Last week, Andrew Cuomo, New York Governor for the entirety of the 2010s, stated that he will be seeking a fourth term as Governor of New York in 2022. In the 2018 election cycle, New York has essentially become a one-party state, and the radical left agenda that has been plaguing this state will continue under Cuomo’s leadership. Here are ten reasons for New Yorkers to mobilize in the next election cycle to finally kick Cuomo out of office.
- Andrew Cuomo is the father of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.
When he was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Clinton, it was he who pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy more and more subprime mortgages during the late ’90s and early 2000s. “He took actions that – in combination with many other factors – helped plunge Fannie and Freddie into the subprime markets without putting in place the means to monitor their increasingly risky investments,” an August 2008 article from the Village Voice reports. “He turned the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program into a sweetheart lender with sky-high loan ceilings and no money down, and he legalized what a federal judge has branded “kickbacks” to brokers that have fueled the sale of overpriced and unsupportable loans.”
- Cuomo’s position on guns has no effect on crime but costs New Yorkers jobs.
Cuomo has been openly hostile to the Second Amendment, vilifying his law-abiding gun-owning constituents. In 2012, when discussing assault weapons, Cuomo said, “Confiscation could be an option. Mandatory sale to the state could be an option.” Like most gun control advocates, the facts surrounding the gun debate rarely make an appearance when attempting to legislate away the Second Amendment. The Federal Assault Rifle Ban in the ’90s had no effect according to the FBI, and the commonly used definitions of a rifle would limit all semi-automatic guns, including handguns. Similarly, the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013 (NY SAFE Act) is having little to no effect in the State of New York. This is unsurprising, as the Act limits semi-automatic handguns, rifles, and shotguns with one or more “military-style features, such as a telescoping stock, bayonet mount, flash suppressor, grenade launcher, and others.” This type of legislation allows gun-grabbing Democrats to pat themselves on the back, but has no effect on crime statistics, and causes gun manufacturers to leave the state. New York State suffered job losses when Kahr Arms and Remington Arms closed their Upstate New York factories and moved to Pennsylvania and Alabama, respectively, in response to this bill. That doesn’t stop Cuomo from bragging in 2015, “We passed a law in the State of New York...that is probably the most restrictive gun control law in the nation.” When CNN’s Alyson Camerota asked Cuomo why that has not prevented crime, Cuomo blamed other states. “The guns are coming in from other states,” Cuomo replied. “The only way to deal with this is a national gun policy – doesn’t mean no good if we have the right laws in place in New York, but the guns come in from New Jersey or from Virginia, or from Mississippi – or from any state down south.” There is no data that says that guns purchased legally in other states are being brought into New York to commit crimes.
- Cuomo lies about extreme weather to push Climate Change agenda that has no results.
After the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Cuomo pounded the drums of climate change. As every climate scientist will say, you cannot attribute climate change to a single weather event. The left and media acknowledge this when President Trump jokes about a polar vortex, wondering what happened to climate change. However, Cuomo said, “When we built New York, we didn’t think about floods, about storms. We didn’t have hurricanes and floods... Extreme weather is here to stay. Climate change is a reality. “Either Cuomo is too stupid to know New York’s history, or he is lying. 1960, 1954, and 1938 all had major hurricanes that caused multiple deaths and millions in property damage in New York. The problem is that Cuomo uses these easily refuted lies to push radical climate policy, which will bankrupt New York State. Cuomo is attempting push his Climate Leadership Act, which is a lite version of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s Green New Deal. The Green New Deal has many problems with it, mostly that it costs an estimated $93 trillion and has a net zero effect on climate change. Cuomo’s plan is similar in its high cost and low effectiveness. Cuomo refuses to look at multiple carbon emissions-reducing measures, such as fracking.
- Cuomo banned fracking technology while hiding data.
Andrew Cuomo banned fracking in the State of New York in 2014. Fracking is a good target for Hollywood liberals, but the facts don’t match the narrative. Fracking provides jobs, cheaper energy, and a cleaner alternative to coal. Increased use of Natural Gas as a result of fracking has led the United States to become the number one reducer of carbon emissions worldwide, and the number one exporter of energy as well. Prior to Cuomo’s ban, The New York Times buried an article of a leaked analysis from New York State’s Department of Health of the benefits of fracking. Cuomo tried to hide the analysis, but when it was leaked to the press, The New York Times helped him bury the story by changing its original strong title, “Hydrofracking Safe, Says NY Health Dept. Analysis” (seen in the browser window) to “Gas Drilling Is Called Safe in New York,” which is a deceptive and less descriptive headline. Then they published the story on page A19. Cuomo banned fracking at a time when Upstate New York jobs were suffering, and just across the border in Pennsylvania, the job market was soaring as they had no ban.
- Cuomo obstructed justice.
During a time where President Trump is being accused of obstruction of justice for even thinking about firing someone he is legally allowed to fire, it is hard to remember when Andrew Cuomo got away with actual obstruction of justice. In 2014, Cuomo disbanded the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption less than a year after he created it. Disbanding it caused a scandal, for which federal investigator Preet Bharara conducted a 17-month investigation into obstruction of justice charges. At the conclusion of the investigation, Obama-appointee Bharara said, “Absent any additional proof that may develop, there is insufficient evidence to prove a federal crime.” The media happily covered for Cuomo. From July 23 to August 14, when the scandal should have been national news, CNN covered it for 3.5 minutes total. A few months before that, when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is a Republican, had his infamous “Bridgegate” scandal, CNN devoted eight hours and 35 minutes of coverage to that story in one day. Cuomo has powerful friends at CNN, including his brother Chris Cuomo, which may be a reason he gets away with these career-ending moves.
