The current mayor of New York has told President Donald Trump to stuff it a number of times during the coronavirus pandemic, choosing “federalism” over “interference” because ‘state’s rights’ and the Tenth Amendment and all that.
As the New York Post reported March 20, de Blasio told that paragon of misinformation, propaganda and fake news, MSNBC, Trump was “not acting like a commander-in-chief because he doesn’t know how. He should get the hell out of the way.”
De Blasio was doing what he’s done throughout the pandemic: Complain, point fingers of blame elsewhere, and take no responsibility for his own administration’s failures to prepare for the possibility that a pandemic could someday strike the country’s largest city and the financial center of the world.
At the time, de Blasio was facing intense criticism for being indecisive himself, the Post noted. And why not? On March 3 he was on Twitter “encouraging New Yorkers” to go on with their lives and to pay little attention to the Coronavirus Man behind the curtain.
Not long after, he was panicked and started blaming his own failures on the president. That hasn’t changed much.
Now, however, he wants something more from the federal government: Tax dollars. And a lot of them.
As the Washington Times reports:
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday said President Trump is “not doing anything” to help the city get back on its feet financially amid the coronavirus pandemic.
He said his city will spend roughly $3.5 billion on unanticipated health efforts this year.
“[The] federal government is not saying, we’re going to make you whole for that extraordinary effort,” he complained to virtually no one — because he was on MSNBC again.
“My budget, I just announced, we’ve lost over $7 billion in revenue. Right now, Donald Trump is not doing anything to help my city back on its feet,” he continued.
“How am I going to pay for basic services? How am I going to pay for first responders? How am I going to have a restart of my economy if my city is going broke?”
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That is unbelievable; why, exactly, is any of this President Trump’s problem? And what happened to ‘getting Donald Trump out of the way’?
There is an argument to be made that, as president, Trump does indeed have authority to order states to reopen. Some constitutional scholars including talk radio giant and lawyer Mark Levin believe presidents have such authority under the interstate commerce clause.
But beyond that, the president certainly has that power to attach strings to any federal funding states (and cities) decide on their own to take (they are under no obligation to take a dime in federal money, however, if they do, shouldn’t taxpayers get something for it — like a pledge to reopen sooner rather than later?).
It gets worse. De Blasio’s pleading of poverty and demands for federal help come as he ordered ‘non-essential’ public events canceled through June, though he has no idea at this point what the coronavirus situation will be in his city by then (infection rates are already falling, as our deaths).
This guy de Blasio is a chump. He didn’t prepare for a pandemic, then told his citizens not to worry about it when it hit, then tells Trump to get out of the way, then demands that the federal government and Trump in particular pay for his decisions.
It’s time for the president to tell de Blasio to stuff it for a change.
