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As if New York City residents haven’t already faced the worst of it, being at the very epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city is threatening to hold them hostage in the quest for a federal bailout.
In what smacks as a not-so-subtle appeal for a bailout, Mayor Bill de Blasio appeared on CNN Wednesday to say that he’ll have to start furloughing or laying off essential municipal employees if the city doesn’t receive federal stimulus money to fill budget gaps caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
And when he says “essential,” he’s talking first responders and health care workers.
“Right now what I’m staring down the barrel of, and cities and states all over the country, people are either acting on furloughs and layoffs or preparing for furloughs or layoffs of the exact people who have been the heroes in this crisis who we should be celebrating and supporting — first responders, the health care workers, the educators,” de Blasio said on “New Day.”
The radical left mayor called for a fourth federal stimulus package to provide funding to cities and states.
“What we need is a stimulus that puts us all back on our feet so we can succeed together,” de Blasio proclaimed. “If there is not a strong fourth stimulus for cities and state, there will not be a national economic recovery, period.”
“I’ve lost $7.4 billion already,” he said, “and my economy can’t come back until I get that stimulus and get back to normal and provide the basic services. It’s a Catch-22. No stimulus, no recovery.”
Naturally, de Blasio put the onus on President Trump, who he accused of politicizing the crisis, as ironic as that may be.
“It’s astounding that [Trump] even introduces the question of red states and blue states. He’s saying it out loud. He’s politicizing a pandemic. Not being patriotic, not talking about all Americans and how to bring us back together,” de Blasio said.
As for reopening the city and getting its economy going again, de Blasio declares that the Big Apple is not close to letting up on coronavirus-related guidelines.
“We’re still not there yet to even begin to loosen up the restrictions,” the mayor said.
Last week, Trump said sanctuary city policies would have to be a factor in a possible fourth stimulus package, as would payroll tax cuts.
He said he was “open” to discussing a federal bailout, but cited fairness to other states to say it would “have to be COVID related, not related to mismanagement over a long period of time.”
“I think there’s a big difference with a state that lost money because of COVID and a state that’s been run very badly for 25 years,” Trump said. “There’s a big difference, in my opinion. And you know, we’d have to talk about things like payroll tax cuts. We’d have to talk about things like sanctuary cities, as an example. I think sanctuary cities is something that has to be brought up where people who are criminals are protected, they are protected from prosecution.”
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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