This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated February 26, 2021
President Biden’s much needed COVID relief bill should be passed within a few weeks with little or no Republican support. The GOP is already criticizing a lack of bipartisanship, but this legislation has broad support from the American public. Polls show that less than a quarter of Americans oppose it.
Opposing policy with support across the spectrum of American society is nothing new for the GOP. Within weeks of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, reasonable gun safety legislation supported by nine in ten Americans did not pass when Republicans stood with the gun lobby and killed it.
This time, the GOP says that a primary reason they oppose the COVID relief bill is aid to state and local governments. The left and the right have always debated how much the government should spend, but with drastically less money coming in, our city and state will struggle just to fund essential services everyone agrees we need.
For the past decade-and-a-half, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been a central figure in defeating bills with bipartisanship support amongst Americans. On his official government website, McConnell uses the term “Blue state bailouts,” which has become a rallying cry for Republicans, but his McConnell’s home state of Kentucky has consistently been one of the biggest takers when comparing how much money it receives from the federal government to how much it sends. For the average New Yorker, we send over $1,000 more than we get back, but Kentuckians receive over $10,000 more per person than they send.
New York contributes more revenue to the federal budget than any state, with neighboring New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut taking the second through fourth spots. Of the eight states that send more money to the federal government than they receive in return, the top six are blue states. The idea that blue states are takers is ludicrous.
Over the past several years, the net federal funding for New York has been as high as -$1,792 per resident. In Texas, that figure is +$304 per resident. While New York has sent over $20 billion more than they have received each of the past six years, Texas typically winds up netting over $8 billion in that exchange.
“In 2016, Cruz derided “New York values,” as if the term were an insult.”
If you saw your taxes go up here in New York after the Trump/GOP tax bill of 2019 eliminated your ability to deduct state and local taxes from your federal return, you can thank Texas for that. The measure was spearheaded by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), who chaired the House Ways and Means Committee at the time, to compensate for huge tax breaks for upper-income brackets and corporations.
Texas is in a bad place right now, after huge swaths of the state lost power, heat, and water. Texans desperately need federal aid. Despite the fact their Republican-controlled government eliminated energy regulations that allowed providers to save money by not cold-proofing their facilities and isolating it from the country’s other major power grids, the federal government will bail Texas out.
Both Texas Senators have demanded aid for their state, as they did after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. However, when New York was in need after Superstorm Sandy, they each voted against sending any assistance to blue states in the northeast.
After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was caught escaping his home state for the Ritz Carlton in Cancun, he lied about why he had flown there, then admitted his lie once it had been exposed. The conservative contention has been that there is nothing a Senator can do in such a crisis but being a member of Congress is more than picking fights on Twitter.
Cruz has frequently sparred with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) via tweet recently, but while he was jetting off to a swanky resort, she raised millions of dollars that is helping Texans right now. Cruz’s democratic opponent in 2018, Beto O’Rourke, organized over a million wellness calls to Texas seniors.
In 2016, Cruz derided “New York values,” as if the term were an insult. Between AOC’s efforts and Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) soon ensuring aid is headed to Texas, it is clear New York values everyone, regardless of whether your state is red or blue, unlike Cruz.
