New York City's new coronavirus cases are dropping, but Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that he is concerned that the city will have difficulty reopening considering the money that has been lost while being slammed by the disease.
"How are we going to afford to restart our city if right now we are literally out of money?" the mayor said on CNN's "New Day." "(We are) $7.4 billion in the hole because we've lost so much revenue. It's only going to get worse. How do we pay for all the basic services we need, all the people who have been the heroes of the crisis, police, fire, EMTs, health care workers, educators? There's no money."
But mixed messages are being received about if there will be any federal stimulus money, particularly from President Donald Trump, said de Blasio.
"He started talking about he is more interested in giving rich people a break on the capital gains tax than helping New York and other cities and states get back on their feet," said the mayor. "We have no guarantees that the federal government is going to help us. That's the only place we can turn for help."
However, he accused Trump of "politicizing a pandemic" by introducing questions of red and blue states.
"He's not being patriotic, not talking about all Americans and how to bring us back together," said the mayor. "This is the largest city in the country. We help lead the national economy for everyone. We send a large amount of money to Washington, much more than what we get back."
Meanwhile, he said he is urging the rest of the nation to be careful about reopening, but he fears the rush to reopen will unnecessarily cost lives.
Looking ahead, the mayor is to release his plans for summer soon, but he also wants to be ready for a larger opening in September, when he hopes to have children back to school on time.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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