6.Cuomo demonizes the entire political right.
Cuomo has no problem demonizing his political opponents. In a January 2014 interview, Cuomo said that the Republicans in the New York State legislature had to decide if they were ideologically conservative. According to Cuomo, this is not an acceptable identity, “because if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the State of New York,” he said. In March of 2015, Cuomo banned non-essential state travel to Indiana after Indiana passed a religious-freedom law. In 2018, in reaction to President Trump’s slogan of “Make America Great Again,” Cuomo said in a speech, “We’re not going to make America great again; it was never that great.” This is the country that fought a war to free slaves, that stormed the beaches of Normandy to destroy evil, that created the greatest and freest republic in the history of the world. Cuomo is blinded to all of that. The personal demonization of those who differ politically is moderately acceptable from political pundits, both on the right and the left, but Cuomo finds it acceptable from the Governor’s Office in Albany. It’s the reason why Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” struck such a chord with voters. Attacking an individual is one thing; attacking an entire group should be irredeemable.
- Cuomo uses the police to punish taxpayers and his political opponents.
Beginning in 2017, there has been a dramatic increase in traffic tickets issued by State Police to New York City motorists. 2016 saw 1,692 tickets issued, where the first four months of 2017 alone saw the number spike to 14,542. This is not due to caring about driver safety or a drastic change in motorist activity; this was a political ploy against rival Bill de Blasio and a way to take more money from New Yorkers. City officials noticed that State Police presence increased dramatically as Cuomo tries to tighten his grip on all of New York State. These extra fines yielded millions of dollars into the government’s coffers, money that has since been squandered away on the massive social programs that Cuomo keeps pushing. Not content to punish drivers with tickets, Cuomo’s plan for congestion pricing in New York City was approved recently, making traveling into Manhattan even more expensive than it already is. Like all excessive government regulations, the ones who are most affected are the ones who can least afford it: the poor and the middle class.
- Cuomo has led the New York Subway to ruin.
One of the greatest tarnishes on Cuomo’s record is the New York City Subway System. It’s a common misconception that the City of New York, and Mayor de Blasio, is responsible for upgrades, fixes, expansions, and other sorely needed modifications to the subway. The Governor’s Office is in charge of the MTA, and since his first term in 2011, Cuomo has been sorely lacking. The organization “Reinvent Albany” recently issued a 170-page report on how to fix the subway. In the Summary of Findings, the group wrote: “The MTA has suffered from a failure of political leadership and governance at almost every level.” When speaking of Cuomo directly, they said, “The Governor’s decisions have resulted in hundreds of millions of MTA funds directed to superficial decorations rather than direly needed repairs.” Throughout the report, Cuomo is considered the main reason for the latest failures of the subway system.
- Cuomo’s push for a $15 minimum wage is causing a job recession during an economic boom.
Andrew Cuomo led the charge for a $15 minimum wage in the State of New York. “New York State is leading the way fighting for economic justice and making a real difference in the daily lives of New Yorkers,” Cuomo said in 2018. “We will always stand with the working women and men of New York, and with this historic minimum wage increase we have taken another step forward in the fight for the dignity and respect of hardworking families.” There’s one problem: It’s killing the New York job market. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4,000 full-time restaurant workers lost their jobs at the end of last year. This year, surveys of full-service restaurants said that 47% of employers say they will have to cut jobs this year because of the wage hike, up from 36% the year before. The job losses that the industry is experiencing now are only comparable to recession years, and this is with a booming economy. If and when the next recession hits, more and more workers will be out on the streets.
- Cuomo’s policies have led to a mass exodus from New York State.
New York is the home to the highest income taxes and property taxes in the nation, which is why, since 2010, 1.2 million New Yorkers have moved out. This has led to a $2.3 billion shortage in expected revenues the state government was expecting, but that didn’t deter the increased budget for 2019. Instead, Cuomo blamed his problems on President Trump’s tax cuts. At this point, the only thing New York exceeds in is that it is the number one state where residents who make more than $200,000 per year are leaving. The middle class is a shrinking minority in New York, so in order to pay for the massive social welfare programs that come out of Albany, they will have to foot the bill. At the same time that revenues are down, Cuomo has used tricky accounting to make the deficit not seem as large as it truly is. He spread out $4.1 billion over multiple years in order to keep the lie that there has been a consistent two percent spending growth. Cuomo’s fiscal irresponsibility in a time of economic boom will yield disastrous results when the economy makes its eventual downturn.
The list could go on, especially with recent developments. 2019 has been a banner year for terrible governance from Albany. Throughout Cuomo’s tenure, either the Assembly or the Senate in New York has been held by Republicans, checking his worst impulses. So far in 2019, with majorities in both houses, Cuomo has signed one of the most extreme abortion laws in the nation (and lit up buildings pink in celebration), unilaterally ended the use of the death penalty, created such radical tax plans that wealthy people are fleeing the state, is blowing out the budget, gave illegal immigrants tuition aid for college (as opposed to legal citizens receiving aid), and more. Cuomo is a menace to a prosperous state. Let’s make this term his last.
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