Legendary financier Ken Langone recently said he has become the “chairman” of something called “Republicans for Cuomo.” Why? He feels “very good about the fact that Andrew is worrying about the exodus of wealthy, successful people from the state.”
Talk about selling out cheap.
How can anyone believe our governor, with his record of embracing big-government liberalism, is a better alternative than anyone from the GOP? A more cynical view is that these fat cats couldn’t care less about the fact that New York under Andy Cuomo remains a sickly welfare state; they’re just cozying up to a guy they think will further their own business interests — but more on that later.
For now, consider the following: Republicans for Cuomo was created four years ago by Mike McKeon, a former flack for the last Republican to run the state, George Pataki.
Pataki is a decent man, but after his initial flurry of Reaganesque fiscal conservatism (tax cuts and restraints on government spending in his first years in office), he began to do his best imitation of Govs. Nelson Rockefeller and Mario Cuomo (Andrew’s dad) by cutting deals with unions, spending like crazy and handing out contracts to well-heeled friends.
I reported on some of Pataki’s follies at the time — and McKeon was there defending this profligacy every step of the way.
Fast forward to now, and McKeon is dishing out the same bromides: Yes, taxes are high under Cuomo, but they’d be higher without him at the helm. The state still spends a lot, but it would spend more without Andrew watching over things. People and businesses are fleeing the state (Florida will soon pass New York in population) but McKeon (like Langone) says it would be a hell of a lot worse if Andrew weren’t around.
For all of this, McKeon says, Andrew has “earned” the support of people who believe in limited government and pro-growth economic policies — that is, Republicans.
Yeah, and he also has a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Let’s first look at why there is such a thing as “Republicans for Cuomo” in the first place. McKeon told me he started the group four years ago because he was worried about the state’s direction, given the fecklessness and insanity that pervaded the era of Govs. Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson, and because Republicans had nominated someone he considers a nut job, Carl Paladino.
Fine: Cuomo looked good compared to the tempestuous Paladino — but only because Paladino came off so bad.
But you don’t even have to scratch the surface of Cuomo’s résumé to see he’s no free marketeer. In fact, he has a long history of defending big government, first as an aide and adviser to his father when Mario nearly ran the state into the ground back in the 1980s and early ’90s. After that, Andrew was the Clinton-era Housing czar who prodded the mortgage industry to drop its lending standards — a key cause of the 2008 financial crisis.
Later, as state attorney general, Cuomo continued some of the same anti-business jihads made famous by Spitzer when he had the job.
Funny: The Cuomo Republicans — and Andrew himself — are now courting former AIG chief Hank Greenberg to join their group, even after AG Cuomo continued Spitzer’s targeting of Greenberg for supposed securities fraud. Heck, Cuomo even continued to pursue Spitzer’s suit against Langone and Richard Grasso (over Grasso’s obscene pay as NYSE chief) until it was thrown out in court.
Then there’s this: The likely GOP candidate isn’t a Paladino-minded nut job, but extremely level-headed Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who unseated a long-time Democratic incumbent on a platform of fiscal conservatism while remaining moderate on social issues.
Fine, people like McKeon and Langone say, but Astorino’s a long shot, so why not just support Cuomo and have a say in moving the state at least somewhat to the right? Especially when the fringe is on the rise, and the mayor, Comrade Bill de Blasio, makes Cuomo look like a Tea Partier?
Well, Astorino would have a fighting chance if the fat cats supported his campaign. And if Cuomo is such a fiscal conservative, why does New York remain a massive welfare state, with spending and taxes consistently among the highest in the country?
Despite all those happy-talk ads Cuomo has unleashed to tout his (nebulous) pro-business policies, businesses aren’t coming back — they’re continuing to leave.
And if Cuomo is so pro-business, why won’t he embrace the easiest way to attract business and jobs to the most depressed parts of upstate New York by allowing fracking?
Langone recently told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that he’s a Republican for Cuomo because he thinks the governor “can get the job done.”
Yes, maybe for fat-cat businessmen who feast on crony capitalism doled out by the governor, and spend their winters in Palm Springs while the rest of us deal with the snow and the ills of a welfare state known as New York that these guys won’t fight to change.
Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.