Is it just us, or is it disconcerting that Chuck Schumer can call up Andrew Cuomo and get a $25m check written to some hedge funder who wants state tax payers to guarantee that his factories are profitable? Might there be good reasons that the president can’t pull out the federal checkbook whenever he wants to help out some hedge funder call? At the very least, Cuomo and Schumer could have gotten the public an ownership share in this company, like the feds did with the auto industry. That would be actual socialism instead of simply giving away tax dollars to random rich people.
“I called the governor, they have all these ESDC things, and we sat down with Mr. Hees and said, ‘Look, the state can help you make it profitable,’” Schumer recalled. “The federal government can’t just plunk down money. But ESDC can!”
( Note: “ESDC” is the Empire State Development Corporation, a state public authority controlled by the governor.)