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The not-so-hidden agenda behind Mamdani’s
budget bumbling

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Posted By: Mercedes44, 3/30/2026 7:28:16 AM

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is making a show of cutting the budget, with videos of him looking for millions under sofa cushions. He’s pretending he’s leaving no stone unturned to close a $5.4 billion budget gap. Don’t buy it. These are token gestures meant to suggest the city has cut all it can, giving Albany cover to justify what he hopes comes next: Mamdani’s tax hikes on high earners and employers. Sure, cutting low-value government spending deserves some credit, but the problem is that Mamdani’s savings are mostly speculative or trivial. Even the largest cut so far, $100 million from removing ineligible health-care dependents, would only materialize if auditors find such dependents.

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Reply 1 - Posted by: mifla 3/30/2026 8:11:45 AM (No. 2086546)
Margaret Thatcher nailed it. Hochul really blew it by endorsing this socialist. She has to either raise taxes that will continue to push people out of the state, or tell the socialist no, and make herself persona non grata in New York politics. When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.
7 people like this.

Reply 2 - Posted by: Strike3 3/30/2026 8:12:44 AM (No. 2086547)
Mamdani's method of balancing the budget is to harangue Donald Trump and Kathy Hochul for billions of dollars from state and federal money so he can finance his free society. He needs to reread the Communist Manifesto to realize that you can't just rob the rich, you need to kill them and take everything.
6 people like this.

Reply 3 - Posted by: TCloud 3/30/2026 8:35:57 AM (No. 2086561)
Guys like this destroyed Cuba in days!
7 people like this.

Reply 4 - Posted by: doctorfixit 3/30/2026 10:34:06 AM (No. 2086627)
Long overdue is an end to federal shipments of taxpayer money to states. States need to be completely fiscally independent of the federal government. No more federal grants, loans , giveaways.. If New York State is stupid enough to fund Muslim Communist terror cells in NYC let them do it on their own.
5 people like this.

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The not-so-hidden agenda behind Mamdani’s
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Posted by Mercedes44 3/30/2026 7:28:16 AM Post Reply
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is making a show of cutting the budget, with videos of him looking for millions under sofa cushions. He’s pretending he’s leaving no stone unturned to close a $5.4 billion budget gap. Don’t buy it. These are token gestures meant to suggest the city has cut all it can, giving Albany cover to justify what he hopes comes next: Mamdani’s tax hikes on high earners and employers. Sure, cutting low-value government spending deserves some credit, but the problem is that Mamdani’s savings are mostly speculative or trivial. Even the largest cut so far, $100 million from removing ineligible health-care dependents, would only materialize if auditors find such dependents.
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