Michael Goodwin in Sunday’s NY Post thinks he has caught Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in a hypocritical inconsistency.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mike_lesson_not_learned_TktA3gNXghYEcV9MZIS3iL#ixzz1MRqu74Qw
Goodwin writes –
The Assembly speaker has tied himself in knots trying to pander to the Democratic Party base and government unions. On his left hand, he wants Gov. Cuomo to renew an income-tax surcharge on families earning over $200,000, the so-called "millionaires tax." On his far-left hand, he wants tenants to keep rent-stabilization protections until they earn up to $300,000 a year and pay rent above $3,000 a month.
Common sense would dictate that Silver can't have it both ways — you're either a millionaire, or you need a break on the rent. But that's in the real world. In Albany, there's nothing common about sense.
Guess what – like a stopped clock, Goodwin is right for one of the few times since he joined the Post.
Silver and the other city Democrats are fulll of it when they claim that rent protections for families making over $200,000 a year helps the poor and the working class.
But Goodwin doesn’t take the next step and admit that those who take the opposite position, which include the editorial pages of the Post & News – that relatively wealthy people shouldn’t receive rent protection and at the same time these same people can’t afford a modest tax increase are equally engaged in hypocritical inconsistencies.
I suggest that Goodwin doesn’t take this action because he’s longtime hack who tailors his opinions to match those of his bosses.
Or maybe he’s just dumb.
PS – One of the few consistent voices on these subjects is the NY Times, which has over the years favored both sensible tax increases and relaxation of New York’s outdated rent regulations.