I see the hip-hop star Cardi B is no longer supporting President Biden, contending that he’s spending too much money on foreign wars.
Responding to the news, an incensed Cardi B said on Instagram over the weekend: “I’m an angry b**** right now… I need y’all to spread this video, and if something happens to me, it’s because I’m speaking the truth.”
“In New York, there is a $120 million budget cut in New York that’s going to affect schools, public libraries, and the police department… And a $5 million budget cut in sanitation,” she went on. “B****, we are going to be drowning in f****** rats.”
“I’m not endorsing no f****** president no more,” the rap star vowed, charging that while New York City is facing the cuts, “Joe Biden’s talking about, ‘Yeah, we can fund two wars.”
She also suggested a solution to the international wars that the U.S. is providing military aid for, advising those in the government to “sit the f*** down with these people and find an agreement… We can’t fund no f****** wars. We can’t.
“Y’all [are] doing budget cuts on the biggest city in the United States… This s*** is getting out of hand. They don’t want to say the word, but we’re going through a recession right now.”
Let’s offer Cardi B — she doesn’t use a period after the B — the honor of taking her policy analysis seriously, and working through the numbers.
New York City mayor Eric Adams is indeed pushing through a budget that includes cuts to certain city services; the mayor’s statement declares those cuts are necessary because “migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing, and COVID stimulus funding is drying up. No city should be left to handle a national humanitarian crisis largely on its own, and without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, D.C., today’s budget will be only the beginning.”
Note that in the statement from the mayor, he notes, that the city has enjoyed “$776 million of better-than-expected revenue growth, primarily driven by income and sales tax collections.” So the city is actually bringing in more revenue than they expected, but they’re increasing spending on taking care of the migrants so quickly, that it’s requiring them to make cuts elsewhere in police, libraries, and rat control. Let’s also note that tax revenue levels are a reflection of the state of the city, with businesses and residents moving out for many reasons, but high crime rates and the high cost of living ranking among the leading factors.
The Covid stimulus funding drying up shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, and any responsible city government would have been prepared for the end of what was supposed to be limited-time emergency funding.
You could fairly argue that the city’s dire financial state is exacerbated by President Biden’s policy decisions, particularly regarding illegal immigration, border security and asylum claims. But that’s an argument for changing immigration policies and deporting those who have entered the country illegally, not evidence that New York City is cutting the budget because of the U.S. “funding two wars.”
It’s not like the money that was supposed to go to border security or immigration enforcement has gone to Israel and Ukraine instead. Remember, the spending levels for each agency, including U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, are set by Congress, with some negotiation with the president.
The 2024 fiscal year began on October 1. The U.S. tax revenue so far this fiscal year is $403 billion, a pace that is a bit lower than the 2022 record year for tax revenue, but still pretty darn high by historical standards.
Total U.S. aid to Israel in 2022 was $3.3 billion. The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that approved $14.5 billion in military aid for Israel. That legislation has yet to pass the Senate or be signed by the president. Add up what is normally allocated as aid to Israel with the pending emergency military aid, and all U.S. aid for Israel would be about 4.4 percent of all tax revenue collected in the six weeks or so of this fiscal year. In other words, the U.S. government is not facing financial problems because of the aid being sent to Israel.
For the millionth time, most, but not all, of the aid that the U.S. is sending to Ukraine is in the form of military equipment. It’s not like that Patriot missile battery could have been used to help New York City deal with the migrant influx.
The total U.S. aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February 2022 is $113 billion, as of October 5. If you add up all U.S. aid to Ukraine since early 2022 with all U.S. aid to Israel, you get a bit under $131 billion. That is about 32 percent of all tax revenue the government has collected in the past six weeks. Once again, the U.S. government is not facing financial problems because of the aid being sent to Ukraine, either.
The U.S. government is facing financial problems because of entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, but no one wants to do anything about it, because the moment you propose any potential reduction, even for the wealthiest Americans, somebody runs attack ads depicting you throwing grandma off the cliff.
Here’s the national problem, aside from poorly run cities that expected Covid funding to last forever and who keep expecting the federal government to bail them out: Potential foreign threats are not going to go away just because our government feels financially squeezed. Whether our government is feeling flush or whether we’re paying way more in interest payments, the guys in Moscow, Tehran, Beijing, Pyongyang and elsewhere are not going to take it easy on us because we’re financially strapped. In fact, if we seem less committed to standing up for ourselves and our allies, they’re much more likely to be aggressive and provocative.
You can try to talk yourself into believing that Vladimir Putin and Russia will never be a direct threat to the United States; never mind the fact that Russia already shoots down U.S. drones. You can try to talk yourself into believing that Hamas will never be a direct threat to the United States, never mind the fact that Hamas already murdered 32 American citizens.
It’s a dangerous world out there. The moment Americans start murmuring “we can’t afford it” around issues of national security and defense, the bad guys start licking their chops.