New Yorkers, hold onto your wallets, and brace yourselves for financial chaos.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s minions, also known as the Democratic Socialists of America, are preparing to radicalize the state Legislature when they take their newly won seats in Albany at the end of the year.
How crazy will it get? One warning sign appeared on Friday, when Brian Romero, a DSA member endorsed by Mamdani, put up a GoFundMe page to raise money for his own rent and food expenses until January, when he’ll get sworn in as the assemblymember representing East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Astoria and other parts of Queens.
Romero won the Democratic primary in June, and since he has no Republican opponent, he’s a shoo-in. But he can’t start collecting his $142,000 salary and $203 daily per diem until the end of the year. And he says he can’t figure out how to support himself in the meantime.
Beggar Boy Brian calls it a “challenging time.”
“I’m trying to find sort of some gigs, but I don’t know how other folks do it,” he said.
“Other folks” meaning those of us who go out and get a job to pay our bills.
After being questioned by the New York Post, he took the page down.
Romero earned $106,469 as a legislative staff member before resigning in March to run for office. He says he ran through his savings.
Voters are entrusting him with billions of dollars in taxpayer money and the financial management of the state?
Romero’s political platform includes a pie-in-the-sky list of government giveaways: universal child care, free legal services for all immigrants, and much more — all paid for by making the wealthy “pay their fair share.” It’s the DSA agenda, but you could call it the freeloader or panhandler’s agenda. He’s a living, breathing poster boy for it.
He’s one of eight New York City DSA members who swept to victory against moderates in the June Democratic primary. “It’s a hostile takeover by the Democratic Socialists of America, who have demonstrated that they have the organization to win primaries where there is no voter turnout,” J.C. Polanco, a professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx, explained. Turnout was a meager 17%. “They’ve taken over the party locally.”
DSA victors also include Mamdani-endorsed state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, a Palestinian American avowed socialist promising “transformative change.”
Believe her.
“For generations, workers have been stuck with a Democratic party establishment selling us out to billionaires, landlords, and warmongers,” said Gustavo Gordillo, NYC-DSA co-chair, in a DSA press release.
DSA legislators punch above their weight class, so although they will still be few in number compared with more moderate Democrats — 16 in all, with four in the state Senate and 12 in the state Assembly — the impact will be large. History shows they vote as a disciplined bloc and can intimidate more moderate Democrats by threatening to wage a primary manned with thousands of volunteers.
Tax hikes are at the top of their agenda.
“We brought the fight to Hochul to tax the rich last session, when we had only nine socialists in the State Legislature,” Gordillo said. “This cycle, our forces will be almost doubled, and there’s a whole new crew of progressive legislators who are going to demand what New Yorkers want, which is for Hochul to tax the rich.”
The DSA agenda — high taxes, ever-expanding giveaways, utopian accounting — would bankrupt the state.
Excessive taxes have already helped push the state into economic decline. The formerly great Empire State now ranks 50th out of 50 states in economic outlook, according to the Tax Foundation and the ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index. Dead last.
On June 11, shortly after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature finalized this year’s state budget, the Citizens Budget Commission warned that the state is already in precarious financial condition due to excessive spending and could face “serious service cuts in the future even without a recession.”
Clearly the New York voters who decided to send DSA members to Albany as their representatives are not heeding these warnings.
Jay Jacobs, chair of the state Democratic Party, laments that Mamdani’s army is taking out moderate Democrats citywide, turning the party into the red brigade. But where are Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, the party’s so-called leaders? Cowering, speechless.
And where is the Republican Party? Romero’s waltzing to Albany without having to face an opponent in November’s general election, because the Republican Party didn’t recruit a candidate to compete for the seat. That’s the case in 44 of the 150 state Assembly seats being filled this year. It’s demoralizing for Republican voters to turn out to vote and see their party has no candidate on the ballot.
Romero’s embarrassing personal choice — resorting to panhandling instead of earning a living — is a warning of the threat ahead. Those able to vote against these DSA radicals need to turn out in November.
Most important, they need to elect a Republican, Bruce Blakeman, as governor. Hochul has shown no backbone to resist Mamdani’s radicalism. A vote for Hochul is a vote for the DSA and the state’s financial ruin.
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at www.hospitalinfection.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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