New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo visited Washington Wednesday to meet with President Donald Trump, with the governor saying in his daily COVID-19 news briefing at the National Press Club that the two Queens natives held a cordial conversation about infrastructure projects Cuomo believes can “supercharge” the state’s reopening process.
The Democratic governor, though, had more pointed comments about Republican U.S. senators who have resisted calls to provide funding to state and local governments facing budget crunches.
Specifically, Cuomo called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, who coined the term “blue state bailout,” and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott for what he called ugly sentiments.
The governor added that New York ends up paying more, to the tune of about $29 billion, to the federal government than what it gets back from Washington.
Among the states that get more than they give, Cuomo said, were McConnell’s Kentucky and Scott’s Florida.
“The great irony is the conservatives want to argue against redistribution of wealth,” Cuomo railed. “Why should you take money from the rich and give it to the poor? That’s exactly what you are doing. That is exactly what you have done every year.”
Cuomo further argued that in order to get the economy up and running, the federal government needs to provide aid to states hit hard by the coronavirus, like New York and New Jersey, just as the federal government has provided relief to other states like Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and Texas after devastating floods.
“We have to get to a point, if only for a moment … in response to a national crisis where we say, ‘It’s not red and blue. It’s red, white, and blue,’” Cuomo added.
McConnell, who is in Kentucky this week, was not available for comment on Wednesday. However, in speaking with local media in Louisville Tuesday, he said there may be some money for state and local aid that’s directly tied to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
“There’s a great reluctance among Republicans in the Congress, both House and Senate, to basically borrow money that’ll have to be paid back by future generations to allow states to paper over pre-existing financial problems,” McConnell said.
When asked if he thinks Trump backs the Senate majority in opposing what they consider to be a bailout, Cuomo said he believes the president’s focus is on stimulating the economy.
“I think he understands that these are projects that need to be done,” Cuomo said. “Look, when he ran for president, he spoke about a $1 trillion infrastructure program. That’s what he spoke about. He’s a builder. He’s a developer, right? He gets it, and he believes in construction and development. It’s been his career.”
After reporting 73 deaths from COVID-19 Tuesday, Cuomo announced Wednesday that New York reported 74 for the past day. That decline shows the state is “on the other side of the mountain,” the governor added.
The state recorded 1,129 new confirmed cases of the disease, bringing the overall total to 364,965. Of those, nearly 200,000 are from New York City.
