Andrew Cuomo’s line, that he's a "progressive Democrat who's broke," is a fabulous, witty and insightful gem.
As someone who recognizes, in broad terms the necessity of the general outlines of the Cuomo budget, Cuomo might even get my sympathy, if his austerity budget really inflicted pain upon all comers, instead of giving the rich an unwarranted and unearned big fat early Christmas gift.
But it is not only on the revenue side where there are outrages, but the spending end as well.
As I think about the particular cause of my rage, I am reminded of the late Willie Joseph Cunningham, a son of Donegal, who, in his own telling, was as a young man elected a union delegate and never worked another day in his life.
For decades, Willie Joe was a fixture in the politics of the unions, of southern Brooklyn and of the Irish community.
Willie Joe spoke with a thick brogue and a frank and forked tongue, which kept him from achieving success in his decades long effort to be elected Grand Marshall of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
He was a radically liberal Democrat of the Paul O’Dwyer/Mike Quill school, who would loudly upbraid politicians in public and ask them why they weren’t doing enough to re-elect Dinkins, which, in the areas Willie Joe was likely to frequent was an invitation to be surrounded by an hostile mob.
But Willie Joe was also a deeply religious Catholic, the sort of man who, in the words of his cousin, Eileen Dugan, always led the Rosary at a wake, because he was the only one who owned a suit.
His was the sort of politics not uncommon then, which raises eyebrows in the present.
Which brings us to our story.
Once back in the days of Cuomo I, Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein was speaking at the old Harry Truman New Way Democratic Club and Community Center in Marine Park, delivering the mostly bad news about the latest austere State budget.
Weinstein recounted a few programs the legislature was able to save, before sadly reciting a series of cuts they were not able to restore.
Up from the back of the room came a loud and disgusted sneer, wrapped in a delicate brogue:
“But they found the money for abortion!”
The point of this tale is not about Choice (I am pro-choice, and pro-Medicaid funding) it is about choices.
It is about an abortion contained in this year’s budget.
According to City Hall News, Dean Skelos used $18 million dollars of your tax money as a down payment on a State Senate seat in southern Brooklyn, creating a fund to subsidize tuition assistance at rabbinical colleges.
But that's not all we get for our money; we get more Rabbis for Borough Park, because after all, there is such a shortage (I bought my gold wedding band in Borough Park from an ordained Rabbi, and later that day bought an apple from another member of the local clergy).
We also get even more grown adults spending their time studying Talmud and tutoring part time, while having a dozen kids and living in a two bedroom apartment.
Culture of Poverty, anyone?
The whole idea of the Tuition Assistance Program is to help people lift themselves out of poverty; the idea of the program is not to faciliate poverty's perpetuation.
Go figure.
Dean Skelos does not have a boyfriend ensconced in a big ugly house in Mill Island (at least none we know about), so the transaction must be totally kosher, right?
Well, at a time when public schools and colleges are facing massive cuts, this might not be illegal, but it is surely a crime.
And, just to put the cherry on top of this Pork and Cheese (Museum) Knish, Skelos is revealed to have promised the money at the same meeting where the Rabbis doing the schnoring promised Skelos the support, by their tax exempt 501(c)(3), for a Republican for Carl Kruger’s State Senate seat, should it ever open.
Nothing like preserving the continuity of quality in representation.
Skelos’ flack, being Skelos’ flack, has denied any connection between the quid and quo. But the Rabbis, being the Rabbis, and Dov Hikind, being Dov Hikind, could not make the connection more clear.
And who couldn’t love this money quote:
“In a conference call last Friday morning with the about 50 of the organization’s supporters, Skelos was described by Schmuel Lefkowitz, Agudath’s top Albany lobbyist, as the key figure in securing the money.
“He said, ‘I’m going to make this happen for you guys.’” Lefkowitz recalled. “Without the three men in a room agreeing, this wouldn’t have happened. But it was Dean Skelos that put it in.”
The Culture of Poverty sums up the Culture of Albany in a Nutshell.
But why should anyone complain?
After all, it’s better to spend our depleted resources providing a non-productive and constitutionally questionable subsidy than it would be to spend it on public education (or even, as a compromise, vocational programs for the Hasidic community).
Fiscal conservatism at work.