people. Like guaranteeing health care for all,” de Blasio explained.
“What’s interesting about the argument, which struck a lot of people, is you are not talking about fairness,” Tapper continued. “You are saying these people have money and it’s wrong that they have money. Not that they have money, they live exorbitant or wealthy lifestyles and can give more to help these people. You’re saying it’s wrong they have money. Who is deciding whether it’s wrong?”
Well, Jake, that would be Mayor de Blasio who decides. He doesn’t have a clue how wealth is created:
“It’s clear to me why it’s wrong because government policies gave the 1 percent every conceivable leg up. This was not by accident. As I say, this was an agenda. Systematic. You go back decades, even to the time of Dwight Eisenhower. We had some of the highest tax rates on the wealthy this country ever saw. We had a prosperous country. We had that prosperity pretty well shared among different people, including working people in this country. We had investments in infrastructure. The kinds of things that grew the economy for everyone.”
That prosperity was a direct result of the fact that the U.S. was the only major industrialized economy that wasn’t flattened by World War II. A decade after Eisenhower’s golden age, Europe and Japan had recovered enough to begin to challenge our economic supremacy. Our immense prosperity was not due to tax rates on the wealthy — something any first year business major could tell hizzoner. Perhaps he should hire one.
When former French President Francois Hollande introduced a 75% tax on high incomes, rich people not only left the country in droves, but they went to great lengths to avoid paying it. De Blasio may think that the “wrong people” have the money, but he doesn’t realize he’s the wrong person to try and take it.
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