New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo is criticizing Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to allow the federal government to help states struggling under the weight of millions if not billions of dollars of unexpected coronavirus spending while seeing their revenues drastically contract.
Gov. Cuomo called McConnell’s desire to withhold aid from states, because states that need the help the most are largely blue states, “dumb” and “ugly,” and McConnell’s desire to divide the nation during a pandemic “irresponsible” and “reckless.”
“How ugly a thought,” Cuomo declared during his Thursday news conference. “Just think of what he’s saying. ‘People died. 15,000 people died in New York, but they were predominantly Democrats, so why should we help them?’”
“For crying out loud, if there was ever a time, for you to put aside your pettiness and your partisanship, and this political lens that you see the world through – ‘Democrat and Republican and we help Republicans but we don’t help Democrats’ – that’s not who we are,” Cuomo calmly said, blasting McConnell.
Cuomo also criticized McConnell’s “obsessive political bias and anger.”
Calling helping out states burdened by coronavirus a “blue state bailout,” McConnell on Wednesday said governors “would love to have free money.”
“I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” McConnell added. There is no current “bankruptcy route” for states – the Constitution prohibits it.
Gov. Cuomo called McConnell’s bankruptcy suggestion “one of the really dumb ideas of all time.”
Cuomo also reminded McConnell that his home state of Kentucky takes in billions more from the federal government than it sends to the federal government. New York is one of just seven states that sends more to the federal government than it receives back.