New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo went off on Republican senators Wednesday, arguing it’s un-American to not bail out states hurting economically as a result of prolonged coronavirus lockdowns.
“This hyper-partisan Washington environment is toxic for this country,” the governor said at the National Press Club. “We have people saying, ‘Well, we don’t want to pass a bill that helps Democratic states. It would be a blue-state bailout.”
Cuomo targeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rick Scott in particular, noting they’ve been outspoken in “stopping blue state bailouts.”
“This is really an ugly, ugly sentiment,” he said. “It is an un-American response. We’re still the United States. Those words meant something.”
He said the states hardest hit by COVID-19 represent “one-third of the GDP.”
“How can you tell one-third of the country to go to heck and think that you’re going to see an economic rebound?” he asked.
“Also, state economies, that’s what the national economy is made of,” Cuomo continued. “There is no nation without the states. They tend to forget that in this town.”
VIDEO - @NYGovCuomo Goes on Rant Against Sen. Scott, McConnell: ‘It Is Un-American’ Not To Bail out the States https://t.co/EWpUHLa3Uw
— Grabien (@GrabienMedia) May 27, 2020
McConnell has made clear that Republicans have no interest in bailing out “state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”
Similarly, Scott has argued there should be no effort to “shield states from the consequences of their own bad budgetary decisions over the past few decades.”