Speaking at the Wednesday daily White House virus briefing President Trump said that New York City was artificially inflating its virus death toll. He implied it was to garner federal funds, political attention, and federal resources.

Said the president, “I see this morning where New York added 3,000 [sic] deaths because they died. Rather than [a] heart attack, they say heart attack caused by this…If you look at it, that is it. Everything we (at the federal level) have is documented and reported great.”

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A spokesman for Marxist Mayor of New York Bill DeBlasio responded, “These were people with names, hobbies, lives. They leave behind grieving loved ones. They deserve to be recognized, not minimized.” What the what?

Names? Uh, yeah. Hobbies? I’ve heard of a good talking point pivot, but that one strains credulity. Minimized? How did the president minimize anyone by pointing out an artificial inflation of a death toll. He’s talking statistics. The spokesman is talking politics. Bloody typical.

And it is a fair debate. If we factor out of the death tolls those who have succumbed to other illnesses while they had coronavirus, how much would that effect the numbers? A lot. Last count it would reduce the numbers by 80%. It is tragic that these people died. But coronavirus was the last straw, not the major cause.

The numbers are being inflated for the reasons outlined above. Federal money flows in, there is the image of the brave governor or mayor nobly fighting the public health demon, and the ability to extend the writ of government into heretofore sacrosanct individual rights is too tempting a prize for most liberal Democrats to pass up.

Given in New York City we’re talking about a mayor who is a Marxist, he has admitted to it more than once, inflating the numbers to increase state power becomes more important than effectively fighting the virus by providing legitimate data.