NY Gov. Cuomo: McConnell State Bankruptcy Pitch ‘Offensive’ — Petty Partisanship

Wednesday on CNN, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for saying states struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic should declare bankruptcy instead of getting a federal bailout.

Cuomo said, “One of the dumbest statements of all time. Mitch McConnell, they’re talking about bringing back the economy, and then he says states should declare bankruptcy. How does that help the national economy? And he then says this is a bailout to the blue states, which is a really offensive statement. What he’s saying is the blue states are the states that have the coronavirus problem. Why? Because the coronavirus problem is basically a function of density, and urban areas have more density, and those are cities and cities are blue. They are Democrats. So why should he bail out the blue areas? I mean, it really is offensive. You talk about one issue where you think you can get past partisanship and pettiness and now you talk about helping communities where people are dying and you say they are blue states? No. The coronavirus attacks Republicans and it attacks Democrats. It doesn’t ask someone, are you a Republican, or are you a Democrat.”

He added, “Normally in emergencies, Chris, this is the one time when you saw the federal government put the politics aside. A state has a hurricane, and the state had a flood, and they got federal funding because you didn’t play politics with that. McConnell is the exact opposite, and that’s why I said all along they should have insisted that the state funding be in this bill, and when they signed this bill, they passed this bill, which is small business. They took care of airlines and they took care of all these industries. If you don’t do state and local government, by the way, that’s police, that’s fire, that’s teachers, that’s schools. You’re not going to fund those areas, and you’re not going to fund the states which are the governors who are doing all of the reopening. I mean, it’s so politically repugnant. How am I supposed to reopen if you want me to declare bankruptcy? I mean, it makes no sense on any level.”

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