Gov. Andrew Cuomo today drew an interesting comparison between his opposition to the millionaires tax and his father's anti-death penalty stance.
At a Red Room news conference, Cuomo said he wouldn't be swayed by voter surveys showing support for the tax on the state's wealthy, noting he supported the tax on the federal level (in a bit of Cuomoian logic, the governor said he, in fact, supported a millionaires tax on New Yorkers, just a federal surcharge being pushed by President Obama).
Impishness aside, Cuomo said his opposition was a principled one, similar to his father Mario's unwillingness to go along with the death penalty, a policy deeply rooted in the elder Cuomo's Catholic faith.
"My father was governor of this state. He was against the death penalty. Everyone in the state wanted the death penalty - everyone. It was near 80 percent. And he was the governor of the state and he said he wasn't going to sign it. Every year - go back and talk to some of the people who know the history - every year we had to scramble and make sure there wasn't an override of the veto.
(snip)
"The point is, we don't elect - the governor isn't a big poll taking machine. And that's what we do, we take a poll and do whatever the poll says and you wouldn't need me ... so the fact that everyone wants it, that doesn't mean all that much. I respect the people, their opinion matters, but I'm not going to go back and forth with the political winds."
The political winds? WTF are you talking about, Gov? The polling on this suggests that sentiment to retain the Millionaire's Tax is getting stronger, but it's not like New Yorkers have simply changed their minds. They've been pretty consistently in favor since before you were elected.
And comparing this to your father's opposition to the death penalty? What the hell? Is your opposition to the wealthiest New Yorkers paying their fair share in a time of fiscal crisis also deeply rooted in your Catholic faith?
Or are you just grasping at straws trying to defend a deeply unpopular giveaway to the very people who drove the economy into the ditch in the first place?
What. An. Asshole.
