Cynthia Nixon, the insurgent Democratic challenger to New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo gave a clinic on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that every Democratic candidate should watch. She did not back down or double talk in fear, in the manner many Democrats do as they try to appease a mythical center. When asked a question on tax hikes she answered it head on.
Cynthia Nixon embraces deserving tax hikes on the rich and corporations
Watch @CynthiaNixon show how to answer Republican gotcha question on tax hikes on the rich & corporations (VIDEO) – https://t.co/OAjvjGzYnq … #CynthiaForNY #ThursdayThoughts #CynthiaNixon pic.twitter.com/Q4PHwqeYIJ
— Egberto Willies, Politics Done Right host 🇺🇲🇵🇦 (@EgbertoWillies) August 30, 2018
Rick Tyler, a Republican operative, and pundit thought he would ask the standard question on tax hikes that put the fear into many Democrats.
“Cynthia Nixon, you are talking about,” Rick Tyler said. “And I am glad that you are very frank about it. You want to tax millionaires and billionaires and that’s all well and good, and corporate tax. New York is not its own nation-state. Big companies and millionaires and billionaires could choose to leave to go to more tax-friendly states like Florida, like Texas. And if you were successful in proposing a millionaires tax or a corporate tax, what makes you think those companies and wealthy people would stay in New York.”
Tyler probably thought he had a well-constructed question. Well, her answer obliterated his tenet.
“I think that wealthy individuals have the liberty of choosing anywhere they want to live,” Cynthia Nixon said. “And if high taxes were the things that were going to make people move, we wouldn’t have so many wealthy people in New York. We wouldn’t have so many wealthy people in California. But when you talk about businesses, about being a business-friendly environment, one of the main things that businesses care about is having an educated workforce. And in order to do that we really to invest in education. The other thing that businesses really care about is infrastructure. And we have so divested not only from our New York City subway but from our roads and our transportation in general. If we want to create jobs for our New Yorkers, investing in infrastructure is the most effective way to do it. And it’s a way to prepare our state for the future and make it more business friend.ly.
The insurgent candidate did not run or cower from the standard Republican question about rich people and corporations fleeing a state because of tax hikes. She pointed out the wealthy and corporations that are there, want to be there. Many identify themselves with a state for whatever intrinsic values they believe it provides. The rich and corporations negotiate their taxes down because that is what they do. Many think solely about self without realizing that they extract from the economy more than anyone else and are responsible for paying their fair share for what our society and economy afforded them.
Check out the interview I did with Cynthia Nixon at Netroots Nation 2018 #NN18. She was just as assertive and on point.