‘Pass the law, I dare you.’ Andrew Cuomo blasts Kentucky’s McConnell again over money
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo took aim at Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell for a second straight day Friday, as the Democratic governor criticized McConnell’s suggestion that states should be able to declare bankruptcy.
It’s not currently legal for states to file bankruptcy, according to the Council of State Governments. During his daily coronavirus briefing, Cuomo said passing a law that allowed states to declare bankruptcy would send the wrong message about the U.S. economy to the rest of the world.
“You want to send a signal to the markets that this nation is in real trouble? You want to send an international message that the economy is in turmoil? Do that,” Cuomo said. “Allow states to declare bankruptcy, legally, because you passed the bill. It’ll be the first time in our nation’s history that that happened.”
“Pass the law, I dare you,” Cuomo added.
Republican McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said Wednesday that he would be in favor of allowing states to declare bankruptcy to help deal with budget deficits amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple reports.
“It saves some cities,” McConnell said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt. ”And there’s no good reason for it not to be available. My guess is their first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now so they don’t have to do that. That’s not something I’m going to be in favor of.”
Cuomo said he wouldn’t choose the bankruptcy route if it were available.
“We’ll see how many states actually take you up on it,” Cuomo said. “I know I wouldn’t.”
Cuomo took issue with McConnell’s idea on Thursday as well, saying it was “one of the really dumb ideas of all time.”
Cuomo also said McConnell’s home state of Kentucky takes a lot more money from the federal government than New York, and other studies back that up. They measure how much Kentucky residents pay in taxes to the federal government versus how much federal money the state receives for contracts, programs or projects. Kentucky has a history of having significant amounts of people receiving federal disability checks, food benefits or other aid.
Cuomo alleged on Twitter Thursday that New York contributes $116 billion more to the federal government than it gets back and that Kentucky takes $148 billion more than it contributes.
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 2:52 PM.