On ‘National Nurses Day,’ NYC’s healthcare workers hear talk of furloughs—Mayor de Blasio beckons federal aid

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took to the airwaves this morning and talked about the Big Apple’s impending need to furlough first responders and healthcare workers due to the city’s inability to afford such essential services.

Mayor de Blasio told the media Wednesday morning: “What I’m staring down the barrel of, and cities and states all over the country, people are either acting on furloughs and layoffs or preparing for furloughs and layoffs of the exact people who have been the heroes in this crisis who we should be celebrating and supporting—first responders, the health care workers, the educators.”

“How are we going to support these people who we need if we don’t have money?” de Blasio telegraphed, seemingly beckoning a bail out.

De Blasio got down to brass tacks, saying, “I’ve lost $7.4 billion already and my economy can’t come back until I get that stimulus and get back to normal and provide those basic services. It’s a real Catch-22 — no stimulus, no recovery, no revenue, it only gets worse.”

Here’s a mayor whose publicized interview encompassed his typical brand of reasoning: “The whole focus has to be on protecting the people of this country. That’s more important than the almighty dollar. That’s more important than anything.” He then goes on to claim his fears, saying, “There’s a rush to reopen, in some places at least, that’s gonna end up with people losing their lives.” The parallel pending argument is people —cops, nurses, city services employees— also losing their livelihoods, resulting in much-needed frontline staff who will defer to unemployment filings instead.

One may argue why the mayor’s words ring hollow, especially after he and his wife were observed out in public, walking in city parks, while stay-at-home orders were in place and all first responders tended those in need.

Then there is the matter of close to $1 billion in missing money earmarked for an ironically-named program dubbed ThriveNYC, an initiative for which Mayor de Blasio’s wife Chirlane McCray was spearheading to assist mental health-related issues—a realm and responsibility in which many have cited McCray as ill-suited.

Mayor de Blasio’s wife is still beckoned to answer for that nearly $1 billion which went missing under her watchful eye since 2015 (initially and each year since had a $250 million allocation of tax dollars). Roughly one year ago, Red State published a piece analyzing the ThriveNYC effort overseen by oft-touted “co-mayor” McCray. The responsibility for $850,000,000 is still unqualified—where that money has gone awaits disposition. That’s almost $1 billion in taxpayer dollars somewhere in the wind, while the NYC mayor sounds the alarm regarding insolvency while casting stones at President Trump.

Do we have another case of a Democrat mayor operating a metropolis, accusing President Trump of “politicizing the pandemic” when he appears to be doing the exact same thing…in the name of bailout funds and expectations of endless gimmes?

For his involvement, President Trump spoke with the New York Post on Monday, framing his perspective this way: “I think Congress is inclined to do a lot of things but I don’t think they’re inclined to do bailouts. A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague.

“It’s not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help — they’re run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic — very little debt.”

“You look at Illinois, you look at New York, look at California, you know, those three, there’s tremendous debt there, and many others.”

“I don’t think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time.” Those last few words highlight some intriguing matters, such as “co-mayor” McCray and the dubious nature of her ThriveNYC enterprise which begs many questions, namely the status of its funding.

Despite the unambiguous assertions made by the president, the NYC Hizzoner seems focused on a bail out. Mayor de Blasio trumpeted against the president, saying, “Now the president is turning his back because of partisan affiliation. Who does that?”

Is the federal government realistically positioned to bail out cities and states? Should it? Can it?

Incidentally, Mayor de Blasio’s sad announcement of furloughing nurses (among the lot of essential service workers) comes on National Nurses Day, annually celebrated on May 6 of every year. Airing this morning on national TV, de Blasio discharged his furlough flare gun for all NYC Health + Hospitals nurses to see. The timing is questionable.