When I was born in western New York, it was the second-most populous state in the nation and had a whopping 34 congressional districts.
Article by David Ditch from Daily Signal.
Following the 2020 census, however, New York is now the fourth-most populous state and will only have 27 congressional districts. Over a period of 40 years, 1981 to 2020, during which the U.S. population grew 45%, New York has only grown 13%.
The prolonged stagnation of the Empire State has many causes, including chilly winters and the punishingly high cost of living in the New York City metro area.
Yet, none of them is as decisive as the state’s long history of big-government politics, which have encouraged families and businesses alike to move to states with better economic opportunity.
If Congress goes along with President Joe Biden’s enormous tax-and-spend proposals, America will suffer a similar decline. Worse, while there are 49 other states for New Yorkers to choose from, a nationwide stagnation would leave Americans with very limited options.
New York state’s politics have been dominated by the big-government downstate region for generations, and Albany’s appetite for spending still has seen explosive growth during my lifetime.
The budget update released in 1981 had $16 billion in spending for the state’s 17.9 million people. After adjusting for inflation, that would be $2,388 per person.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest budget for fiscal 2022 proposes $103.4 billion in spending to cover 20.2 million people, or $5,119 each, a staggering 114% increase per person in real spending from the inflation-adjusted 1981 figure. By comparison, Texas spends a more reasonable $2,003 per person.
All the extra spending in New York comes with a big cost.
The American Legislative Exchange Council’s annual analysis of the 50 states shows that New York has the highest business tax rate, the second-highest top income tax rate, the sixth-highest property tax burden relative to value, the third-highest cost of state government debt, and the highest number of people moving to other states.
As a result, the report has ranked New York’s economic outlook dead last for seven years in a row.
The relentless pounding of high taxes and heavy regulation has taken a toll. I’ve witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences that follow when government discourages private investment.
Prime examples include Rochester, New York, where Kodak has spent $200 million tearing down buildings, and the economically depressed Southern Tier. While it’s inevitable that some established businesses will eventually shrink, the lack of private sector investment means they weren’t replaced by new firms and new jobs.
Rather than using the approach of controlled spending and lower taxes that have caused a boom in states such as Texas and Florida, New York has tried the tool of “economic development” (aka corporate welfare), with little to show for it.
That’s because governments, motivated by political concerns and interest groups, consistently make worse investment decisions than the private sector.
Unfortunately, Biden seems intent on remaking America with the policies that are ruining New York.
In the wake of a deeply flawed $1.9 trillion “COVID-19 relief” package that was larded with non-pandemic handouts, the Biden administration has released plans for more than $4 trillion in further spending increases and tax hikes.
The first proposal was a $2.7 trillion “infrastructure” plan that has more to do with corporate welfare and the Green New Deal than actual infrastructure.
Like New York, it would punish businesses as a whole while giving handouts to a few politically favored sectors in a misguided attempt to micromanage the economy.
Last week, Biden announced a $1.8 trillion “families” plan that would massively expand the welfare state (including making middle- and upper-income families reliant on it), hire legions of tax collectors at the IRS, and increase income tax rates.
That also mirrors the New York playbook of trying to fund lavish benefits programs by raising taxes on businesses and high-income individuals. But as New York shows, the resulting exodus of job creators would kneecap employment and wage growth opportunities, which is the only long-term solution to poverty.
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If Congress blindly rubber-stamps these Biden proposals, it would mean a combined $6 trillion in new federal spending passed in a single year, or $50,000 per household.
It would mean gutting the 2017 tax cuts, which were vital to the low unemployment and strong wage growth we enjoyed before the pandemic.
And it would mean adding even more to the national debt, which is already more than $210,000 per household.
Rather than making Washington’s swamp deeper than ever, lawmakers should embark on a policy agenda that would boost, rather than sabotage, the post-pandemic economy. That means protecting the pro-growth tax code, removing regulations that get in the way of work and investment, and restraining the unsustainable growth of federal spending.
Those steps would ensure that America avoids New York’s self-inflicted fate.
‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us
Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.
For the last few months, NOQ Report, Conservative Playbook, and the American Conservative Movement have appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.
It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. Both of our YouTube accounts were banned. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Medium canceled us. Apple canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.
The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancellation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.
The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects, including death. One of our stories about the Johnson & Johnson “vaccine” causing blood clots was “fact-checked” and removed one day before the government hit the brakes on it. These questions and news items are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting canceled.
There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ, CP, and ACM readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are on track to be short by about $4100 per month in order to maintain operations.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies.
During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we’d like to be completely free from them. That doesn’t mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology.
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